Discover data gold in your reports

You're growing quickly. Your time is short. And you know that by organizing your data, you have the best chance to continue your growth in a controlled fashion.

As a successful manager, you have reports today that give you most of the information you need. It's not just luck that makes you a success. The reports you use today have the critical elements that you track.

Reporting Gold

But how long does it take to create those reports? Perhaps you ask for reports once a month as part of a major effort on the part of your staff. And the staff is always telling you how long everything takes and that they need more help in getting in done.

Put all the important reports together and make a list of the critical items they have. Add wish list items that would be helpful to your business. Perhaps reports the auditors like you to run when they show up. A few measures that you'd like to see for each investment. Trigger events that would bring the most urgent issues to the top.

Maybe you have a few reports that you correlate together. A master report that gives you a snapshot of the business. Perhaps it's an opportunity report that allows you to focus on the leads that are most profitable.

This exercise allows you to mark your goals. The real critical elements that need to be managed. You are creating a focus that defines the organization principles you want to follow in your business.

The focus can be adjusted, added to, and even changed. But without a process that reviews your focal point, powerful data organization can not begin.

Client Example

The key analyst report was an Excel "dashboard" that tracked dozens of data points on their company's balance sheet, income statement, cash flow and other financial measures. Each investment could have different data points that were important.

The key management report was an Excel snapshot of all the investments, and most critically the interest rate charged per investment and therefore the interest earned and associated risk factors.

Creating a organizational structure to manage the analyst report is very different than the structure to manage the management report.

We choose to move from Excel and create multiple related structures in a SQL database. The top structure were the data elements that related to the management reports.

Under the management data structures we were able to create a complex data structure for the analyst report which will be a subject of a future post. The critical point is that the structures were linked. And this means reports can pull from BOTH the analyst report and the management report to create new and nuanced analysis.

Just as an example, it is now possible to create a risk factor triggers that is based on an accounts receivable calculation that will only show in the management report next to the monthly revenue if the trigger is tripped.

Clevertech provides cutting edge custom web application solutions that leverage database technologies and combined with our own experts who have a knack at organizing client data. Call us to schedule an appointment to discuss your data needs at 516-869-4970.