Dashboards for Decision Makers: From Spreadsheet Chaos to Executive Summary
Big companies don’t rely on gut instinct.
They don’t wait until mid-month to understand the previous month's performance.
They don’t scroll through 12-tab spreadsheets to find out which product line made money.
They use dashboards—real-time, decision-ready snapshots of performance. Sales, margins, cash flow, productivity, customer retention—all in one place.
At Bespoke Business Advisory, we bring that same clarity to our clients.
We design dashboards that do what spreadsheets can’t: tell you what’s happening now, in a format that actually helps you run the business.
Because let’s face it—if you're the business owner, you're also the chief strategist, lead sales rep, and problem-solver-in-chief. You don’t have time to dig through raw data.
You need visibility.
You need simplicity.
And you need it fast.
Case Study: How a Simple Dashboard Prevented a Cash Crisis
One of our clients—a $4M specialty food wholesaler—was growing fast.
Sales were up. Their distribution routes had doubled. But their cash position? Shrinking.
They didn’t understand why.
Their books were accurate. Their QuickBooks file was up-to-date. But their visibility was terrible. The owner had to click through multiple reports to piece together cash flow, aged receivables, and inventory on hand. And by the time he spotted a problem, it was already too late.
We built him a real-time dashboard—linked to his accounting system, inventory app, and bank feeds.
It showed:
Cash balance by day with a 30-day forecast
Top 10 overdue A/R accounts with amounts and days late
Inventory turns by SKU
Operating margin trends by week
He saw it all in one place.
And more importantly, he saw the cash squeeze coming 3 weeks before it would have hit. He held back on a bulk buy, pushed collections earlier, and avoided a funding scramble.
Why Dashboards Work (and Spreadsheets Don’t)
Spreadsheets are great for accountants.
But you’re not an accountant. You’re running the business. You don’t need tables—you need takeaways.
Dashboards give you:
At-a-glance visibility across critical metrics
Real-time updates (not month-end summaries)
Visual alerts when something’s off
Decision-ready data, without the digging
Think of it like the instrument panel on a plane.
You want to know what’s going on while you’re flying, not just when you land.
Case Study #2: Turning a P&L into a Story the Owner Could Actually Use
Another BBA client—a service-based business with about 30 employees—had good revenue but low margins. They were growing, but burning out. The owner couldn’t figure out why the bottom line wasn’t growing.
We built a dashboard that:
Broke revenue and gross profit down by service line
Tracked labor utilization weekly
Flagged scope creep on key clients
Showed profit per employee in real time
Within a month, the owner saw it clearly:
One service line was profitable. The other two were barely breaking even—and soaking up the team’s time. We helped her reprice, restructure, and reallocate labor.
Net income went up 19% within a quarter.
No layoffs. No new clients. Just better decisions, faster.
What Should Be on Your Dashboard?
That depends on your business, but here’s a common list for small businesses we work with:
Financial KPIs:
Cash on hand
Operating margin
A/R aging
Burn rate/cash runway
Operational KPIs:
Sales by product/service
Customer retention/churn
Inventory turns
Labor utilization or job costing
Strategic KPIs:
Budget vs. actual (YTD and MTD)
Pipeline value (for sales-driven businesses)
Profit by location or service line
What We Do Differently
At BBA, we don’t hand you a template. We build dashboards based on:
How you run your business
What decisions you need to make
The systems you already use
We pull live data from QuickBooks, Xero, Shopify, CRMs, inventory tools—whatever you’ve got—and turn it into something you can actually use.
Not just a snapshot. Real-time visibility. Real-time decision support.
And here’s where it really changes the game:
We build your dashboards so you can run “what-if” scenarios live.
Thinking of raising prices 5%? See the impact before you do it.
Want to hire someone? Add the cost and check the forecast.
Planning to open a second location? Model the scenario with one click.
No waiting for us to run the numbers.
You can test your thinking before you bet the business.
The Bottom Line
If you’re running your business out of spreadsheets and hoping your monthly P&L will tell you what to do next… you're making it harder than it needs to be.
Dashboards aren’t just for big corporations with big budgets.
They’re for any business owner who wants real visibility—without the spreadsheet sprawl.
Let us build you a dashboard that tells the truth, every day, in real time.
Because better visibility leads to better decisions.
And better decisions lead to bigger profit.
Note: The ability to run real-time “what-if” scenarios depends on the systems you’re using. At BBA, we design dashboards that push those tools to their full potential—and help you identify the smartest path forward if your current setup is holding you back.