Finance says revenue was one thing, the ecommerce team says another, the wholesale director has a third number, and the founder has a fourth in a spreadsheet from last Tuesday. Everyone is right, and the hour goes on arguing about which right.

I've sat in that meeting from three of the four chairs, and it usually comes down to three things happening at the same time.

01 / 07

Every system counts differently

Shopify counts an order when it's placed. The ERP counts it when it ships. Finance counts it when it's invoiced, and the 3PL when it leaves the building. Returns land in one system a week later and in another never. None of these are wrong, and none of them agree.

02 / 07

Nobody wrote the definitions down

Ask three people what net revenue means and you get three answers (with VAT, without VAT, after returns, before discounts). The definitions live in people's heads, and people leave.

03 / 07

Timing

Reports get pulled on different days from different systems, so even when the definitions match the numbers don't, because one report includes Tuesday and the other doesn't.

04 / 07

What it costs you

When numbers can't be trusted, decisions slow down because everyone checks everything twice. Planning runs on the founder's gut because the alternative is a week of reconciliation. And the moment a partner, a supplier or an investor asks for a number, someone spends a weekend building it by hand.

05 / 07

What one set of numbers looks like

In practice it's three things, and none of them are complicated.

A data warehouse in your own cloud where every system lands automatically, as often as the business needs it. Shopify, the ERP, the 3PL, the wholesale portal, the retail partner files, finance. Raw, untouched, in one place.

A definitions document, one page, written with finance and operations in the room. Net revenue is this. An order counts on this date. A return goes back against the channel it came from. This document takes longer to agree than the data warehouse takes to build (usually two or three sessions with people who have never had to agree before), and it's the most valuable thing we produce in the first month.

Reporting built on top of both, so that finance, ecommerce, wholesale and the founder all read from the same page, and the page updates itself.

06 / 07

What changes

The meeting gets shorter. We've seen a monthly review go from two hours of reconciliation to twenty minutes on decisions, because nobody has to defend their number any more.

Month-end close stops being a project. Finance gets the sales side already tied out, and they close in days rather than weeks.

And when a partner, a supplier or an investor asks for a number, someone opens a dashboard instead of a weekend.

07 / 07

How we do it

We use the first six weeks to get your data under control. Accurate, centralised data with the official definitions embedded. Our work uses low cost tools and your existing Google or Microsoft account. Everything is set up under your control.

One set of numbers on its own doesn't make anyone money. The value comes from what you do with it, and this is where we spend most of our time with a brand.

We find the areas where the most value is sitting and work with your team to solve them. Could be planning, logistics, order management, account management. We join the team meetings and track towards the agreed targets.