Reporting and dashboards

Why it matters

A business that reviews the same handful of numbers every week spots problems while they are small. Cancellations creeping up, overdue invoices stacking, a product line quietly losing margin: all of these are visible weeks before they show up in the quarterly accounts. Reporting is also how you delegate without losing sight. A manager who sees their own numbers can run their part of the business; one who does not will come to you for every decision.

Three tools for three jobs

A report explains a period. It is fixed in layout, covers a month or a quarter, and includes commentary: not just that revenue fell, but why, and what is being done. Reports suit anyone who needs the story rather than the live state: your accountant, a lender, a business partner, or you at the end of each quarter.

A dashboard shows the current state. It is refreshed daily or live, has no commentary, and is designed to be glanced at. Its job is to let you notice something, not to explain it. An alert is even narrower: a single number crossed a threshold, so someone is told. Cash below a floor, stock below reorder point, an invoice more than 30 days overdue. Alerts are the cheapest form of reporting and the most neglected.

Different people need different views

The owner needs a handful of whole-business numbers: cash, revenue against target, gross margin, pipeline or bookings, and one or two measures of customer health. A manager needs the numbers they can actually influence in their area, at a finer grain and a faster rhythm. A team member needs today's numbers for their own work: jobs scheduled, calls to make, orders to pack.

Building one dashboard for everyone produces a screen nobody uses. Build a short hierarchy instead, where each level rolls up into the one above and uses the same definitions. When the owner's margin figure drops, the manager's view should show which product or site caused it without anyone exporting anything.

Designing a dashboard people read

The best dashboards fit on one screen and can be read in a minute. Every number has a comparison next to it (last period, target or same period last year), because a number without a comparison cannot be judged. Charts are used for trends, big numbers for status, and colour is used sparingly to mean one thing: this needs attention.

Resist the urge to add. Each extra tile makes the important ones harder to see. If a number has not changed a decision in three months, remove it. If someone asks for a new one, ask what they will do differently when it moves.

The review rhythm matters more than the tool

A dashboard that is not reviewed on a schedule is decoration. Pick a rhythm that matches how fast the numbers move: daily for cash and bookings in a tight business, weekly for most operational numbers, monthly for financial results. Put the review in the calendar, open the dashboard in the meeting and end with who is doing what.

Keep the monthly report short as well. One page of numbers, one page of commentary answering three questions: what happened, why, and what we are doing about it. Your accountant and your bank will thank you, and so will you in a year when you can read back the story of the business.

How to build a weekly dashboard

1. Choose five to eight numbers The ones that would make you pick up the phone if they moved. Cash, revenue against target and margin are nearly always among them.
2. Define each one in a sentence Where it comes from, how it is calculated, how often it refreshes. Write it down.
3. Add a comparison to every number Target, last week or same week last year. No naked numbers.
4. Build it in the simplest tool A spreadsheet linked to exports is fine to start; move to a BI tool once the design is stable.
5. Set a standing review Same day, same time, same people. Open the dashboard, agree actions, close the meeting.
6. Prune after a quarter Remove anything that has not changed a decision. Add at most one number for each you remove.

Real-world example

A Hobart fitness studio builds a one-page weekly dashboard

Derwent Strength runs three studios with about 1,150 members. The owner, Tom, used to receive a 14-page monthly report from the membership software and skim it. He replaces it with one page reviewed every Monday: active members, new joins, cancellations, class attendance rate, revenue against target and overdue direct debits, each shown against the previous four weeks and broken down by studio.

In the first month the dashboard shows 44 joins against 38 cancellations, a net gain of six that the total had hidden, and that one studio has twice the cancellation rate of the other two. The attendance tile shows 6am classes at 61 per cent capacity while 10am classes sit at 34 per cent, so two 10am classes are cut and one 6am class is added. Overdue direct debits stand at $9,400; a rule to chase within three days brings that below $2,100 within six weeks. None of these numbers were new. They had simply never been on one page with a comparison beside them.

Common mistakes

• One dashboard for everyone The owner and the team need different numbers at different rhythms. Build a short hierarchy with shared definitions.
• Numbers without comparisons A figure on its own cannot be judged. Put a target, last period or last year beside every one.
• Too many tiles Each extra number dilutes the important ones. If it has not changed a decision in a quarter, remove it.
• No review rhythm A dashboard nobody opens on a schedule changes nothing. Put the review in the calendar and end with actions.
• Reporting what is easy, not what matters Systems make some numbers easy to show. Start from the decisions, then find the data.

KPIs to track

• Time to read How long the owner needs to understand the dashboard. Aim for under a minute.
• Review attendance The share of scheduled dashboard reviews that actually happen with the right people. Aim for every one.
• Actions per review Decisions or tasks that come out of each review. Zero for several weeks in a row means the numbers are wrong or the rhythm is.
• Alert response time How quickly someone acts on a cash, stock or overdue alert. Hours, not days.

Frequently asked questions

What should be on a small business dashboard?

Usually cash in bank, revenue against target, gross margin, a leading indicator such as bookings or pipeline, and one or two customer health numbers such as retention or overdue accounts. Five to eight tiles is plenty.

How often should I look at it?

Match the rhythm to how fast the numbers move. Cash and bookings often daily, operational numbers weekly, financial results monthly. The key is a fixed schedule, not frequency.

Do I need a BI tool to build a dashboard?

No. A spreadsheet fed by regular exports is a fine first version and lets you settle the design cheaply. Move to a dedicated tool when the manual updating becomes a burden or several people need access.

Should my staff see the dashboard?

Managers should see the numbers they can influence, and most teams respond well to seeing their own results. Keep whole-business financials to the owner and senior managers unless you have decided to be fully open.

Key takeaways

• Reports explain a period, dashboards show the present, alerts flag a threshold; use each for its job.
• Build a short hierarchy of views with shared definitions rather than one screen for everyone.
• Every number needs a comparison; one page, read in a minute.
• The review rhythm matters more than the tool.
• Prune regularly: a number that changes no decision is clutter.