Chuck's Reporting Corner February 2008

Business Intelligence and QuickBooks^® – a new offering and a new beginning.

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions^® has released three new web based Business Intelligence dashboards that will drastically change the concepts about reporting and data analysis we have come to know from QuickBooks^® over the years.

I participated in this offering as an engineering consultant, and provided assistance in creating the data requirements, raw database queries, and testing methodology. So, I thought I would take a slight detour from ODBC technology and give our readers some insight into the Business Intelligence world as it relates to QuickBooks users, and a personal overview of the specific dashboard components.

If some of you attended my reporting session at the Sleeter Conference in 2006, you would have seen a pre-cursor to this technology when I showcased a tool called Excelsius^® from Business Objects (The makers of Crystal Reports). Intuit’s Mid Market Group Engineers used this same tool to create and provide their new service offering.

What is Business Intelligence? And how does this impact QuickBooks^® users?

Business Intelligence (or BI) refers to methods and technologies which allow end users to easily analyze their company data, and glean statistics that will help them gain insight into their business operations. Although the term has been around since the 1950’s, it has recently become a buzzword in the software application market, and according to every major survey, is the number one demand for businesses today.

For years, QuickBooks^® has packaged a reporting system which is more flexible than any other small business accounting software – and easier to use than some mid-market systems. (I once had a client using Great Plains^® software, who kept the checkbook details in a separate QuickBooks file, because it was easier to run bank related reports!)

However, to easily analyze business data, business owners need a simplified set of tools that contrasts to the current methodology of exporting, cutting and pasting into Excel, or using ODBC to throw the details into a database. QuickBooks^® Mid Market Group has realized this opportunity, and has provided a big step toward Business Intelligence reality.

Their team has created three dashboards that showcase several “types” of Business Intelligence:

1. Profit and Loss Dashboard. The true power of Excelsius^® is creating “what if” scenarios that used to take us number crunchers hours of time creating referenced formulas in Excel to produce similar results. This asset allows you to uses sliders and gauges to play with your financial data and assess how changes in one area of your business might affect another – all in real time.
2. Profitability Dashboard. This is a monthly timeline comparison of your Profit and Loss categories, comparing budget to actual financial data. A bar representing the value of your true Open Sales Orders (something you can’t get in a QuickBooks^® report) is also represented.
3. Sales Dashboard. David Letterman would be proud of these, because they represent “Top Ten” lists for Customers, Items, and Classes. In a glance you can compare your top ten selling items to your top ten most profitable items – always an interesting insight. I also like the fact that you can see the item description, which is helpful for those QuickBooks^® users who strictly use a numbering system for their item list.

To try these in real time, go to http://quickbooksenterprise.intuit.com/features/business_intelligence.jhtml and get a feel for what users of QuickBooks Enterprise^® have in store for them. No training required!

Please e-mail me any feedback on these at askchuck@sleeter.com