A profit and loss is a visual. An analysis is a report.
Anything can draw you a P and L. Build me a detailed profit and loss analysis is a different job entirely - and every decision between those two sentences is the part nobody else does for you.
Getting that grouping right, every time, for a business you have never seen before, is the hardest thing in this product. It is also the moment people sit up: “that is exactly what I wanted, and I would not have known to ask for half of it.”
Six decisions between your sentence and your report.
None of these are asked of you as a form. They are worked out, shown to you, and corrected if she has them wrong.
Which date range
And why that one. This month against last is a different question to this quarter against the same quarter last year.
What to compare against
Budget, forecast, prior period or prior year - and she knows which budget replaced which.
Your tracking categories
The dimensions already in your ledger, applied the way your business actually splits itself.
Custom dimensions
And creating the ones you do not have yet, when the question needs a split nobody has set up.
An edit grid where only you know
Per cent occupancy for a childcare centre. WIP per completed job. Numbers no system holds, asked for rather than guessed.
Which visuals belong together
The grouping that turns four charts into an answer. This is the hardest part and the least visible.
Where related things live together.
A bucket is not a folder and not a report. It is where related data and visuals from any of your connections are held, so a report can be built from them and a Pulse can watch them.
Only a pinned report living in a bucket can carry a Pulse. That is deliberate - it means the thing being watched has a stored definition that cannot drift, rather than being regenerated slightly differently on every run.
Signup and cancel dates from your own database
Your definition of churn, from her knowledge
Reports and Tools, answered.
What is the difference between a visual and a report in VibeCFO?
A visual is one chart or table - a profit and loss, a debtors ageing, a margin by product. A report is a composed set of visuals held in a bucket, together with the decisions that make them right for your business: date ranges, comparatives, dimensions and any figures you had to supply.
What is a bucket?
A bucket is where related data and visuals are held together - Balance Sheet, WIP, Payroll, Job Status, Billing. A report is built from a bucket, and only a pinned report living in a bucket can carry a Pulse.
Can I change a report after EVA builds it?
Yes. She shows her working before anything runs - which connections, which join, which definition of revenue - and you correct her then. Corrections go into her knowledge, so the next report starts from the corrected version rather than repeating the mistake.
What if a report needs a number that is not in any system?
She asks you for it, in an edit grid, rather than guessing or leaving a hole. Occupancy rates, capacity targets and completion percentages usually live in somebody's head or a spreadsheet, and a report that pretends otherwise is wrong.
Are these standard templates?
No. A template gives everyone the same pack. EVA composes for the question you asked using the systems you actually run, which is why two businesses asking the same question get differently shaped reports.
Can I export a report?
Yes, and a Pulse can generate and send one on a schedule - refreshed, written up and emailed to a user group, with each recipient seeing only the rows their access allows.
Ask for something complicated.
The demo people remember is the one where they ask for something they assumed would take a week.