Visual reporting gives you insight quickly

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This post is authored by Nick Pasquarosa, Founder and CEO of Bookkeeper360. Bookkeeper360 is a platform that manages accounting, back-office, payroll, and tax compliance tasks for startups and growth-stage businesses. Bookkeeper360 is a two-time winner of ‘Top Xero Partner of the Year.

Xero is a powerful accounting platform for businesses, like yours. It can handle expenses, track incoming revenue, and make reconciliations easier. One question – how do you utilize all of that data?

One of the most prominent solutions is to put key information into quick-to-read graphics, otherwise known as ‘visual reporting’.

Let’s cover some examples, showing exactly how ready-access to automated visual reports gives you insights into the financial performance of your company. To help, we’ll give you a peek inside Bookkeeper360.

First, all the data must be there

If you’re like many businesses, cloud accounting software like Xero is one of the go-to accounting choices. And Gusto is likely what you’re using for payroll.

A solid visual tool has the ability to bring in all of your data, allowing you to integrate with other tools and label income streams for better tracking. Bookkeeper360 does this by integrating with both Xero and Gusto.

Once you hook up Xero and Gusto, all of your accounts, payroll data, credit cards and average monthly expenses quickly turn into your first visual ‘Business Performance’ reports.

Now, Bookkeeper360 compiles all of your financial data into a rolling look at revenue, gross profit, and net income. The Cash Management tab also shows:

Current account balances
Credit card debts
Net cash (accounts minus debt)
Even operating runway (taking the business’ net cash and dividing your average monthly expenses)

But what if you wanted to drill down into those numbers? Below these reports is a more traditional-looking financial analysis.

Take a closer look at the details, and even click through and you’ll be taken directly to your Xero account for an in-depth look that includes the transaction details.

More than cash metrics

There are more metrics that allow you to make better decisions, and really see how your business performs over time. For that, Bookkeeper360 has the ‘Metrics’ tab. We like to call it a ‘Pocket CFO’ that quickly shows how you’re performing across the most important financial key performance indicators (KPIs), for up to three years.

All of these reports are designed to give the information you need at-a-glance (a major benefit of visual reporting). See an issue with your working capital, or any other metric? Quickly drill down into those numbers and find out where you have opportunities.

Active tracking to improve performance

All the data is synced regularly to show you what’s happening in your organization. But what about actively tracking and searching for trends? Meaning, what if you can separate those sales channels to see which streams are gaining in popularity?

For example, if you’re a ecommerce company, you may have Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, and wholesale streams of income. Imagine being able to track how much revenue comes in, by stream. This is a specific feature of Bookkeeper360, aptly named ‘Trends’.

The trends you track aren’t limited to income, but also expenses or anything else that comes from data connected to your Xero or Gusto accounts. For instance, track your advertising expenses and compare them to how quickly one channel grows over another. All powerfully shown in a nice and tidy bar graph.

Ready for visualized data?

The goal of visual reporting is to empower business owners – giving you something to look at daily to make informed decisions for the future of your business. You can also see key information when you need it most along with the ability to look further into any glaring issues.

Does that sound like something you want for your business? If so, learn more at www.bookkeeper360.com.

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