Revenue reports for small businesses: the 6 worth running monthly

Revenue reports show how much money your business earned, when, from whom and from what. For most small businesses, six reports cover almost every question: revenue by month, by customer, by product or plan, by payment method, recurring versus once-off revenue, and refunds and credits. Run them monthly, compare with the previous month and the same month last year, and you'll spot problems while they're still small.

This guide explains each report, what to look for, and the definitions you need to agree on first so the numbers mean the same thing to everyone.

First, agree what "revenue" means

Before building any report, decide which of these you're measuring, because they give different numbers:

Also decide:

• Including or excluding VAT? Revenue for management reporting is normally shown excluding VAT, because the VAT isn't yours.
• Gross or net of refunds and credit notes? Show refunds separately (report 6), then use net revenue for trends.
• Which date? Invoice date, payment date or service period.

Write the definitions at the top of the report. Half of all "the numbers don't match" arguments come from two people using different bases.

The six revenue reports

1. Revenue by month

The foundation. Invoiced and collected revenue for each month, excluding VAT, with the change against last month and the same month last year.

Illustrative example:

What to look for: a widening gap between invoiced and collected revenue. In August above, collections fell faster than invoicing, which is worth investigating before it becomes a cash flow problem. Your aged receivables report will show which customers are behind.

2. Revenue by customer

Revenue per customer over the last 12 months, sorted from highest to lowest.

What to look for:

• Concentration. If your top three customers make up a large share of revenue, losing one would hurt. Knowing that is useful even if you can't change it quickly.
• Movers. Customers whose spend is rising (upsell candidates) or falling (at-risk).

3. Revenue by product or plan

Revenue split by product, service line or subscription plan.

What to look for: which products drive growth, which are shrinking, and whether a cheap entry plan is pulling customers down from more profitable ones. If you run discounts, split this by customers with and without a coupon to see what the discounts cost you.

4. Revenue by payment method or gateway

Collected revenue by method: card, instant EFT, debit order, manual EFT, mobile money and so on.

What to look for: shifts in how customers pay, and the cost of each method. Gateway fees vary by method and provider, so a method that brings in a lot of revenue may also carry a lot of fees. Pair this report with the fee lines from your gateway statements. Our guide to payment gateway fees in South Africa explains the usual fee types.

5. Recurring vs once-off revenue

For businesses with subscriptions or retainers, split revenue into recurring (subscriptions, monthly retainers, debit orders) and once-off (setup fees, projects, ad hoc sales).

What to look for: growth in the recurring share, which makes the business more predictable. If you run subscriptions, extend this into monthly and annual recurring revenue metrics.

6. Refunds, credit notes and failed collections

Everything that reduced revenue: refunds, credit notes and, for debit orders and recurring cards, failed or returned collections.

What to look for: a rising trend, or a cluster around one product or one staff member. Refunds are often a quality or expectation problem showing up in the numbers.

Making the reports useful

• Same format every month. Changing columns or definitions makes trends impossible to read.
• Always show comparisons. A number on its own says little; "down 1.5% on last month and up 9% on last year" says a lot.
• Keep it to one page. A summary with the six headline numbers, and the detailed tables behind it for anyone who wants to drill in.
• Add a line of commentary. "Collections dropped because two large customers paid in September" saves a meeting.
• Reconcile to your accounting system. Management revenue reports should agree with your books at month-end, with differences explained (timing, VAT, credit notes).

How often to run them

Rather than rebuilding these every month, set them up once and have them delivered automatically. See our guide to scheduled financial reports.

How CentraPoint helps

CentraPoint includes standard reports and a report builder, so you can set up the revenue reports your team relies on, save them and schedule them to arrive by email, with CSV and XLSX export for your spreadsheets. Because invoices, gateway payments, debit order collections and recorded EFT and cash payments are all in one place, invoiced and collected figures come from the same data. For your books, CentraPoint offers accounting integrations with Sage, Xero, QuickBooks and Zoho Books; Pastel export.

Frequently asked questions

What should a small business revenue report include?

At minimum, revenue by month with comparisons, plus breakdowns by customer, product and payment method, and a view of refunds and credits. State whether figures include VAT and whether they're invoiced or collected.

Should revenue reports include VAT?

Management revenue reports are normally shown excluding VAT, because VAT collected is owed to SARS rather than earned by the business.

What's the difference between invoiced and collected revenue?

Invoiced revenue counts sales when you bill them; collected revenue counts them when the money arrives. The gap between the two shows how much is still outstanding.

How often should I review revenue reports?

Monthly for most reports, with a quick weekly look at collections so you notice slow payers early.