Frequently Asked Questions

Importing data and setup

Businest® integrates seamlessly with QuickBooks online, MYOB Account Right Live and Xero. SageOne integration coming soon. Businest® uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to offer the fastest account set up in the industry - from uploading a complete financial history to delivering cash flow analysis, cash flow forecasting, expert tips and strategies, and custom tailored, multi-media business coaching in under 8 minutes.

Once you have logged into your account as either a small business owner or a bookkeeper/accountant, simply select the accounting software provider where the data is and provide the login details to access that account. Businest will them import a complete financial history from that package, analyse cash flow, prepare forecasts, and deliver targeted tips and business coaching strategies within 8 minutes.

Device compatibility

Businest® is mobile responsive so you can access and use businest® from any device that is connected to the internet. This allows you to monitor what's important to you and get world class business coaching anytime, anywhere.

Because the cash flow forecasting feature does project a complete set of financial reports (Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement), you may find it easier to review, digest and plan a course of action by viewing it on a large desktop screen.

Analysis

Once you have created a forecast scenario using the "What if" tool, you can name and save it to your account. As actual data becomes available in the future, you may go to your "Actuals to forecast" tab, call up your saved scenario and businest will automatically deliver a comparison of your results to this forecast (with clear indication of which accounts have gone up or down and by how much as a percentage). You will receive a variance report for the Profit and loss, Balance Sheet and Cash flow automatically. You may also export this report and share it with your shareholders, bank or the tax office (if necessary).

Accounts

Knowledgebase contains a searchable repository of all the videos, articles and checklists across sales, marketing, finance, systems and leadership. It is available to subscribers of our In The Nest and Ready to Fly plans.

As a small business owner, if you click on your email address (located at the top right hand corner of the page when you are logged in), you may select "My Profile". Under the "Payment Details" tab you may view your previous invoices for paid subscriptions and upgrade/downgrade your account at any time.

Partner questions

As an accountant or bookkeeper who has invited a client to use businest® both you or they may log in, view dashboards and coaching content, and sync with their accounting software at any time. There is no need to export files in order to share dashboards, reports, coaching content, cash flow forecasts, or what if scenarios. These are available for either you or your small business client to see at any time.

Once a small business has been invited by you to use businest®, either you or they may log in and authorize businest® to sync with your preferred accounting software package. This process is extremely easy to do (it can even be completed by a layperson with no accounting background) and should take less than 8 minutes. If you would prefer to handle all the set up yourself, simply communicate this desire to your client and proceed to his/her dashboard to complete the set up process.

Next to your email address at the top right of the screen there is a "Settings" menu. If you click on that tab, the drop down will give you access to a number of choices. Click on "My Accounts" to see a detailed listing of all your revenue, expense, assets, liabilities and equity accounts.

The custom alert function allows you to monitor your (or your client's) financial health on auto-pilot. You can use our ground-breaking functionality to create notifications for the key performance metrics that drive your success and really matter to you. We help you stay on top of performance by allowing you to select the metrics you want to track and monitor how you are going (with both historical AND forecasted data) and direct emails to those parties who need to know this information as soon as it happens.

You can set both success (good) and warning (bad) alerts based on thresholds that you can specify and change at any time. If you want to know when your net profit margin, return on assets, or cash flow etc. go above and below a certain threshold, custom alerts are perfect for you. Custom alerts will give you the confidence you need to sleep soundly at night and even take a vacation, because you can rest assured businest® is always monitoring the metrics that are most important to you.

Exporting data

If you need to share cash flow forecasts, what if scenarios, or comparison of actual to forecasted data, with a third party (i.e. bank, supplier, the tax office etc.), simply export the files and email them. This may be done at any time by you (as the accountant or bookkeeper who has invited your client to use businest®) or by the business owner themselves.

Security

Data within businest® is stored within the Amazon Cloud service known as RDS. We employ industry standard SSL and TLS encryption. We have passed all security testing and due diligence requirements of the major accounting platforms that we integrate with and our internal security team ensures we remain at the forefront of best practices in the industry.