Off the top of your head, do you know how much cash your organization has on hand? What was your gross profit last month? What’s your projected MRR this month?    If you don’t know these numbers right off the bat, how quickly can you get to them? Ideally, you can get this data immediately.    Keeping a watchful eye on your finance KPIs is a critical practice that informs pretty much all business decisions. If you’re not in the habit of doing this or aren’t sure of the best way to keep tabs on this data, don’t fret. It’s pretty simple to implement.    Why is it so important to track financial KPIs?   Aside from the obvious - knowing whether or not your business is profitable - tracking financial KPIs impacts day-to-day decisions that spill over into the long-term.    A (good) challenge that many MSPs are facing today is merging with or acquiring another company. Oftentimes when this happens, leadership teams are suddenly tasked with managing a growing organization.    How can MSPs efficiently grow and scale in this market? It’s all about letting data do the talking.    Tracking financial performance and patterns means that decisions are rooted in truth. Hard data can’t be manipulated and numbers don’t lie, so decision-makers can rest assured that they are taking the smartest actions.    Financial data can help when determining how many members to add to a team, where to set sales commissions, what tools or software to add to an existing stack, or especially when projecting goals for a coming quarter or year.    Owners and managers also use financial KPIs to figure out what area of the business to focus on. For instance, if revenue is dwindling because of a slow uptick in new clients, a heavy investment can be made in a sales and marketing team. Or, going back to M&A’s, if you’re expecting to take on a significant amount of new clients, it may make sense to focus investments on a more robust service team.    Whether deemed large or small, it’s pretty much a guarantee that all decisions are driven by financial data.   Another reason to always have an eye on finances: key stakeholders and investors care a whole lot about this type of information, so it’s best to have it on hand anytime a question is asked or a report is needed.    Keeping tabs on finances with the right tools    You’re most likely using a tool like QuickBooks to handle and manage your finances. It’s a very popular and reliable tool in the industry.    But, depending on the needs of your MSP, you’re probably using other tools like a PSA or RMM on a daily basis.    What ends up happening is that you spend the day toggling between windows to consume the data that’s important to you.    A smarter and faster way to be data-driven is to keep all your metrics in one central place, like a dashboard that gives you a bird’s eye view of your business.    That’s exactly what BrightGauge does. You can create specific dashboards for the areas of business you want to track and then have them on display throughout your office, giving you and other team members constant visibility into your KPIs.    In the case of finances, being able to glance at one dashboard to quickly understand the state of your business puts you in a prime position to be proactive, make decisions that lead to success, and manage incoming and outgoing cash in an optimal way.    Knowing where and how to get started   You’ve got the right tools in place and are adamant about making financial KPIs a priority, but how do you get started?    First, know that we offer a lot of resources to guide you. Our integrations come pre-loaded with default gauges, dashboards, and reports to get you off on the right foot.    With QuickBooks specifically, you’ll get gauges like Accounts Receivable Aging Summary, Amount on Invoices Sent This Week, Cash Balance, EBITDA Performance, Net Profit, and more. Pre-built QuickBooks dashboards include COGS, Expenses, and Revenues Details as well as a Financial Overview dashboard.    In addition to these templates, we have webinars,  blog posts, and more that share what your peers are doing with BrightGauge.    But what it comes down to is deciding what’s most important to your business and your bottom line. What are your main goals that will define success for you? Start there, choose KPIs that align with your company goals, and put those metrics on one dashboard.    As an example, a BrightGauge customer recently gave us a look at a Leadership KPI dashboard that is shared with the executive team on a regular basis. It’s a high-level financial overview of performance in various departments, recurring revenue, and gross profit. See that dashboard below or click here:     Because all these metrics are tracked every day, team members are able to communicate about this data at a moment’s notice, keeping everyone accountable and aligned to goals.    As a BrightGauge customer, you’ll never be left to figure things out on your own. Our support and success teams are always available to help you out.    Want to learn more or see BrightGauge in action? Contact us today and we’ll be happy to take you through a one-on-one demo. 

Are you new to BrightGauge or looking to get an in-depth training session?    Join us from February 19-21 at our BrightGauge HQ in Miami, FL for our 13th quarterly in-person Data Driven Workshop.  We'll host around 20 partners for a two-day deep dive into the foundation of BrightGauge; reviewing the core areas, your unique setup, best practices from other attending businesses, and active building sessions. All Enterprise+ accounts that have been with us for over three months get to send one team member for free.  DDW begins with a team meet & greet Wednesday night where you'll get to check in and get to know the BrightGauge team. Thursday will offer a full day of programming with all meals provided, capped off with a special Miami outing complete with Spanish food and a live Cuban band show. Friday, we'll host your one-on-one training and buildout sessions, plus link you with our product team to make sure your feedback and ideas get integrated into the platform. You have the option to attend these last sessions either in person or remote at a later time. In our sessions, you'll work with team leads to refine your goals, discover tips for how to advance your use of BrightGauge, get a breakdown of the gauge builder, plus engage in a heavy run-through of setting up reports and dashboards for your team and clients.  Past attendees have said that DDW is "a must for anyone looking to get a leg up in their BrightGauge knowledge. Plus the team is so great!"  "Anyone using BrightGauge to help manage their processes will find value in attending the Data Driven Workshop. Whether it is a tip for using a dashboard, a new way to configure a gauge, or a fresh insight into goals, the time spent with the BrightGauge team and other colleagues using the same tools in a similar environment is time well spent. I highly recommend it!" Did we mention we're averaging 75 degrees and blue skies every day?  Sign up or request more info via https://www.brightgauge.com/data-driven-workshop/

Did you catch our recent webinar with Ian Richardson of Doberman Technologies where he discusses how he uses BrightGauge to set his MSP up for success?    During the chat, Ian shared that one of his go-to dashboards is one that tracks his team’s capacity for new projects.    The dashboard shows the capacity each tech has in his or her schedule to take on projects, based on hours that have been scheduled for the current month and the next 3 months. Each tech has a predetermined max capacity, which is based on work roles.    View this dashboard here.   This critical dashboard is used for expectation management, both internally and with clients. It helps the Doberman Technologies teams make informed decisions about when projects can realistically be delivered and it helps them decide which projects to take on and when.    Scheduling projects around known capacities also ensures that each team member has enough time for unexpected crisis items and for more long-term projects.    For Doberman Technologies, this has been a really efficient way to grow their business and keep workload at a manageable pace and it's applicable to all teams across the board.    Many of you showed interest in replicating this dashboard for yourselves, and we’re happy to share it with you now:   Link to Team Capacity Dashboard Link to Dashboard Recreation Key   Please feel free to reach out to success@brightgauge.com with any questions you have!