APP COMPARE: Business Analysis & Forecasting Tools Part 4

This the 4th article in our APP COMPARE mini-series looking at forecasting and analytic Apps designed to provide business analysis and metrics typically not available within standard financial reporting. (Part One can be found here, Part Two can be found here , and Part Three can be found here.)

There were too many Apps in this category to include within a single 'App Compare' article, so each installment of this mini-series encompassed a handful of randomly selected Apps (presented in alphabetical order within each grouping), without regard to any assessment of their performance, and as with our other 'App Compare' articles, no side-by-side comparisons or rankings will be provided.

Businest

Businest (and no, that's not one of Murph's misspelled words) is a somewhat different type of business analysis and forecasting tool but it still fits the definition of the Apps in our APP COMPARE mini-series. Once you authorize your connection to QBO, the App uploads your complete financial history, calculates your cash flow position, creates a 12-month forecast (including Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement), sets-up What-if Analyses, and delivers step-by-step business coaching tips all in under 8 minutes time.

Dashboards, graphs and forecasts only confirm you have a cash flow problem. Businest shows you how to FIX it. Replace guesswork, with actual steps on how to immediately put more money in your bank account.

And Businest also provides step-by-step business coaching, video training, & expert tips (across sales, marketing, finance, leadership and operations) to help your profitably and future-proof your business.

With Businest you get not only analytics, but also expert tips across sales, marketing, financials, & leadership aspects of your business. For more information, see the Businest landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Chata.ai

I told you last May (2018) that, “the future of query has arrived (at least for QuickBooks Online users)” with Chata.ai. Chata.ai is a simple-to-use analytics tool that does your data 'dirty work' for you through the power of artificial intelligence. With Chata.ai, you will make better business decisions because you will turn your QBO 'data' into information you need to know. You simply use the App's artificially intelligent natural language understanding engine to query for the information you want.

For example, want to see how much you spent with your suppliers? In a moment, Chata displays the result simply by asking “how much did I spend with my suppliers?”

Want to see the specifics on your top 10 customers? Just ask Chata, "give me my top 10 customers by revenue." Chata responds with your results.

But how about something significantly more complex like customers by location in terms of your A/R balances by State? Just tell Chata, "give me a bar graph of total customer balances by state."

Want to know percentages of change, or differences over periods of time, or ratios, or variances between periods? Or sets of data in your historical values? Well, Chata can display and chart or graph that information in seconds for you too. All you need do is ‘Chata.’ For more information, see the Chata.ai landing page at the Intuit QuickBooks Apps Center.

Corelytics

Back in 2015, when we first told you about Corelytics, we mentioned that their genera was “understanding the Vital Signs of your business.” They designed their App to provide you with a broad range of analytics in which the ‘tough computational work’ was done for you, so that all you needed to do was look at the results via their dashboard displays.

Still today, Corelytics provides you with streamlined graphic displays of your leading indicators to help you quickly understand the vital signs of your business. Forecasts, trends, benchmarks and goals let owners and consultants visualize what the accounting numbers truly mean and put their business into perspective.

With Corelytics, you will easily identify which lines of business are generating profits and which are putting a drag on your company. Each line of a business' gross margin revenue, cost of goods and overhead allocation based on percent of revenue is reflected in their bottom line so you can truly identify their performance. And with Corelytics, you can even evaluate how much revenue is being generated by full time equivalent employees.

We told you back in 2015 that you could rely on Corelytics to "crunch the numbers for you," and you still can.

Editor's Comments:

In keeping with the introduction to this article (and this mini-series), there are too many Apps of this category to include all of them within a single article and remain true to our editorial guidelines regarding our typical feature length for an article of this nature. I therefore have limited the number of Apps within this article and each of the installments in this mini-series. In order to do so, I randomly selected Apps and included them in alphabetical order without regard to any assessment of their performance, and with no side-by-side comparison, ranking or personal preference factor involved in either selection or their feature within these articles.