Reporting Systems
Built to Report.
For new businesses serious about their numbers. We design your accounting system around the decisions you will need to make, so the figures break down where the money went from the start.
Chart of accounts, reporting structure and workflows, built in QuickBooks.
Helping you see margin by product line
Most systems are built
to file taxes
A default chart of accounts tells the IRS what it needs. It does not tell you which product carries the business, what a project really cost in labour, or how many months of cash you have. We build the system for the second job, and it still does the first.
Chart of accounts for your model
Income and cost accounts that mirror how you actually sell and spend, not a generic template.
Cost dimensions
Classes, locations, projects and customers set up so every transaction lands where it belongs.
Budget and forecast wired in
Budget versus actuals and a rolling cash forecast that update as the books close.
How a system
gets built
What a systems design engagement covers, from first conversation to your first report.
Discovery
We learn how you make money and how you spend it: products, pricing, customers, suppliers, people. We ask what decisions keep you up at night, because that is what the reports must answer.
Reporting design
We start from the management reports you need, then work backwards to the chart of accounts, classes, locations and projects needed to produce them.
Build and connect
QuickBooks is set up to the design, bank and card feeds connected, payroll integrated, opening balances entered and reconciled.
Rules and workflows
Categorisation rules, recurring entries and approval flows so the day-to-day runs cleanly whether we keep the books or your team does.
First reports and next steps
We walk you through the first reports and agree what happens next: ongoing bookkeeping and management reports with us, or a hand-off to your team.
What you get
every month
Reports built around your business, not a generic P&L. The kinds of reporting we design for; yours is agreed in the design stage.
- Profit and loss by product, service line or location, with margin per line
- Direct cost breakdown: labour, materials, subcontractors, software, per project or customer
- Budget versus actuals
- Overhead as a percentage of activity, tracked month to month
- Cash flow forecast
- The financial narrative behind the numbers
Business consulting for
the numbers behind the plan
Strategy without financial clarity is guesswork. Our consulting engagements connect your business goals directly to your numbers, helping you identify growth opportunities, improve profitability, and build the financial infrastructure your next stage of growth requires.
Business budgeting
A budget built on the same structure as your accounts, so budget versus actuals is a native report from month one.
Forecasting and cash flow planning
Revenue, cost and cash flow forecasts, revisited as actuals land so the plan stays real.
Business plans for startups
The financial section of your plan done properly: pricing, unit costs, hiring plan and runway, tied to the system that will track them.
Questions we get asked most
What is a financial reporting system?
When should a new business set this up?
What do you need from me to design it?
Which software do you build on?
How long does a build take?
What does it cost?
Start with the reporting done right
Tell us about the business you are building. We will show you what its reports could look like.