Forecasting and reporting
The numbers are already in your systems, in four different shapes. We put them in one place, agree what each one means, and make the monthly report and the forecast build themselves.
What this is
Most reporting problems are not analysis problems. Somebody exports three files on the first Monday of the month, pastes them into a workbook that has been growing for six years, fixes the two columns that always break, and sends a deck. The numbers are usually right. Nobody can say exactly how they were arrived at, and the one person who can is on holiday.
We do the unglamorous half. Connect the sources, agree one definition for each number, reconcile the result against the figures you already trust, and then make the report rebuild itself. The forecast comes after that, and only for the numbers where a forecast is honest. Some numbers cannot be forecast usefully at your size and we will say so rather than draw the line anyway.
We also build Quanty, our own product for exactly this: a spreadsheet that reads documents into rows. Sometimes the right answer is Quanty and no project at all, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a build.
What it does
Five steps, and the second one is where most of the value turns out to be.
01
Pulls the numbers together
Accounting, the CRM, the warehouse, the bank, and the spreadsheet somebody maintains by hand. Whatever holds the truth today, rather than whatever should.
02
Agrees what each number means
One definition of revenue, one of an active customer, one of a delivered order, written down where everyone can see it and argue with it once instead of every month.
03
Reconciles against what you trust
The new figures are matched to your own closing numbers before anybody is asked to rely on them. A difference gets explained, not rounded away.
04
Rebuilds the report on its own
Monthly, weekly, or whenever the data changes. Same layout, same definitions, and no first Monday of the month.
05
Forecasts, with the assumptions visible
What the next months look like if nothing changes, and which assumptions the answer is sensitive to. A forecast you cannot interrogate is a guess with a chart on it.
What you walk away with
A set of numbers you can defend in a meeting, and the sheet that says how each one is calculated.
One connected set of numbers
Refreshed on a schedule, with every source named and every transformation readable by somebody who is not an engineer.
A written definitions sheet
Every metric, its formula, its source, and who owns the decision when it has to change.
The recurring report
Built and delivered on a schedule, in the shape your board or your team already reads.
The forecast and its assumptions
Including the assumptions we could not support, and the reason we left those numbers out.
How it runs
Agree the ten numbers
The ones a decision actually depends on. A report with sixty numbers on it is a report nobody reads to the end.
Connect and reconcile
We pull the sources and match the result to your own closing figures until every difference is explained.
Publish the report
Automated, on a schedule, in the shape people already expect. The change should be invisible except that it simply arrives.
Add the forecast
Only where the history supports one, and always with the assumptions written next to the number.
Who this suits
Finance teams closing by hand
Month end is three days of copying, and most of it is the same three days as last month.
Founders and boards
You need one page a month that is the same page every month and that survives a hard question.
Operations with numbers in four systems
Stock in one place, orders in another, deliveries in a third, and no view that spans them.
What it costs in time
Calendar time, assuming read access to the systems and somebody who can answer what a given column actually means.
Definitions and sources
We agree the numbers and find out where each one really comes from. This is usually the surprising part.
Connected and reconciled
The pipeline runs and the figures match what you already close your month with.
Report, then forecast
The recurring report goes live, and the forecast follows once the base numbers are trusted.
Send us last month's report
The workbook, the deck, whatever you actually send. We will tell you what could rebuild itself and what would genuinely be work.
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