Delivering Quality Advisory Services

A trusted advisor knows ‘one size doesn’t fit all’, each client has unique needs. If you try to shoehorn all your clients into a single report template or format, you may find the reports don't show them what they need to make informed business decisions. In fact, the reports may even be meaningless when delivering quality advisory services.

A good example is a manufacturing business. Manufacturing costs may be incurred up-front, but sales aren’t recorded until the product is manufactured and sold. A monthly profit and loss report will show a disconnect between sales and costs with the gross profit percentage varying significantly. Looking at the monthly performance in isolation won’t provide meaningful data on whether margins are being met and the true profitability of the business. A useful report for some clients will have little value for this client. Tailoring the report is a must.

The Profit and Loss report in Spotlight has a number of reporting options covering changing client needs. Customise the report to compare year to date values against budget, or last year. Change the reporting periods from monthly, to two-monthly, or quarterly. Look to the future with projection options. Mix and match all the options to show historical, current, budget, and projects all on one page. Creating the perfect performance snapshot.

As part of our latest release, we’re happy to announce six new reporting options for the profit and loss report. Users will now be able to compare a two-month period or quarter against budget or last year. In addition, we’ve added rolling twelve month and current financial year options as well.

A trusted advisor also knows that cash is king! Bad cash management will quickly cripple a business. Therefore, all businesses need to monitor their cash flow on a regular basis. The cash profiler page in Spotlight Reporting is perfect for reporting on monthly and year to date cash flows. The charts on this page visually depict where the cash is going and tracks how the bank accounts are trending.

We’ve also released a highly requested feature from users. A new cash flow statement page has been released to report on the movements in a more tabular format (view sample page, PDF). It will enable advisors and businesses to track cash movements throughout the year and ensure they maintain good control of spending.

To find out more details about this release, please read our latest release note or view our 1-minute release video.

We hope you enjoy our latest product update. For any further information, please visit our Help Centre.