Contents

Understand Your Diagnostic

How to Read Your Financial Summary

3 min read

You'll understand your business like a CFO: every dollar traced from revenue down to "Total Value to You", what the business is worth to you in a year.

Before You Start

  • Where it is: "Summary" in the My Business sidebar, or "View Summary" on the My Business home.
  • What you need: your numbers in My Business, imported or entered by hand. Confirming an import opens the Summary for you.
  • Plan: the Summary, its walkthrough and the Revenue to Cash Flow table are free. The Deep Dives and Occam need a paid tier.

Steps

  1. Take the walkthrough. Your first visit opens it in place of the Summary. Click the arrow under "Now, let's understand your finances." and step through with the arrows, from Revenue down to what the business netted you. Click "See the Details" at the end. Screenshot to come: The walkthrough's flow diagram splitting revenue into costs, with the owner ledger running underneath (summary-walkthrough-reveal.png)
  2. Check the period line. If you imported, a line under the title gives the dates the numbers cover. Books shorter than a year are scaled up to a full year, and the line says so.
  3. Read the Key Financial Metrics. Three cards: Revenue, Gross Profit (with its margin) and Total Value to You (with its share of revenue). Screenshot to come: Key Financial Metrics cards showing Revenue, Gross Profit and Total Value to You (summary-key-metrics.png)
  4. See what's left out. After an import, a note asks you to review your entries once, starting with "Review Your Entries"; close it with the ×. A "Not yet in these numbers:" note lists any section you skipped or haven't finished, with one "Add It" (or "Add Them") link. Skipped sections count as missing, not as zero. Without a tax profile, a "Tax estimate" note says a flat 25% rate is used.
  5. Walk the Revenue to Cash Flow table. It runs from revenue through gross profit, operating income, financing, taxes, cash timing and investments to Business Cash Flow, then on to Total Value to You. Click a row with a chevron to open its detail, or use "Expand All" and "Collapse All". Screenshot to come: Revenue to Cash Flow table with the Revenue row expanded (summary-cash-flow-table.png)
  6. Open a Deep Dive (paid tier). Nine cards: Revenue, Gross Profit, Operating Profit, Cash Conversion, Marketing Efficiency, Taxes, Finance Charges, Cash Timing and Financial Statements. On a free account they show a lock and open the upgrade window.

Tips

  • "Replay Walkthrough", beside the table's heading, runs the walkthrough again anytime.
  • On a paid plan, Occam is available on this page: click his avatar in the bottom right corner to open a chat about any figure here. Each question costs 1 credit, and Occam never changes your numbers.

Common Questions

What is "Total Value to You"?
The business's cash flow, plus what reaches you as the owner (benefits, and salary and dividends if you run a corporation), minus your personal tax and any money borrowed this year.

Why is the Summary sending me back to the setup?
It opens once the last setup step, Cash Timing, is done or skipped. Finish or skip the remaining steps first.

Where are my Income Statement and Balance Sheet?
In the "Financial Statements" Deep Dive, with the Cash Flow Statement. It needs a paid tier.