Cloud service offers up financial insights
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There are plenty of cloud services providing resources to help small businesses write and update business plans.
Another new service, Unleash, offers a twist on that idea, with a "Cloud CFO" service that aims to help small companies make financial decisions that keep their balance sheets healthy.
Are you collecting on your accounts fast enough? Are you putting too much money into investments, compared with your cash flow? These are the sorts of questions that Unleash wants to help your team answer.
The service works by analyzing more than 15 million tax returns, business brokerage transactions and credit agency reports across more than 700 vertical markets, and then using that intelligence to help individual small-business owners or managers make better informed decisions about their own strategy.
Said Unleash CEO Insaaf Mohideen:
"As a small business owner, you are constantly on the go and need to know how the business is doing -- what are the revenues, how much do you burn through, how much case is on-hand, and of course, what can you afford. With Unleash, business owners have access to complex data and financial analysis in an easy to understand, visual dashboard at any time and anywhere, without the need to spend hours analyzing finance or accounting reports."
Right now, this insight is served up in the form of a mobile application for Apple iOS that pulls in financial information from QuickBooks or Xero. Because the software is still new, there isn't any formal pricing information available on the Web site.
Right now, Unleash is developing two different indices: uScore offers a health checkup for your business; while the Peer Index helps small-business owners compare themselves to competitors or similar businessees in different regions.