Stage two · Intelligence
Understand what is actually happening.
A sound finance system produces data. Finance intelligence turns it into a management view: margin you can act on, trends flagged before they matter, and one set of numbers the leadership team actually works from.
Accurate, but three days late.
Growing businesses rarely lack data. They lack one trusted view of it, with the commentary that says what changed and why it matters.
Common signs
- Two reports, two answers, and a debate about which is right
- Margin known at company level, but not by customer or job
- Numbers arrive days after the decision needed them
- Nobody flags the trend or the anomaly until it is a problem
Exhibit 01
Illustrative exampleFour spreadsheets, one management view
Which set of numbers does the leadership team actually work from?
What is actually happening in the business?
Illustrative exampleNow
- Four spreadsheets that disagree
- Numbers arrive three weeks late
- Margin by customer isn't in there
- Nobody trusts the version they were sent
After
- One management view
- Available in days, not weeks
- Profit by customer, job and cost line
- One number everyone works from
The reporting isn't wrong today — it's late, scattered and missing the commercial detail decisions actually need.
The output is not software. It is one trusted version of the business.
Your biggest customer may not be your best customer.
Revenue ranks customers by size. Contribution ranks them by what they are worth once delivery cost is allocated. The order is rarely the same — and the commercial conversation changes when it is visible.
Exhibit 02
Illustrative exampleA customer's revenue is not its economic contribution
Which accounts are worth repeating once delivery cost is allocated?
Your biggest customer may not be your best customer.
Riverside is the largest account by revenue and the only one losing money once delivery cost is allocated properly. Hover or tap a customer for the detail.
Re-rank the same five customers by contribution and the order changes. So does the pricing conversation.
Kingswell Insight: the management view, built and maintained.
This is the platform that produces the finance intelligence layer — every number traceable to the evidence behind it. It sits behind every engagement, and it can also stand on its own.
- Revenue
- £4.8m
- +12.4%12 months
- Gross margin
- 31.4%
- −2.1ptsvs prior year
- EBITDA
- £720k
- +4.8%12 months
- Cash
- £640k
- −£95kmonth on month
- 13-week low
- £310k
- Week 9projected
What needs attention
Evidence
33.5% → 31.4%
- Price+0.3
- Mix−0.6
- Labour recovery−0.8
- Subcontract−1.0
Delivery cost, not pricing. The question becomes a resourcing question.
Conclusion. Subcontract cost and labour recovery account for 1.8 of the 2.1 point fall. Price is holding.
Defined work. Defined output.
Delivered
- A management P&L, EBITDA and cash view the leadership team agrees on
- Margin by customer, project, product and cost line
- Debtor trends, KPI performance and actual versus budget or forecast
- Trend and anomaly detection, with commentary — not just numbers
What changes
- One set of numbers the leadership team works from
- Pricing and mix decisions grounded in contribution
- Reporting available in days, not weeks
- Issues surface as trends, not as surprises
Next
Understanding what happened is the foundation. The next question is what could happen next — and how to plan for it.