The VitalSigns Dashboard
A dashboard to help you quickly assess the financial health and resilience of a business.
This is a working example populated with dummy data. The input button has been disabled. I've used the $ currency symbol and US accounting terminology but these can be easily changed.
Don't forget to click the Detail box to open up the commentary and cash flow chart.
The VitalSigns Dashboard
VitalSigns is a software tool designed to help you quickly assess the financial health of a business.
The health and resilience of the business is assessed under 4 vital areas:
- Profitability - is the business profitable, and is it improving? What about the gross margins? And how vulnerable is it to a downturn in sales?
- Working capital - are increasing amounts of cash tied up in working capital? Are accounts receivable (trade debtors) and inventory (stock) under control? And what about accounts payable (trade creditors)?
- Financing - is the business over-reliant on external debt? What scope is there for taking on more debt if required? How much can the business grow before it requires more external finance? Are fixed asset purchases properly matched with loans?
- Cash - are cash balances growing? How liquid is the business?
On opening VitalSigns information is initially presented in a clean dashboard with simple 'traffic light' symbols to highlight changes and alerts.
Clicking the 'show details' box opens up commentary on each vital sign, which you can use to drive conversations with your client.
And there's also a cash flow chart showing very clearly how the business generates and uses cash.
Creating your VitalSigns dashboard
Your VitalSigns dashboard is quick to prepare. All you need is two years' financial data: the latest P&L and Balance Sheet along with comparatives for the previous year. Then follow these steps:
- Enter the summary P&L data into an input screen - details of all the individual overhead expenses are not required, just totals.
- Enter the Balance Sheet data in the same way - again lots of the balance sheet detail is not required, just main headings.
- Answer 2 questions about how the owners are remunerated - salary and dividends.
- Type in the business name.
- Choose the appropriate currency symbol and preferred terminology - accounts receivable or trade debtors etc.
- And it's done! The dashboard is instantly created. You can then hide the input screen.
Your VitalSigns dashboard can be securely saved so you won't lose the data you have entered.
