Historically, much of what an accountant was expected to do revolved around annual returns, taxes, and the bank. Accounting was not necessarily something that a business owner would use to make decisions. As times have evolved, accounting data has become more easily accessible, and its uses for business owners have become more apparent.

Accounting information can help you make better decisions based on historical data. It enables business owners to answer vital questions such as:

If you have valuable financial data at your fingertips, it's much easier to manage your expenses and operations. As Damian Baker from SNG Grant Thornton said at a OnlineX talk: "If you can't measure something, how can you manage it?" Insights are crucial, beyond the realm of compliance. Financial reporting is key to the success of your business.

But how do you make sure that you are reporting in the most effective way?

If you've ever worked with an accountant - or perhaps have one in the family - you may know that accountants range among Microsoft Excel's biggest fans. There is even a Financial Modeling World Cup in which participants solve real-life cases by building financial models in Excel! As Donnie Buchanan writes in his article, "Why Accountants LOVE Spreadsheets":

"I am an accountant... My life is a spreadsheet... It's all good."

In Buchanan's view, accountants are magicians because of their ability to use their strange jargon and "off-the-planet" skills to perform magical feats such as making financial figures disappear or change appearance, making tax office notices disappear, and increasing clients' bank balances. And Buchanan argues that there's no better place for the magical accountant to perform his tricks than on a spreadsheet.

However, Excel has its limitations. Becoming a Xero consultant was a difficult transition for Buchanan to make and it's something that many accountants may relate to - that feeling of relinquishing magic Excel skills to accounting software. On the other hand, for a business owner, Excel might not be your native tongue to begin with and the idea of a user-friendly software could be very appealing.

Excel is great for many things, but it can be incredibly time-consuming to generate reports there because this is incredibly labor-intensive. Most people simply don't have the time to produce reports on Excel.

To make the most of your time and the latest technology available to accountants and business owners, it may be worth your while to look at software that can do most of the processing for you.

What's really great about the accounting software available today is that it's become business-orientated. In other words, you don't need to know all the technical accounting jargon to check up on your business affairs.

If you use an accounting system, you need an effective tool, something that you can use to manage day-to-day operations. Luckily, the accounting software available for use today is both powerful and easy to use. There's even software that lets you keep track of things on your cell phone! You are no longer bound to one specific location thanks to the advent of the cloud.

Using cloud software also means that you always have access to the latest and greatest version of the tool with new features available immediately.

As a business owner, you want to know if your investment is being treated correctly and whether you are tracking it effectively. Using accounting software empowers you to focus on running your business and growing it, without being bogged down by administrative tasks.

When it comes down to reporting, there are certain reports that business owners may want to prioritise over others. Six of the key metrics that you would typically focus on would be:

Your sales are your primary revenue generator. As a result, the metrics and KPIs of the sales team are closely tied to the overall success of your business.

It helps to look at sales over time in a graphical format so that you can get a visual sense of trend.

Your cash balance is the amount of money you have on hand. Keeping track of this in a graph can help you get a clearer sense of whether - and when - you will run out of money. It will also help you to answer vital questions such as: can I cover payroll this month?

Debtors are people who owe you money. It's vital to keep track of these in your Accounts Receivable so that you know how much money you are owed, as well as who owes you. Keeping tabs on debtors enables you to follow up on invoices due to your business before you get into a sticky cash flow situation.

To keep tabs on your Accounts Receivable on Syft, you can make use of our different ageing methods to see how long your invoices have been overdue.

Creditors are people to whom you owe money, such as the tax man or various suppliers. It's important to be able to know when you are due to pay creditors so that you have the capacity to do so on time.

Your expense report illustrates how your expenses look, which can be very useful when it comes to cutting down on unnecessary expenses or considering changing suppliers. We recommend assessing your expenses on a month-to-month basis.

Your profit and loss (P&L) report provides you with an overall understanding of how your company is doing in terms of profit. Your major goal when it comes to profit and loss is to minimize your expenses while keeping your earnings stable.

Extracting what you need from accounting data as a business owner without a background in accounting can be quite intimidating. You don't want to overwhelm yourself with jargon. So, it's best to start small. A good place to begin would be by focusing on operational reports and operational data.

Operational reporting gives you a structural and tactical view of your business, focusing on the daily aspects of operations and providing a detailed view of present and pressing necessities. It's important to look at your trends in your business's operations. Trend analysis can improve your business by enabling you to identify areas within your business that are doing well - and those not are struggling. This can inform your decision-making moving forward. Analyzing comparatives can also be useful.

There are various operational systems that can complement your accounting software. For instance, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems help you to build relationships with customers and vendors, while systems like Google Analytics keep track of website visitors.

If you take bookings, it can be helpful to see who has been looking at your website. You can then use this data as a lead indicator to boost your sales.

Yes, of course your accountant can look at the data for you, but don't you want to have control of your business right now? You probably only see your accountant once a month or even once a year, and this is not often enough to keep track of problems that crop up far more quickly than you might expect. To run your business at its optimal level, you should be checking up on it on a daily basis.

It helps to have an accounting system at the core of your reporting. You can then plug this into other apps - such as Syft Analytics or Google Analytics - for insights. This is not complicated to set up.

Accounting software serves as a solid foundation for your business finances and operations onto which you can construct a stable building. You can create valuable management accounts on Syft which are user-friendly and won't break the bank. For your ease of use, there are lots of graphs with color-coding, dashboards, and new ways of presenting information.

Accountants may be big fans of Excel but you don't need to be an Excel whizz to create useful financial reports for your business. The software available today is business-orientated, which means that it's a lot easier for businesses to keep track of their metrics than it used to be.

Moreover, using accounting software will save you time, and you'll be able to check your financial status on the go. No more waiting for month- or year-end to speak to your accountant about problems you could deal with today.

Reports that you will probably want to focus on as a business owner include: sales, cash balance, debtors, creditors, and profit and loss. You may also want to create a short-term cash forecast. To extract the data that you need, it helps to focus on operational reports, comparing trend and seasonality in your data. It can also be helpful to use plugins like Syft or Google Analytics to analyze your operations in more detail. Moreover, visuals are always helpful when it comes to understanding the big picture.