Reports are a point of contention for many small business owners, particularly those in the trades. The day-to-day work associated with running a business is often prioritized over high-level tasks like reporting.
However, reports can provide valuable insights that can make a small business more profitable and allow for long term success. Strong reporting protocols can eventually pay for themselves and open the door to reinvesting in the business. Here are five reports that every small business needs.
Online Traffic Reports
The exponential growth of the presence of the internet in our daily lives has transformed word-of-mouth marketing into world-of-mouth marketing. Having a strong presence via both social media and a website is an expectation for many modern consumers. Many consumers believe that if a business doesn’t have a web presence, they are untrustworthy or unprofessional.
As having an online presence is expected, small businesses should leverage that expectation in their favor by using online traffic reports. These reports can identify how many people are visiting the site and where they are deciding either to buy or to leave. This information can help identify issues, like the need to test your page speed or change site copy. It can also give insights as to which social media channels and campaigns are best for reaching your customers.
Sales and Revenue Reports
With limited resources, small business marketing is no simple task (read more here: https://blog.waveapps.com/small-business-marketing/). As such, it’s important to be able to determine if the investment in time and money is worth the return. One of the best ways to measure the effectiveness of campaigns and overall trends within the business is to run regular sales and revenue reports.
Sales and revenue reports show how much money the business is making and where it’s coming from. Additionally, it can provide insight into outstanding invoices and key customer accounts. Having this information readily available can help identify and prepare the business for lean times and allow for focused customer service efforts with high-value customers.
Inventory Reports
Any small business owner knows that the worst time to realize that you’ve run out of something is the moment it’s needed. For service-based businesses, a lack of inventory can cause costly delays and frustrated customers.
Running a quick inventory report each month not only identifies a potential shortage but also helps forecast inventory needs for an upcoming busy season. These reports are especially useful in seasonal businesses that have to worry about an excess of supplies during the low season.
Workforce Management Reports
Human resource management is important for all businesses, regardless of size. Even so, many small businesses neglect to focus on human resource management functions due to a lack of time and know-how. For a small business to be truly successful and get the greatest return on investment possible when hiring employees, workforce management reports are essential.
There are a variety of different reports that could fall under this umbrella, from things as simple as time card and payroll reconciliation for assessing productivity to scheduling and forecasting for seasonal needs. For example, a landscaping business might determine that based on the previous year, they need one more person on staff to handle the summer season and grow the business.
Workforce management reports aren’t just about overseeing people; they have a significant impact on the core business. Having well-managed staff directly correlates with customer service. Additionally, having the right amount of people working at a given time has a direct correlation with the business’s bottom line.
Expense Reports
Those seemingly harmless little transactions have a way of adding up quickly, creating unpleasant surprises down the road. Meticulously tracking expenses should be a priority for small businesses, no matter what industry they find themselves in. At the very least, running expense reports creates an opportunity to find cost savings by searching for a new supplier or eliminating unnecessary subscriptions or low-value expenses.
Expense reports are often a failsafe for reconciling accounts, as they identify discrepancies in spending. They also outline a potential imbalance in spending versus revenue before it becomes an irreversible problem.
Increase Your Value
While these five reports are great starting points, there are other reports that could benefit small businesses as well, such as a cash flow report or profit and loss statement. Not only do these reports help deal with the present and plan for the immediate future, but they also help set the business up for success years down the road should you decide to sell.
While some reports may be available for direct download from your business’s accounting software, others– like the online traffic report– may take additional training. Look for online resources or to your local Chamber of Commerce for assistance.
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