Financial dashboard for small businesses: which numbers belong in it and how to start

Most business owners see their financial figures twice a year: at the interim close and at the annual accounts. By then it is too late to steer. You are looking at a photo of something that is already over.

A financial dashboard turns that around. You do not see what happened last year, you see what is happening this week.

What is a financial dashboard?

A financial dashboard is a single screen with the numbers that decide whether your business is healthy. It refreshes by itself, from your accounting, your till or your ERP. Nobody has to export anything or paste it into Excel anymore.

The difference with your annual accounts is not the content but the rhythm. Annual accounts tell you whether it went well. A dashboard tells you whether it is going well.

Which numbers belong in it?

Not everything. A handful of numbers you actually use is worth more than forty charts you never look at. For most small businesses it comes down to five.

Revenue per month, compared with last year. Not the total, but the comparison. Revenue only means something next to the same period last year.

Gross margin. Your revenue minus the cost of what you sold. The most important number for anyone who sells something, and at the same time the number that gets bent most often by what is and is not counted in it. If you have several locations, also read why your best margin store is rarely your best store.

Cash flow. Profit and money in the bank are two different things. A business can make a profit and still get into trouble because the money is tied up in stock or with customers. You want to see what comes in and goes out over the coming weeks.

Outstanding invoices. How much you are still owed, and above all for how long. An invoice of ten days is normal, one of ninety days is a problem. You want to see that before your accountant tells you.

Costs by category. Staff, rent, marketing, energy. Not to track every euro, but to see which cost rises faster than your revenue.

Where those numbers come from

Almost everything already lives somewhere. Revenue and costs in your accounting package, your margin in your till or your ERP, your outstanding invoices in your invoicing. The problem is not that the data is missing. The problem is that it sits in four places and nobody puts it together.

If you work with Exact Online or Yuki, read how to connect them to a dashboard that refreshes itself. If you work with Odoo, read which connection works and which one breaks.

What it looks like

On our homepage and on the Approach page there is a working example of a financial dashboard, with fictional numbers. You can click into it and see how a month, a cost line or a location opens up. That says more than a description.

What makes the difference

Building a dashboard is the smallest part of the work. The biggest part is agreeing up front on what your numbers mean. Is revenue including or excluding VAT? Before or after credit notes? On invoice date or on delivery date? If you do not make those choices explicitly, you get a dashboard that never matches the accounting, and after a month nobody believes it anymore.

That is why I never start with charts. First look at where your data lives, then agree on what each number means, and only then build. You usually have the first results within two weeks.

How to start

Step 1: Pick the three questions you ask every month and cannot get a quick answer to today.

Step 2: Find out which system holds the answer.

Step 3: Start with those three numbers. The rest comes later.

The claim

A financial dashboard is not a luxury for large companies. It is the difference between steering while you still can and finding out when it is too late.