Smart Dashboards
Reporting that owners and finance teams use: which numbers to watch, how often to look, and how to trust where they come from.
Profit First or a Cash Forecast? What Each One Tells an Owner
Profit First gives an owner a simple rule for where money goes. A cash forecast shows when it will be needed. They answer different questions, and most growing businesses need both.
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Profit First or a Cash Forecast? What Each One Tells an Owner
Profit First gives an owner a simple rule for where money goes. A cash forecast shows when it will be needed. They answer different questions, and most growing businesses need both.
Plan Working Capital Around the Peak, Not the Average
Look at working capital on the wrong day of the month and the business seems to need very little. The need that matters is the highest point in the cycle, and most owners have never measured it.
What an Accounting Health Check Looks At, and What a Low Score Means
A scored health check on your QuickBooks file tells you in minutes what a new accountant would take a month to find. The score matters less than which part of it is low, and why.
Utilization Rate for Professional Services Firms: How to Measure It From QuickBooks and Gusto
In a time-and-materials business, utilization is the number that explains most of the margin. Most firms already hold the data to measure it, spread across a timesheet tool, payroll and the books.
The 10 Numbers That Run a $5M Business
Most $2–10M businesses track too many metrics or the wrong ones. The businesses that make better decisions track a small, consistent set of numbers that are genuinely connected to how the business creates and destroys value.
Your Spreadsheet Is Not a Dashboard
A spreadsheet is a calculation tool. A dashboard is a decision tool. They look similar and serve fundamentally different purposes.
How Founders Without a Finance Background Stay on Top of Their Numbers
Financial literacy is not a prerequisite for financial decision-making — the right infrastructure is. Founders without finance backgrounds make excellent financial decisions when they have the right information in the right format.
Real-Time Financials for Businesses That Move Faster Than Monthly Closes
The monthly close cycle was designed for a world where financial decisions happened monthly. Most $2–10M businesses today are making decisions weekly — about hiring, about sales investment, about cash deployment — on data that is 3–6 weeks old.
What a Smart Dashboard Looks Like One Year After You Build It
The value of a financial dashboard compounds over time. The first month tells you where you are. The sixth month shows you patterns. The twelfth month gives you the predictive intelligence to run the business ahead of the curve.