Business analytics report: findings, evidence and actions

A business analytics report answers a defined management question with reconciled evidence and an assigned next action. Start with the change that needs explaining, compare the relevant segments, and show enough source detail for another person to rebuild the result.

Suppose a US distributor asks why gross profit declined when sales increased. A revenue chart alone cannot answer that question. The report needs revenue and cost of goods sold for the same segments and periods, followed by a clear distinction between a calculated contribution and an untested explanation.

State the question and reporting boundary

Write the question before choosing metrics: “Which regions explain the change in gross profit between August and September 2026?” Name the decision owner, such as the commercial director, and the decision the analysis supports, such as where to investigate pricing or product costs.

Use net revenue after discounts and credits. Match cost of goods sold to the same sales under the company's accounting policy. Exclude corporate operating expenses from this gross-profit question, and say so in the report. A separate operating-profit analysis would need those expenses.

The SBA's guidance on managing business finances specifically recommends separating and analyzing business segments. Here, regions are the chosen segments because the commercial director assigns responsibility that way. Financial analytics explains the wider relationship between profit, cash, and business decisions.

Start with a reconciled segment export

Export the regional revenue and cost summary for both closed months. Use the same regional assignments in each month. Keep the underlying invoice and cost references available for the follow-up investigation.

Arrange the export on a worksheet with region in A, August revenue in B, September revenue in C, August COGS in D, and September COGS in E. COGS means cost of goods sold. The fictional distributor's input is:

Match the revenue totals and COGS totals separately to the management accounts for each month. If a corporate adjustment has no region, retain it as an unallocated row rather than distributing it without an agreed basis. A report cannot explain a company change if its segment table omits part of the company.

Calculate changes and margins in Excel

In Microsoft Excel, calculate August gross profit in F2 and September gross profit in G2 with these formulas, respectively:

=B2-D2
=C2-E2

Calculate revenue change in H2 and gross-profit change in I2:

=C2-B2
=G2-F2

Calculate September gross margin in J2, leaving the result blank if revenue is zero:

=IF(C2=0,"",G2/C2)

Copy the formulas through row 4. For the total September margin, divide summed gross profit by summed revenue:

=SUM(G2:G4)/SUM(C2:C4)

That produces the findings table below. Margins are rounded to one decimal place; calculations retain full precision.

The report's lead finding is now precise: revenue rose $20,000, but COGS rose $25,700, leaving gross profit down $5,700. South's $8,700 decline and North's $3,000 decline were partly offset by West's $6,000 increase.

For another check, calculate the revenue-weighted September margin:

=SUMPRODUCT(C2:C4,J2:J4)/SUM(C2:C4)

Microsoft documents SUMPRODUCT as summing products of corresponding ranges. With unrounded J values, this must equal the margin calculated from the totals. Covirage is not affiliated with Microsoft.

Turn the findings into a reviewable report

Use a compact structure that preserves the chain from question to action:

North's August margin was 40.0%, calculated as $80,000 divided by $200,000. At that margin, September revenue of $220,000 would generate $88,000 gross profit, compared with the actual $77,000. The $11,000 gap identifies a margin investigation; it does not establish discounting as the cause.

Ask North's manager to review product mix, realized prices, and matched costs. Ask South's manager to identify which accounts explain the revenue reduction. Give each owner a review date and specify which records they must return. Prescriptive analytics develops how to choose an action once the evidence supports it.

The report should state what would change its recommendation. If a late credit changes the regional comparison, refresh the figures before acting. If a product-mix shift explains North's margin, evaluate that mix rather than assuming a pricing failure. This makes the next review a test of evidence, not a debate over the chart.

Where reports lose credibility

• A contribution becomes a cause. A region's decline identifies where to look; it does not explain why.
• Percentages are averaged. Total margin uses total gross profit divided by total revenue.
• Periods are not equally closed. Missing costs or late credits make a preliminary comparison look final.
• Actions have no owner. An unexplained recommendation cannot be followed up or evaluated.

Choose business intelligence tools based on whether they preserve this evidence. For recurring report ownership and cadence, see business intelligence reporting strategy.

Build the evidence from your own file in Covirage

Bring the regional revenue and cost export with the reporting definitions and control totals. Covirage maps the columns, and its tools compute and check the comparisons; the external AI model explains the results with every figure traced to its rows. Create a free Covirage account, which takes about a minute, then set up your business and bring a sample of your own data.

See self-service analytics for the supporting business questions.