A one-page weekly snapshot for the owner

The problem

The numbers that matter live in five different systems. Checking them takes a morning, so it does not happen regularly, and problems show up late.

What SI does

SI collects a short, fixed set of measures each week (for example sales, new inquiries, jobs completed, cash in the bank, overdue invoices, open complaints) and lays them out against last week and the same week last year. It adds a few plain sentences on what moved and why, where the data shows it.

Examples

The same job looks different in different businesses. These are illustrations, not client results.

• Multi-location auto repair shop

  The page shows car count, average repair order and comebacks by location, with a note that one shop's car count dropped during a week a technician was out.

• Accounting firm

  Partners see returns in progress, returns waiting on clients, billed hours and unpaid invoices each Monday in tax season.

• Food truck business

  Sales by location and day, food cost from supplier bills, and weather notes on slow days.

What it takes to set up

Read access to the tools involved and an agreed list of no more than about ten measures. Setup is often about a week.

Try it yourself

Paste this into your SI tool of choice and swap the [bracketed] parts for your own details. It asks SI to stop and show you before it does anything.

Every [Monday], pull these measures [list] from [tools] for last week. Show each against the prior week and the same week last year. Write [3-5] plain sentences on what changed and the likely reasons visible in the data, marked as likely. Keep it to one page. Pause and show me before sending, submitting, posting or changing anything.