• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Scale FinanceScale Finance Logo, Interim CFO, Part Time CFO Services, Accounting Support, Temporary CFO, Accounting Bookkeeping Services

Interim CFO, Part Time CFO Services, Accounting Support, Temporary CFO, Accounting Bookkeeping Services

Charlotte · Raleigh – Durham · Chapel Hill · Triad · Southern Pines · Coastal Carolina
Closing the GAAP to Scale Your Business
The FINACA Logo
919-230-4667
Scale Finance, LLC, Financing, North Myrtle Beach, SC
  • Home
  • Services
    • CFO & Controller Services
    • Capital Raise Services
    • Business Valuations
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Professional Consultations at No Cost
  • Professionals
    • Partners
    • Charlotte Team
    • Raleigh – Durham – Chapel Hill Team
    • Greensboro-Southern Pines
    • Coastal Carolina Team
  • Client Experience
    • Closed Capital Raise Transactions
    • Closed M&A Transactions
    • Client Endorsements
    • Information Technology
    • Healthcare, Biopharma & Medical Device
    • Services, Energy, Industrial
    • Consumer, Retail, Media
    • Real Estate
    • Private Equity Groups
  • Recent News
  • Knowledge Bank
    • Best Practices in Scaling Companies
    • Entrepreneurial Management Skill- Building
    • Financial Management
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Regulatory Developments
    • Venture Capital
  • Contact Us
    • Charlotte
    • Raleigh – Durham – Chapel Hill
    • Triad – Southern Pines
    • Coastal Carolina
  • Joining Our Firm

A Dashboard View of Business Health


Source: John Lauber, LauberCFOs

Most business owners have some way of intuitively understanding how their company is doing. That insight could be based on any number of factors, including new orders, shipments, machine hours, labor activity, etc.

In effect, those are key performance indicators – information that owners and managers rely upon to keep their companies on track toward specific goals. As a company grows and the owner gets busier or as business conditions change, it’s important to formalize those indicators.

There are numerous financial and operational factors that can be viewed as key performance indicators, including:

  • Revenue
  • Orders
  • Time to ship
  • Labor hours
  • Machine hours
  • Inventory turns
  • Accounts receivable statistics
  • Backlog
  • New customers acquired
  • Staff turnover
  • Returns
  • Working capital

Each of those areas has subsets and circumstances unique to an industry and to a specific business within that industry. Key performance indicators should reflect a company’s goals and be quantifiable and actionable. The goals become the benchmark against which ongoing data is judged and responses considered. 

Along with company-wide key performance indicators, departments can have their own indicators based on their roles in reaching the company’s overall goals.

The structure that conveys key performance indicators can be in the form of written weekly activity reports or flash reports, spreadsheets, charts or some other numbers-based overview.

Dashboards offer quick review

While those forms are valuable, today’s technology offers an even quicker way for time-pressed executives to review current information – the computer screen dashboard. Like the dashboard on a car, a computer screen dashboard can offer company owners and managers a quick look at current business conditions, and allow them to make adjustments based on the numbers.

The best dashboards use graphic displays that allow the user to quickly grasp the situation and determine what steps could be taken in response to the information.

Like any business activity monitoring, dashboards can provide information tailored to the specific needs of a particular business or to replicate the data the business owner intuitively followed during a less formal stage of the company’s life.

Data is real-time

One of the great benefits of dashboards is that information is pushed to them from the underlying financial systems so data and charts that are displayed are always real-time.

A dashboard can relay financial statistics as well as information on activities and processes within the operation. Since the dashboards are intended for a quick overview, it’s best to select a limited number of key indicators that you find meaningful. In this case, less is better. Too much information can make dashboards overbearing and, over time, ignored.

Key performance indicator dashboards can be built as a custom software application or acquired as an available product or web-based subscription service.

While dashboards can be convenient, what really matters is the consistency of information a business owner or management team receives. Through that consistency trends can be observed, allowing proper responses.

