The Secret to Solving Your Business’s Reporting Challenges, Part One
InTempo Software
Reporting is one of the main reasons that companies run their business on specialized rental software instead of standard spreadsheets. Everyone - from your Rental Coordinators and your Service Managers to your General Manager and even your external auditors - needs to know where you stand. However, reporting still remains one of the biggest challenges for many smaller rental businesses. Understanding the reporting process can make it easier for you to determine what data and tools you need to provide the best insights for your company.
There are four main areas to consider when building a rock-solid reporting system:
- Understanding what reports you need to provide
- Understanding what data you have available for the reports
- Understanding how to transform your data to the proper format and summary levels required
- Understanding how your users need to consume the reports
Let’s take a look at the first of these areas: understanding what reports you need to provide.
This is a critical first step, but often it’s the hardest. It’s easy to say “we need everything,“ but do you?
Before your start to invest in rental analytics: start by building a list of all the reports you'll need, then ask some basic follow-up questions:
- What is the ultimate purpose of this report?
- Do you really need to report on this metric? When it comes to operational reports, your team may simply be able to view a screen in your ERP instead.
- How often will this report be needed — every day, every week, every month, or once a year?
- How big will the report be? One row or many? Or is it one single data point?
- Who needs the report and what do they intend to do with the data? Good reports are developed to help take action. What actions are driving the need for the report?
- What type of data is required — at least at a high level and with what level of summarization?
- Does the report require live data or is a time lag acceptable?
- Are there any special security requirements around the report?
Asking these questions will help you understand and prioritize your list of reports. As basic as these questions seem, in many cases they are not asked before time and money are spent developing reports that are not really needed. Having the answers will help you immensely in the other next three areas.
Want help getting started with your rental reporting strategy? Contact us for more information.
Written by Chris Kennedy, an InTempo Project Manager and reporting expert.
