The Report Bundle feature has been one of our most popular features that we have introduced in recent times. The ability to deliver multiple reports with a few clicks has been an absolute time saver. Why not multiply that time saving by copying your bundles across to new clients, without having to go through the process of selecting all of the reports individually. Here are some suggestions to get you on your way…
Create your Bundle Template
It may be worth spending some time and asking yourself, which reports would be applicable to ALL of your clients? Standard Financial Statements such as Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet are a given, but what else could benefit your clients, and give them a bit more of an idea of how they are going, and where are they headed. Our suggested template bundle which could be used across your entire client base would be;
- Profit & Loss Statement
- Balance Sheet
- Where Did My Money Go?
- Budget Summary
- Spreadheet Profit & Loss (FY Profit Forecast including Actuals & Forecast)
- Cashflow Forecast
These reports answer common questions from clients about the Past, Present & Future, such as where the money has gone, where is the money going to be in future, and potential tax liabilities (both GST & income tax).
So, why not import an example organisation such as MYOB’s Clearwater file or Xero’s Demo Company, and then set up your Report Bundle Template, and use this as your template for copying across to your other organisations?
You may decide to set up two Bundle templates; one for you to analyse and review all of the numbers to ensure all of the figures are correct, and then a simplified Bundle which consists of charts only, which would be the one that you deliver to the client. We all know how clients can get confused with numbers, so we recommend keeping things simple, and deliver visual information that they can easily understand.
Tip: When creating your template bundles, prefix the Bundle name with a full stop, to ensure it is listed at the top of your bundle, and it can then be easily found for copying to other clients.
Copy your Bundle
To create your simplified Bundle for delivering to your client, simply copy your orginal template, and rename it.
Then, you can Delete some reports out of the bundle, so that you are left with simplified charts for delivering to the client. Don’t forget that you can also reorder the reports from within the bundle.
You will then be left with a simplified bundle of three charts that can be added behind a BAS or compliance reports that you may be delivering regularly.
As you bring new organisations into the program, you can then simply copy the Bundle Templates, and rename them for the new client.
Important Note: After copying the bundle and renaming it, you will need to click on to each individual report and re-set the criteria, as the original criteria from the template bundle will be retained. This can be done by clicking on the Edit Criteria button from within the bundle, and criteria that will need to be changed or re-set could include;
- Organisation
- Business Units
- Budget Source
- Date Fields
- Including Actuals up to Certain Periods
- & other associated criteria
After you have changed the criteria for your new client Bundle, we recommend displaying it and double checking everything is correct. If you find something is not quite correct, simply go back into Edit Criteria, and make the necessary changes.
Deliver your Bundle
Now that you have got your Report Bundles set up, it is a simple three step process to deliver them to your client.
- Go to the Organisation Managemenet icon, highlight the organisation, and select Update at the bottom of the screen.
- Go to the Reports icon, select the Bundles tag on the left hand side, select the Report Month, the client Bundle, and Display Bundle
- Finally, deliver via email or export the reports in your preferred format (i.e PDF, XLS) via the tool bar in the Report Preview window.
We estimate this will take you no more than a few minutes for each client. Just as a side note, if you are charging an hourly rate of say $100/hr, we recommend charging more than your hourly rate, as in this example, you would only be invoicing the client for around $3.50! We think it is worth way more than that!!
As with most things in life, with a little bit of preparation and planning, you can achieve time savings via replication by quickly re-creating report bundles and applying them across your entire client base, in a very short period if time. If you have clients that have more complex reporting requirements, you can simply start with with your base template bundle, and then add additional reports, charts and graphs as required. Sounds too easy doesn’t it?