In today's data-driven world, the ability to analyse, interpret and act upon insights derived from effective business reporting is crucial in maintaining and developing an organisations' competitive advantage. Without these insights, key decision-makers are forced to resort to 'going with their gut', which often leads to poor and costly decisions being made that are based without fact.
With the abundance of data now available to businesses, it should be the norm that intelligent business reporting acts as the basis for both day-to-day and long-term strategic decision making. Unfortunately, in many businesses, this is not the case, which leaves these businesses at a loss when up against competitors in their industry who have sophisticated reporting systems in place.
The trade industries are becoming increasingly competitive, so it's more important than ever to have a business reporting system in place. Why? Well, reports provide businesses with complete, fact-based visibility, and with this, decision-makers can easily identify the areas in their business where changes need to be made to drive efficiencies, increase profit and improve cash flow.
How reporting improves the efficiency of decision making
The data that sits within a centralised BI Reporting system can play a vital role in improving the efficiency of decision making and streamlining business operations.
With the correct set-up, reporting dashboards allow those at the strategic level to quickly identify and interpret data correlations between a multitude of different variables. The advantage of using a BI Reporting system for reporting is that all of the data variables that are used to generate these correlations are all consolidated in one place.
With BI Reporting, businesses don’t have to spend time and effort reconciling data from separate reports to build the customised reports that they want. Instead, businesses can generate reports within minutes, and produce the analysis required for quicker decisions, ensuring vital information is delivered to the right people at the right time.
How reporting insights lead to improved profitability and cash flow
The financial reports within a business intelligence system provide insights that allow businesses to assess their current financial position, and make informed decisions on how this position can be improved.
For example, by evaluating profit and loss and analysing their current cash flow position, businesses can decide upon the best action to take once they’ve identified any patterns or processes that are repeatedly occurring in losses. Is it best to scale back, or put an end to these loss-making operations? Or is it a case of reconstructing these operations in a more cost-effective manner? This may be a tough call, but at least the decision-maker has a clear picture of where these key decisions need to be made.
Reporting can also help businesses with budgeting, by comparing original budgets against current costs to ensure projects remain profitable and within budget. If the comparison shows that costs are running over budget, and therefore negatively impacting cash flow, businesses are in a well-informed position to decide on their next step. If it’s the materials of a project that are contributing to the increased costs of a project, it may be time to source a new supplier.
Simpro has over 60 in-built reports to help businesses engage with, and understand the data that sits at the core of operations. And for a more advanced and even deeper level of data analysis, Simpro's new BI Reporting feature allows the user to create their own custom reports. These in-built and advanced reports can be set-up to be sent directly to a user's inbox weekly, fortnightly or monthly to offer full and regular visibility.
Do you think Simpro’s intelligent business reporting could help you get the insights you need to make better decisions for your business? Contact us on +1 855 338 6041 or click here to fill out a form and we’ll get in touch.
If you’re already a Simpro customer, click here for information on our Business Reporting & Insights Training course that will enable you to take your reporting to the next level.
