Small business finance: 5 tips for managing cash flow effectively
Making decisions is part and parcel of every business owner’s life – from daily micro-decisions to big, make-or-break choices. Here’s how business reporting tools can help you make those decisions with greater confidence.
What is a reporting tool?
Business reporting tools vary significantly. Some tools come with a steep learning curve, and others are ones that you’ll already have at your fingertips. Regardless of a tool’s complexity, it should present information in a form that allows you to make sense of it.
Why use the tools
The principle of using reporting tools is to inform your decision making to achieve your business goals.
For example, stores often used to (and some still do) write a list of every sale they’ve made that day or have their sales data collated in a spreadsheet. This information on its own is handy, but what methods can be used to draw the best insights from it?
Suppose those same sales are captured via a system that offers reporting tools. In that case, the business could see that same information presented for easy consumption—for example, grouped and graphed by inventory category – allowing insights into sales trends that will inform decisions about shelf allocation and ordering. Seeing sales according to the time of day they were made can help a business decide staffing, stock, and even opening hours.
How to work with what you’ve got
The easiest business tools to get started with are ones you already have access to. Might you have reporting tools already available that you’re not using to their full potential?
- To start, take stock of tools you already have and then delve in. Click into the ‘reports’ section of apps or portals you already use and start to explore. Don’t worry, business tools are robust, so they can’t be ‘broken’ by clicking around or trying different options. Reporting tool apps you can access on your phone will enable you to do this on the go
- Search the provider’s website for blogs or tips, or contact them to see if they can offer direct assistance
- Next, start to use the reporting functions regularly, perhaps on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. When you understand what information is available to you, start putting that against your business goals
- Then, identify any gaps between reports you have now and feel you need and seek out additional tools
Some tools have broad functionality, and others hone in on specific aspects of your business like inventory, task allocation, customer relationships, employees and even customer feedback.
Deep dive into POS and banking
Let’s take a closer look at two categories of business reporting tools that you likely already have access to.
Point of Sale (POS) reporting tools
POS systems do far more than processing the customer’s payment. Most generate detailed sales reports and help automate previously manual processes like stock control. Tyro has 300+ POS/PMS integrations and if you’re interested in knowing which one could work best for your business, try our POS recommendation tool.
Banking reporting tools
Whatever else is going on in your business, your bank account is the bottom line. You’ll be familiar with the various feelings associated with seeing your bank balance rise or fall, but are you using its more nuanced reporting tools?
The Tyro App and Tyro Portal are powerful business reporting tools that allow you to track trends and extract insight into sales. Here’s an overview of the features and benefits available:
Tyro App
| Feature | Details | Benefits |
| Dashboard | Get an overview of your Tyro Bank Account in the one place | An instant, top-level view of your account |
| Transaction reporting | See your EFTPOS and eCommerce transactions graphed on an hour-by-hour basis | An easy-to-see summary of your sales, allowing you to pick up on trends |
Tyro Portal
| Feature | Details | Benefits |
| Daily summaries | Summary reports of daily sales that can be customised to include individual or multiple EFTPOS machines | Access to all of your transactions from the day, week, month, or year. |
| Past invoices | View past invoices, reconciliation reports, and service fee breakdowns | Understand how your costs have changed over time |
Time well spent
We encourage you to log in, explore and get familiar with your Tyro App and Tyro Portal. These and many other reporting tools are there to help you understand business performance, make sense of the data, and steer decision-making in the right direction.
Are you making the most of your currently available business reporting tools?
To learn more about the Tyro App and Tyro Portal, contact our Australian-based Customer Support team on 1300 00 TYRO (8976) or cs@tyro.com.
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