It’s the New Year and a time to set new goals for your business. But do you often feel overwhelmed at the start of a new year? There’s no doubt that it’s hard to find the time to effectively manage projects and client relationships, let alone try to seek out new business opportunities and set goals for the future.
These days, data is king – especially when it comes to business and financial goals. Business owners have a wealth of data at their fingertips, but often don’t know how to use it.
Sage Business Intelligence (BI) reporting tools can help you accumulate, organize and analyze your data and use it to make better, more informed decisions.
Making the Numbers Work for You
If you want your business to succeed, you must learn how to manage your financial data. But don’t worry… there’s no need to be an accountant or even an expert at numbers to make sense of it all.
Sage BI offers you eighteen ready-to-use reports that give you immediate insight into and across your business. The reports are in Microsoft Excel and are customizable/flexible with drill-down capabilities. Plus, you can access them at any time or have them delivered, real-time, from your Sage 50 Accounting software in the format of your choice.
Here are four areas of financial intelligence you should pay close attention to so your business can thrive in the New Year:
Cash Inflow & Outflow
Your cash in and out should be monitored regularly. Start by allocating your transactions into two broad categories of cash in and cash out, and then set up as many sub categories as you need for sales, purchases, marketing, overhead, payroll, etc. Sage Intelligence can help you access the information you need from your accounting system so you can automate your cash flow report and access it whenever you need it at the click of a button.
Budgeting & Forecasting
You should use budgeting and forecasting to guide your decisions, use of resources and to project the results you want. Sage Intelligence presents your financial data in a pre-formatted Excel report and allows you to make accurate predictions for the future with more control and flexibility. Review your results each month and compare them to the same time period of the prior year so you can track against your year-to-date. Regular assessment helps you see what’s working and was isn’t so you can take corrective measures if necessary.
Sales Trends
Tracking monthly and year-to-date sales versus your budgets and forecasts is key for business success. With Sage Intelligence you can easily identify trends, such as growth because of a new client or product roll-out and capitalize on it. Or maybe sales have declined due to the loss of a key sales person or a price increase. Sales trends give you valuable information that can be used to your advantage.
Built-In Dashboard
Tracking the overall health of your business is easy with the Sage Intelligence dashboard. You’ll get essential information at a glance so you can quickly and easily make the right decisions. The dashboard is customizable, depending on your needs at a certain time – meaning you can drill down and focus in on areas of priority based on the month, timing of product or service roll-outs, etc.
Put the power of Sage Intelligence to work for you and get up-to-date financial information that will guide you in making informed decisions that will give your business the success it deserves.