About Scale Finance

Scale Finance LLC (www.scalefinance.com) provides contract CFO services, Controller solutions, and support in raising capital, or executing M&A transactions, to entrepreneurial companies. The firm specializes in cost-effective financial reporting, budgeting & forecasting, implementing controls, complex modeling, business valuations, and other financial management, and provides strategic help for companies raising growth capital or considering M&A/recapitalization opportunities. Most of the firm’s clients are growing technology, healthcare, business services, consumer, and industrial companies at various stages of development from start-up to tens of millions in annual revenue, some companies with sites as http://kratommasters.com that provide health supplements are more profitable every day. Scale Finance LLC has offices throughout the southeast including Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham, Greensboro, Wilmington, Washington D.C. and South Florida with a team of more than 30 professionals serving more than 100 companies throughout the region.

Primary Sidebar

Knowledge Bank

Understanding the True Cost of Employee Turnover

How to Think About Valuation When Raising Venture Capital

What it Takes to Shift to a Recurring Revenue Model in Hardware & Software

Differences Between Major SBA Loan Programs – SBA 7(a) vs. SBA 504

5 Reasons Entrepreneurs Don’t Get Funded (Which Are Not Their Fault)

Balancing Profitability Versus Growth

Bootstrapping Your SaaS Business – What’s Changing

Best Options for Small Company Loans

Loan Workouts – Understanding Various Options

How to Value a Fintech Startup

The Value of Angel Investors

Finance & Accounting 101 for New Small Company Owners

How to Handle a Bank’s Rejection of Your Loan Request

Accessing University IP – Negotiating Financial & Other Terms

Why VCs Sometimes Push Companies to Burn Cash Too Fast

7 Steps for New Business Owners

Basic Benefits of Starting a Business in North Carolina

Accounting Fraud – Common Causes and How to Stop It

Why 80% of Court Judgments Go Uncollected

7 Steps for Early Stage Fundraising from a VC

Explore the Knowledge Bank…

Secondary Sidebar

Recent News

Congrats to Payzer for Closing $23 Million Equity Financing

SF Client Headbands of Hope Closes Strategic Growth Investment

SF Assists Semper Investment Company in Acquisition of ACM Removal

SF Client SentryOne Acquired by SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI)

Scale Finance Assists GPM with Acquisition by Netsmart

SF Client Broadstep Behavioral Health Continues National Growth Through Acquisitions

SF Client Impact Financial Systems (IFS) Acquired by iPipeline

Scale Finance Assists TrueLearn with Investment by LLR Partners

Scale Finance Assists Textum Weaving with Investment by Quad-C

Scale Finance Closes Debt Financing for Horizon Eye Care

Scale Finance Closes Acquisition of Horsepower Site Services by MCG Civil

Scale Finance Closes Growth Financing for Celerity

Scale Finance Advises on Acquisition of Reliant Transport

Scale Finance Closes $20 Million ABL Financing for TRA

SF Client TruPoint Partners Acquired by Ncontracts

Scale Finance Advises on Debt Financing for Alpha Waste Industries, Inc.

Scale Finance Closes $7M Senior Debt for Travel Resorts of America

More News…

Footer

Media

Scale Finance Managing Director Dave Gilroy interviewed on WSIC Radio (local Fox affiliate)

/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/David-Gilroy-Interview-Local-Biz-Now-2-7-14.mp3

Entrepreneurial Tips

  • Funding Tips from Scale Finance
  • CIE Life Sciences Panel Discussion
  • Why Use Fractional CFO Services

Sign Up—Finance Bulletin

Monthly insights into corporate finance for entrepreneurial companies

Sending

FINACA is a nationwide network of independent finance and accounting consulting firms focused on delivering exceptional client service.

FINACA is a nationwide network of independent finance and accounting consulting firms focused on delivering exceptional client service.

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2008–2022 Scale Finance, LLC
Securities and offering services through Charles Towne Securities, LLC. Members FINRA and SIPC.