At Starter-Fluid, we are commonly asked to evaluate and elevate our client’s reporting systems and processes. I find it more common than not that start-ups and small business have organically constructed a simple and disjointed reporting system. The information is often not timely, is inaccurate, and is not actionable. Finally the processes around gathering the data are not scalable.
So how does an emerging business develop an actionable and scalable executive dashboard? Executive dashboards will pull from multiple systems, but the primary systems are typically managed from the accounting and finance team.
In most small businesses and startups the accounting and finance team is very lean. So lean, that it is commonplace that these teams either lack the bandwidth or foresight to lay the ground work to build the systems and processes to deliver effective executive dashboard. From the accounting and finance perspective, there are many building blocks that are needed to deliver the executive dashboard. The pyramid below details the necessary layers that go in to the production of the executive dashboard. Like most structures, the executive dashboard is built from the bottom up:
Over the next few weeks, Starter-Fluid will post blogs that will dive into the layers of the pyramid which will help you chart a path to developing an impactful executive dashboard. Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/StarterFluid or visit our blog our website for more posts: http://www.starter-fluid.com/blog/