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Business Dashboards
How would it feel if you could turn on your computer every morning and immediately have a complete, real-time picture of your company’s financial performance? Not only that, but what if the information was presented in an easy-to-understand, visual manner (i.e. gauges and graphs) as opposed to the usual bunch of lifeless numbers? That is the basic idea behind business dashboards, a promising management tool that is gaining more attention in the business world these days.
In the realm of online accounting, NetSuite is leading the charge with a customizable dashboard that allows managers to view things like sales, new orders, even your daily calendar (part of the company’s mantra: One System, No Limits). Of course, you have to be a NetSuite customer to use it. If you are an accountant, Principa offers a powerful and easy-to-use dashboard that can help your customers monitor how they are performing against targets and cash flow projections, perform simple “what-if” analyses, and more. (Note: if you are a business owner and would like to learn more about this service, you can contact the ultra-friendly folks at Principa and they will be happy to help you find a member of their organization.)
Whether or not you have a business dashboard on your computer, the important thing to remember is this: the best way to improve your company's financial performance is to sit down and establish some basic financial targets, then consistently measure and monitor your progress toward those goals. That right there is the simple principle behind the dashboard concept. You don't necessarily need a computer program to do this, but you do need a disciplined approach. In our experience, approximately 90% of businesses never follow this basic "measure and monitor" strategy (either because they're too busy or because they don't know how). The 10% that do tend to be the companies that consistently outperform their peers in the same industry (i.e. the star performers).
Posted by
at 02:50 PM January 16, 2006
In Netsuite, you can grant your accountant free access to the system. In other words, there is no need to buy a license for the accountant.
Here are the instructions from the Netsuite Help files:
To do this, create a vendor record for your service provider or certified consultant. On the Access subtab of the vendor record, assign the Accountant role, and check the Make This My FREE Accountant box.
You can only set one vendor as your free accountant. After you have checked the Make This My FREE Accountant box on a vendor record, the check box does not appear on other vendor records.
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