Data, Analytics & Reporting
Turn business information into useful insight
VC develops reporting modules and executive dashboards that bring operational and financial information together. Leaders can then see profitability, costs, workload and trends without compiling spreadsheets by hand.
The differences
Not all reporting does the same job
Operational reporting
Day-to-day information about work in progress, such as tasks, deadlines, activity and status, for the people running the work.
It answers: What is happening now?
Management reporting
Summaries that help managers oversee teams, projects and performance.
It answers: How are we doing, and where do we need to act?
Financial reporting
Costs, billing, expenses and profitability, drawn from operational and accounting information.
It answers: Are we doing this work profitably?
VC develops the technology that produces this information. VC does not provide accounting or financial advice.
Dashboards
Visual, at-a-glance views that combine key measures in one place, often for a specific audience such as the leadership team or a department.
Trend analysis
Looking at information over time to identify patterns.
It answers: What’s changing, and what might that mean for planning?
Profitability
Seeing how projects really perform
Time
Hours recorded against the project and its tasks.
Costs
The cost of that time and any other project costs.
Billing
What has been, or will be, invoiced.
Expenses
Categorised costs incurred on the project.
Combined, these support visibility of project profitability, including real-time profitability metrics where the underlying data is kept current. VC develops the calculation logic in line with your organisation’s billing practices.
Budgets
Knowing before a budget is exceeded
- Budget thresholds
- Set limits for projects or categories of cost.
- Alerts
- Notify the right people as spending approaches or passes a threshold.
- Project cost visibility
- See current costs against budget at any time, rather than at the end of the project.
Alert: Project 14 has passed its 85% budget threshold. The project lead has been notified.
Expenses
Less manual sorting
When expenses are categorised in a consistent, structured way as they’re recorded, they can flow straight into project costs and reports. Nobody has to sort them by hand at month end.
Categorisation rules, and AI-assisted categorisation where appropriate and reviewed by people, reduce manual administration and make reports more reliable.
- Rail fare, site visitTravel
- Design software licenceSoftware
- Printed site plansMaterials
- Courier, signed documentsPostage · suggested, awaiting review
Flows into Project 14 costs and reports
Dashboards
One view of the organisation
Company-wide view
Overall activity and performance.
Department view
How each area is performing.
Team workload
How work is distributed and where pressure is building.
Projects
Status and progress across the portfolio.
Cost
Current costs and budget position.
Profitability
How projects and areas are performing financially.
Operational activity
Volumes of work, enquiries and tasks.
Trends
Using history to support planning
Historical business information shows patterns: busy and quiet periods, recurring bottlenecks, changes in the kind of work coming in. Trend analysis brings these patterns to the surface to support planning.
VC’s approach includes validating predictive insights against historical business cycles, checking that a suggested pattern holds up against what actually happened before anyone relies on it.
Trends support decisions. They don’t make them.
Capacity
Understanding resource requirements
| Team | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team A | 72% | 85% | 96% | 88% | 70% | 64% |
| Team B | 55% | 62% | 78% | 81% | 90% | 97% |
| Team C | 88% | 92% | 84% | 76% | 68% | 58% |
| Team D | 45% | 52% | 60% | 66% | 74% | 83% |
| Team E | 64% | 70% | 99% | 94% | 80% | 72% |
- Under 60%
- 60–79%
- 80–94%
- 95% and over
FAQ
Data, analytics & reporting questions
What kind of reporting can be developed?
Reporting can cover operational information (tasks, deadlines, activity), management summaries, financial information (costs, billing, profitability), dashboards for particular audiences, and trend analysis over time. What’s possible depends on the data your systems hold, which is why reporting is often developed alongside integration work.
Can project profitability be tracked?
Yes, where the information behind it (time, costs, billing and expenses) is recorded and connected. A system can combine these to show profitability by project, and can be kept up to date as work progresses. The calculation logic is designed to reflect how your organisation bills.
Can dashboards show team workload?
Yes. Where tasks and time are recorded against people and projects, dashboards can show how work is distributed, which deadlines are approaching and where capacity is stretched.
Where does the data come from?
From the systems that hold it, such as your CRM or practice management platform, time records and accounting software, connected through integrations. Reporting is only as good as its source data, so data quality should be reviewed early.
Is the reporting real time?
It can be near real time where the source systems update continuously and are connected directly. Some information, particularly from external systems, may update on a schedule instead. We agree what’s needed for each report during design.
Can we get alerts rather than having to check dashboards?
Yes. Budget threshold alerts and similar notifications can tell the right people when something needs attention, such as a project approaching its budget.
Can you work with our existing spreadsheets?
Spreadsheets often hold valuable information and are a common starting point. Depending on their structure, data can be migrated into a proper database or used as a source while the wider system is developed. Longer term, moving the information into connected systems usually makes reporting more reliable.
Can dashboards combine operational and financial information?
Yes, where the underlying systems are connected. For example, a dashboard can combine project and task information from a CRM or practice management platform with time records, and with cost or billing information exchanged with an accounting system. That lets it show project progress alongside project costs and profitability.
The quality of a combined dashboard depends on consistent data across those systems, which is why integration, data mapping and validation are usually part of the same work. VC develops the technology that brings this information together. Interpreting financial information remains with your organisation and its advisers.
Do you provide financial or accounting advice?
No. VC develops the technology that produces financial and operational information: the integrations, calculations, reports and dashboards. Interpreting that information for accounting or financial purposes remains with your organisation and its advisers.
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