Business intelligence, reporting, and dashboards the operation can act on.

The Monday report arrives without anyone assembling exports. Operating reports, executive and board dashboards, and site-level views share agreed definitions, and every figure drills through to the records behind it.

Scope a reporting project How the work runs

Who hires us for this

Owners, finance leaders, and operations directors who get their numbers late, from exports, and do not trust them; boards and fund partners who want one view of the business; and multi-site operators who want to compare sites on the same definitions.

Why now

The weekly numbers take a person a day to assemble and arrive after the decisions they were for.
Two dashboards give two answers and nobody can say why.
A board or a fund has asked for reporting the systems cannot produce.

When companies call us

If this sounds like your business, here is where we start.

The Monday report is built by hand from six exports

The sources connected to a data layer and the report built on it, arriving on Monday morning without anyone assembling it.

Sites cannot be compared because each reports differently

One set of definitions and a site-level dashboard on the same measures.

The fund wants a monthly board report

A board view on the same layer as the operating reports, so the two never disagree.

A number is questioned and nobody can trace it

Drill-through from every figure to the records behind it.

What this covers

What business intelligence, reporting, and dashboards covers.

Operating reports

The weekly and monthly views the business runs on: sales, jobs, margin, backlog, exceptions, by site and by owner.

Executive and board dashboards

One view of the business for the owner, the board, or the fund, on the same definitions as the operating reports.

Traceable numbers

Every figure drills through to the records it came from, so a question about a number is answered by looking, not by arguing.

The data layer underneath

Definitions agreed, sources connected, quality checked. Reports built on exports are rebuilt on the layer.

Embedded reporting

Reports inside the application people already use, or a customer view of their own numbers.

Tool choice

Power BI, Looker, Metabase, or a built reporting application, chosen for the team that will use it.

ERP / accounting
CRM / quoting
Field / warehouse
connect
Shared data layerdefinitions · reconciliation
publish
Weekly operating report
Branch dashboards

Reports build from reconciled records instead of exports.

A decision, not a pitch

A BI tool, embedded reports, or a built reporting application?

The tool matters less than the data underneath it. This is how we choose the surface once the layer is right.

Consideration	A BI tool	Embedded in your application	A built reporting application
Fits when	Analysts and managers explore and build their own views	Users need numbers inside the tool they already use	Reporting is a product, or customers need their own views
Who builds views	Your team, after setup	We build them into the application	We build them; your team configures
Licensing	Per user	None beyond your application	None
Our usual advice	Most operating reporting	Operational applications we build	Customer-facing or product reporting

How the work runs

Scoped in writing, built in releases, handed over.

01
List the questions
The decisions the reports are for, and the measures that answer them, with the people who make the decisions.
02
Fix the data first
Sources, definitions, and quality on the data layer. Reports built on bad data only reach the wrong answer faster.
03
Build the first set
The operating report and the executive view for the first questions, traceable to the sources.
04
Reconcile against the old reports
Where the numbers differ from the spreadsheet, find out why before switching.
05
Hand over and extend
The team builds its own views on the layer; the next questions follow.

Deliverables

What you receive.

ScopeAgreed

First release · version 1.2Scope and acceptance

Includes: The core workflow, roles and permissions, and the first integration
Left for later: Reporting and the second integration
Acceptance: Criteria agreed with your team
Price: Fixed before the build begins
Start date: Agreed in writing

Approved by operations Approved by finance

RunbookHanded over

Operations · version 1.0Running the system

01Deploy a releasePipeline
02Roll back a releaseTested
03Restore from backupTested
04Alerts and who respondsCurrent
05Access and secretsBy role

Written scope
What the first release includes, what it leaves for later, the integration decisions, the acceptance criteria, and the price, agreed before development begins.
Release notes
What changed in each release, what was tested, what the security review covered, and how to roll it back.
Documentation and runbooks
How the system is built, how to run it day to day, and what to do when something fails.
Training and handover
Sessions with the people who will use and run the system, and a handover checklist your team signs off on.

Every release ships with tests, a security review, and documentation, so your team can run what we build.

Your first release

What the first release could include.

The scope is written and agreed before development starts. This is the shape it usually takes.

In the first release

The first operating report and executive view, on agreed definitions
A data layer with the sources those reports need, quality checked
Drill-through from figures to records
Scheduled delivery, so the report arrives without anyone assembling it
Documentation of every measure

Usually later

Site-level and role-level views
Customer-facing reporting
Alerts when a measure crosses a threshold

Systems it may connect

Built to work with what you already run.

ERP and accounting: NetSuite, Acumatica, Sage, QuickBooks
CRM and sales tools
Operational, dispatch, and field systems
Reporting tools: Power BI, Looker, Metabase
Warehouses and databases
Spreadsheets, where they remain a source

Multi-site service operator

Site managers and the owner read one operating report and can trace every figure to its jobs.

At a multi-site service operator, each site manager usually builds a report from exports, and the owner reconciles them by hand before any comparison is possible. A first release agrees on the measures, connects the operational and accounting systems to a data layer, and delivers an operating report per site and one across the group on a schedule. Every figure drills through to the jobs behind it, so a question about margin leads straight to records. A board view and threshold alerts can follow on the same layer.

Where this shows up

Industries where we do this work.

Examples, not a closed list. We take substantial projects from independent businesses in other industries too.

Logistics and distribution businesses

Orders, stock, and shipment status that agree across the ERP, the warehouse, and the carriers, so customers see where their order is without calling.

Field service businesses

Every branch runs one process from first call to paid invoice, with the office and the crews working from the same board.

Private equity portfolio companies

Software across the hold period, with a portfolio assessment for the fund and a delivery path for each company.

Another industry entirely

Describe the workflow and the systems around it. Fit depends on the work and the stakes, not the sector.

In plain terms

What is business intelligence?

Business intelligence is the reporting a business runs on: the operating reports, dashboards, and executive views that turn records into decisions. Done properly, it stands on a data layer with agreed definitions and quality checks, and every number can be traced to its source.

We build the layer and the reports, choose the tool for the team that will use it, and hand over so the team can build its own views.

Questions

Questions about business intelligence, reporting, and dashboards.

What buyers ask before a project starts, answered plainly.

Which BI tool do you recommend?

The one your team will use: Power BI if the business runs on Microsoft, Looker or Metabase if it does not, and a built application if reporting is a product. The data layer is the same underneath.

Why not start with the dashboards?

Dashboards built on data that disagrees only reach the wrong answer faster. The definitions and the layer come first; the dashboards follow quickly once they exist.

Can our team build their own reports?

Yes, on the layer, once the definitions are documented. That is the handover.

Can customers see their own numbers?

Yes, through a customer view on the same layer with its own permissions, usually a later release.

How do we know a number is right?

Every figure drills to the records behind it, and the first release reconciles against the reports the business used before.

Who maintains it?

Your team maintains it, with documentation of every measure and a runbook for the pipelines. New reports build on the same definitions.

Scope a reporting project.

Tell us about the work and the systems around it.
We’ll come back with a written scope for a first release.