Hector Garcia CPA at QuickBooks: How to spot trends & use them to scale

As a CPA and business consultant with over 20 years of experience working with fast-growing project-based businesses, I can tell you that basic reporting doesn’t cut it anymore.

One of the biggest issues I often see is companies relying on a bunch of combined spreadsheets to make crucial business decisions. It's no wonder they struggle to figure out where to put their resources. The fastest-growing businesses are the ones that know how to leverage data using advanced reporting software and spend more time strategizing rather than number crunching. You need insights that drive decisions and boost profitability. In this article, I’ll share examples of how businesses could use Intuit Enterprise Suite to uncover actionable insights, eliminate inefficiencies, and unlock new opportunities for growth.

Leveraging business analytics for strategic decision-making

Imagine a construction company focused on growth, taking on every project that comes their way. By analyzing their data with Intuit Enterprise Suite, they could discover that certain project types consistently have the lowest margins—even costing them money. With this insight, they might start bidding higher on those types of projects or simply pass them to low-cost providers, freeing up resources to focus on more profitable opportunities. As the saying goes: “Revenue is vanity; profits are sanity.”

The beauty of Intuit Enterprise Suite lies in its custom dimensions, often referred to as “classes” or “cost centers” in other accounting software, which are generally limited to just one. Intuit Enterprise Suite, however, introduces at least four additional dimensions and can be upgraded to handle up to 20. Designed as a new way of doing business for growing and complex companies, teams can hit the ground running without months of training or spending thousands on outside consultants to create specialty reports.

Building custom reports to zero in on growth opportunities

Reports are only useful if they show what actually matters to your business. That’s where Intuit Enterprise Suite really shines.

Consider a national real estate company struggling to track project profitability across multiple developments in different states. By moving to Intuit Enterprise Suite and tracking all projects using the Locations feature, they could designate each state as its own location. If each state had a Projects General Manager, visibility both company-wide and regionally might improve dramatically. Using Intuit Enterprise Suite’s Profit and Loss by Project (and by Location) and Cost to Complete reports, they could spot which projects are eating into their budgets long before completion. Regional managers might redistribute resources mid-project, stopping the bleeding before projects turn sour. They could also identify inconsistent approval patterns at specific locations, address them, and improve processes.

This level of cross-dimensional reporting can help businesses identify and address inconsistencies before it’s too late. The reporting suite provides insights into everything from Profit and Loss by Dimensions to Estimates vs. Actuals by Project. Dashboards are customizable, so each stakeholder can focus on what they need, whether that's the CEO looking at company-wide profitability or a project manager tracking specific development costs.

Uncovering profitability opportunities in your numbers

When scaling up, profitability gets tricky fast as inefficiencies of scale emerge and quality control across accounting functions diminishes. Without detailed insights into costs, businesses are essentially flying blind. That’s where Intuit Enterprise Suite’s multidimensional views can be invaluable.

For example, a professional services firm could analyze its numbers and find patterns using the Unbilled Time and Expenses by Project report. They might notice that employees feel some general research shouldn’t be billable, resulting in excessive unbilled hours that eat into profits. To address this, they could revamp internal team training, upgrade research resources, and update contracts to specify that non-client-facing research work is billable. This could lead to productivity improvements, elimination of overtime, and better cash flow within weeks.

This approach could be applied to other professional services firms—such as architects, engineers, or business consultants—to boost productivity across the board.

Intuit Enterprise Suite provides the whole picture—from Unbilled Time and Expenses to Committed Costs by Project. For businesses managing multiple entities, consolidated financials are available with one click, eliminating the need to piece together reports from different systems.

Simplified entity reporting that actually makes sense

Many growing businesses struggle with scattered data across different entities, making it challenging to manage multiple subsidiaries or business lines. Intuit Enterprise Suite can solve this problem.

Imagine a holding company managing investment properties under separate LLCs. Month-end reporting could be streamlined by pulling consolidated financial reports across their entire portfolio. This might reveal patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. For instance, by analyzing P&L by property across all entities, they might spot unusually high Repairs and Maintenance expenses at certain properties. Further investigation might reveal inefficiencies due to random contractor hiring. By negotiating fixed monthly rates with contractors in each geographic area, they could cut expenses significantly.

With reports like Profit and Loss by Class & Month, Project Status, and Open Balances by Customer and Project, businesses can zoom out for the big picture or drill down into the details. That kind of flexibility is crucial in today’s market.

Ready to transform your operation?

Ready to stop relying on spreadsheets and start making data-driven decisions? Schedule your personalized demo with an Intuit Enterprise Suite expert today and see the difference firsthand.