Bookkeeping Business Coaching

SPOTLIGHT REPORTING – A SOFTWARE “SPOTLIGHT”

SPOTLIGHT REPORTING – A SOFTWARE “SPOTLIGHT”

Spotlight Reporting is a fantastic tool that allows businesses to really see their business performance like never before.  The reports are more than just pretty, they empower business owners with the knowledge they need to make better decisions.

Here are 5 reasons why Spotlight Reporting can be great for your business.

1. Achieve your goals

Coming up to financial year end can be a real frenzy and once you receive your financials do you really know how well you’ve tracked compared to last year? Did you achieve the goals you set for your business? Here’s where Spotlight can make a difference, Spotlight’s Action Plan page helps you focus on areas that drive your business. These plans are highly customisable, and individual users can be assigned to each action to keep your team motivated and accountable all year round.

2. Monitor Cash flow

Cash flow is easily one the most common yet complicated concerns of business owners. Why not ease your concerns by monitoring cash flow using Spotlight’s Cash Flow Analysis tool? The system generates charts to help users visualise cash ins and outs and monitor liquidity. Spotlight also transforms your Profit and Loss (P&L) and Balance Sheet (BS) into easily indefinable business signals by using universal traffic light indicators. This helps you see how your business performance is tracking compared to last month, last year or to your budgeted figures at a glance.

Once you have this data the Spotlight Forecasting tool then allows you to plan and scope future projects, secure additional funding or assist you with making better decisions based on these forecasts.

3. Actually measure your KPIs

KPIs can be difficult to monitor, particularly non-financial KPIs. Spotlight can help your business track, monitor and present visuals to manage your firms KPIs for better outcomes. Spotlight already contains 100s of pre-built charts, industry specific metrics and financial and non-financial KPIs, so if you’re not sure which KPIs your business should focus on, take a hint from Spotlight.

Spotlight’s customisable reports allow you to create your very own templates that you can save and reuse each month or quarter. No more spreadsheets with broken cells or uninspiring charts! Create a mix of financial and non-financial metrics to truly analyse your business.

You might be interested to know that our Business Advisors have already created custom reports for certain industries.

4. Real time data with integrations

If you’re wondering how on earth you will have the time to collect all this data for these reports, stop worrying. If you’re currently using a cloud-based accounting leger such as Xero, MYOB AccountRight Live or Intuit QuickBooks Spotlight already has a direct integration with these ledgers. This means that the accounting data required for your financial KPIs are covered and they automatically feed through to Spotlight. If you already capture data for non-financial KPIs you can still upload your data to Spotlight to create custom KPIs.

5. Consolidation

Finally, do you have a number of entities that you need visibility over? Spotlights allows you to consolidate the P&L and BS for multiple entities into one consolidated report. If you have multiple related entities and are struggling with consolidated reports through multiple spreadsheets this function can shave hours off this difficult process.

Bishop Collins Advisors are already well versed in Spotlight, if you are interested in updating your reporting system or are in need of upgraded reports, feel free to book in some time to speak with one of our Advisors.

Audit & Assurance

The “Google Home” of Auditing Technology

Author Cecille Capucao CA 

Client Manager Audit and Assurance Services.

A good friend gave me a Google Mini as a Christmas present.  Using voice commands, I can ask it to play music, stream media on my TV, answer questions and add grocery items to my shopping list! How cool is that!

I reflected on the advancements in technology over the past decade and how these have impacted on how we do business and even run our businesses.

It blows my mind that technology can now be harnessed to improve my own decision making skills and identifying where risks lie in my business!

It’s called ‘Data Analytics’ and although it doesn’t sound as radical as Google Mini or “Hey Siri”, it packs some powerful punch in regards to assisting in the success of your business. Data Analytics is the thorough analysis of large amounts of information to identify trends and assist you in drawing meaningful conclusions.

It sounds boring I know, but what it means is Data Analytics is like the “google Mini” for your business. Technology that analyses all the relevant fields of information to assist you in your business success. This information influences you to make better business decisions and identify the areas where there is potential risk. Now it’s more interesting isn’t it!

This detailed analysis will also encourage innovation, so your business can remain competitive and assist in developing measured strategies to mitigate risk.

Key areas Data Analytics has helped business includes:

  • Identifying business insights;
  • Improving financial performance;
  • Detecting potential fraud;
  • Recognising transaction errors and anomalies; and
  • Pinpointing ineffective controls.

Bishop Collins offers qualified professionals who can assist you in undertaking Data Analytics as well as a broad range of internal Audit and Assurance services, to improve your business outcomes and identify and address concerns you believe are most important to your short and long-term success.

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