In business, it is very imperative to maintain the balance and keep checking periodically the metrics to make sure that your business is running effectively. But before we dig deep, let’s find out what are these business metrics and why are they so much important to a business?

Business metrics can be explained simply as the collection of useful business data and statistics that can help you make an informed decision to grow your business. Many also call it KPI (Key Performance Indicators) or analytics.

Deriving and drawing the data to come to a meaningful conclusion with an added action plan is not an easy task. However, these are a certain fun challenge that you come across while running a business. Following are the list of metrics to be taken care of in 2019 for progressive business growth.

1. Cash Flow (Revenue & Expenses)

Cash flow to a business is like water to the fish. It is any business’s lifeline, which makes it an important aspect or part of performance metrics. Keeping accurate follow up of cash flow will help a business to assess their sales figure and measure the margins. Meeting sales requirement is quite a necessary KPIs for any business to track.

A lot of business are highly focussed on generating revenue but miss their mark in the profit in the balance sheet. This is majorly accounted for due to the negligence in properly tracking the expense and other factors in the equation. To avoid such situation, you’ll need and the best time and online expense tracker software to keep your business sales figures intact by timely presenting you with accurate data and key metrics of your business.

2. Cost To Acquire Customer

Due to competition in every business segment, you need to more and more customers opting for your product or services which in turn will meet your sales forecast. Customer acquisition comes with a cost. You’ll need to spend behind advertising & marketing and as such these services don’t come cheap nowadays. Moreover, you’ll also need to be alert about investing in bad marketing channel which could ruin your business image and affect profit margins.

Also Read – Professional Invoice Estimate: An Integral Source Of Boosting Sales

3. CSAT Score

Well, it goes beyond saying that this metric stand atop everything else. CSAT score is nothing but the ‘Customer Satisfaction’ score which is important for any business to measure. Business is not all about providing service or selling product, what lies beneath is the way you build customer loyalty by treating the people in an utmost professional and kind manner. Customer satisfaction is all about ensuring customers are happy with their purchase and continue to do future business with you.

4. Performance & Productivity

Measuring employees performance and productivity are another essential key metrics that could make or break a business growth. Your staff’s performance and productivity are internally linked to the overall growth of an organization. Hence, it is important for any business to know how the workforce is performing in their tasks to find out the inner workings of your business.

Productivity ratios can be applied and calculated for any area of the business. It could be applied to sales, manufacturing, marketing, and even support departments. A business can self evaluate itself based on such various productivity stats to check their own performance against the industry standards.

Conclusion:

These key metrics can help any business in many forms and reasons but the basic focus is to measure the growth of your business. Rather than focussing upon undesirable key metrics, it is best to evaluate your business on the above-mentioned statistics. A promising online invoice generator can go a long way in helping a business to formulate strategy and boost business growth.

Also, check as a business owner, is your process flow leaning more towards an approach of reporting or on analysis and results? Have you tried or tested anyone of these by implementing in your day to day business activity? Share your tips, thoughts and success stories in the comment section below.

Recurring Payments Vs Recurring Invoices

Recurring Payments	Recurring Invoices
Recurring payments charge the customer’s credit card account or debit card account on a predetermined schedule for the same amount as preapproved.	Send an invoice to your customer on a regular basis. The client receives the invoice but, money is not paid unless the customer approves.
A business that takes prepayment of money and sells a monthly subscription service and product. Subscription services are excellent examples of this.	A company that provides fixed services with billable hours is an excellent choice for recurring billing. For example law firms and consulting agencies.

Pros and Cons of Recurring Invoices

Pros	Cons
You eliminate the possibility of human error by automating the billing process. If you use a recurring invoice, you will not be concerned about forgetting to charge your customers for the things they ordered.	You must exercise caution while recurring billing to prevent issuing inaccurate pricing. This also holds for price changes that could take place right once an invoice is created.
If you provide your customers with the option for recurring billing, they are more likely to buy products regularly.	It could be difficult to cope with recurring invoices if a transaction fails for any reason.

Net 45	Invoice is due in full within 45 days with no early payment discount offered
2/10 net 45 terms	2% discount if you pay within 10 days; otherwise full payment of the invoice is due in 45 days
1/15 net 45 terms	1% discount if you pay within 15 days; otherwise full payment of the invoice is due in 45 days
1/10 net 45 terms	1% discount if you pay within 10 days; otherwise full payment of the invoice is due in 45 days
1/7 net 45 terms	1% discount if you pay within 7 days; otherwise full payment of the invoice is due in 45 days

Category	Net Method vs. Gross Method	Explanation
Calculation Approach	- Applies tax credits first; reduces taxable income before computing tax liability.	- Doesn't apply tax credits; computes taxable income without considering tax credits.
Tax Credit Eligibility	- Allows for greater likelihood of tax credit eligibility due to reduced taxable income.	- Limits tax credit eligibility because taxable income hasn't been reduced yet.
Itemized Deduction Requirement	- Lowers threshold requirement for itemizing deductions due to decreased taxable income.	- Raises threshold requirement for itemizing deductions due to higher taxable income.
Advantages	- Leads to lower taxable income and increases chances of meeting qualifications for other tax benefits.	- Results in higher taxable income compared to net method.
Disadvantages	- May miss opportunity to reduce tax burden if taxpayer doesn't itemize deductions or take advantage of tax credits.	- Increases taxable income and may result in higher overall tax bill.