Revenue reporting

Most small businesses know their revenue and do not know their profit. They know how much came into the account and sense that some of it went out, but exactly how much, and where the most is earned, is a guess.

When jobs, stock and costs live in one system, these numbers do not have to be calculated. They are already there, they just need showing.

What you see from it

Revenue by day, month and year, and with it profit after materials are deducted. A breakdown by which type of work brings in how much, so you know what pays off and what you do out of habit.

At AJ Bikes there is also an hourly rate — how much an hour spent in the workshop actually returns to the business. That is the number you can use to decide whether to raise prices, and most people have never seen it.

Where I know this from

Before I built my own products, I worked as a consultant on IBM Planning Analytics, the system large companies use to plan and close the month. When it went down, in a week I rebuilt eight critical reporting forms the monthly close depended on.

Reporting for a small business is the same discipline on a smaller scale. It is about asking the right question, not showing as many charts as possible.