Business intelligence turns the numbers you already keep (sales, costs, cash, payroll) into a few clear views that answer the questions you run the business by, every month instead of once a year.
Business intelligence is the practice of gathering a business's data in one place, organizing it so every figure agrees with the books, and presenting it so people can make decisions from it.
Financial statements tell you what the year was. BI tells you why, and early enough to do something about it.
Economists at MIT and the U.S. Census Bureau have measured it, comparing firms that make decisions from data with similar firms that don't. Industry studies of BI tools point the same way.
than expected from their other investments, in 179 large public companies that adopted data-driven decision making.
Brynjolfsson, Hitt and Kim, 2011for U.S. manufacturing plants that adopted data-driven decision making, compared with plants that didn't.
Brynjolfsson and McElheran, U.S. Census Bureau, 2016among U.S. manufacturing plants between 2005 and 2010. Competitors are already using their data.
Brynjolfsson and McElheran, 2016These come from analysts and vendors, mostly about large organizations. A small business will see different numbers; the direction is the same.
for organizations using Microsoft Power BI, modelled on five customers interviewed by Forrester. Commissioned by Microsoft.
Forrester TEI of Power BI, 2022by finance, HR and business analysts once reporting moved to Power BI: 4 hours a week in year one, 6 by year three.
Forrester TEI of Power BI, 2022across the ROI case studies of analytics deployments that Nucleus Research has analysed.
Nucleus Research, 2023for the heaviest users of customer analytics compared with the lightest, and 23 times as likely to clearly outperform at winning new customers. Survey of 400 senior managers at large companies.
McKinsey, 2014A margin slipping on one product, or customers paying a week later, shows up in the month it starts, not at year end.
Pricing, hiring, a second location, a bigger line of credit: each decision starts from the actual numbers and a forecast.
Owners, managers, the bank and the accountant look at the same figures, tied to the same books.
A report that refreshes itself replaces the spreadsheet someone rebuilds by hand.
Gross margin by product line or job, not just total sales.
Gross margin by lineA forecast of the bank balance from past seasons, payables and receivables.
Cash forecastThe average days it takes to get paid, tracked month by month.
Days sales outstandingEach month against the same month in prior years, so seasonality stops looking like a crisis.
Year-over-year trendYour ratios against industry benchmarks for businesses like yours.
Industry benchmarksActual results against the budget, with the gaps that matter flagged.
Budget vs actualMost of the work is in the middle two steps. A dashboard is only as good as the books under it, which is why accountants are well placed to build one.
| Spreadsheet report | BI dashboard | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting new figures | Someone copies and pastes, then rebuilds | Refreshes from the books on a schedule |
| Which version is right | Whichever copy was emailed last | One shared report, one set of figures |
| Finding the cause | Ask for another tab | Click a month or a product to see what's behind it |
| Who sees what | Anyone the file reaches | Permissions per person, and per client |
| Best for | One-off analysis and models | Results tracked month after month |
What we have learned building dashboards from real client books.
Write down the decisions you make every month. Build the views that answer those, and nothing else yet.
If the same cost lands in three different accounts, every chart built on it will mislead. Consistent coding is the foundation.
A dashboard on unreconciled books is a confident picture of the wrong number. Tie to the bank and the ledger every period.
A number alone says little. Show it against last year, the budget or a benchmark so it means something.
Give each person the views they need. Financial data deserves the same care as the books themselves.
Accounting Business Intelligence is the software we built to turn a client's books into statements and a Power BI report. It is in use at our firm today.