Analysis opens on the Briefing. Behind it are Statements, Revenue & Margin, KPIs, and Receivables & Payables.
The lanes are Revenue, Gross Margin, Operating Expenses, EBITDA, and Cash & Runway. Each answers the same four questions: what happened, why it happened, what's next, and how to make it happen.
Findings are ranked by severity, then urgency, impact and size. The briefing leads with at most eight, of which at most two are good news.
Price, volume and mix need quantity and price per item, from QuickBooks Online item lines or a general ledger import with those columns.
Benchmark bands are a built-in curated set, labelled with their vintage, for services, SaaS, manufacturing, retail and restaurants: gross margin, EBITDA margin, DSO, revenue growth and payroll as a share of revenue. An industry without a set shows no bands. Market context uses published rates: the Bank of Canada, the US federal funds rate, the Bank of England, and Canadian inflation.
Statements compare against target, budget, prior period, prior year or forecast. The briefing needs at least a trial balance; the general ledger adds customer and cash detail, aging adds DSO, and loan or lease schedules add debt service coverage. What is missing shows a dash or is left out, never estimated.