How to review your business performance

Most sole traders judge the month by feel: the van was out every day, so it must have been a good one. But busy and profitable aren't the same thing, and the difference only shows up when you look at the numbers — which, if the numbers live in a drawer, nobody ever does.

Because TradePlanr already holds your jobs, invoices and expenses, the month-end review stops being a bookkeeping session and becomes a five-minute habit. This tutorial walks through a simple routine: what came in, what went out, what's still owed, and what the pattern of work is telling you.

1. 1. Open your dashboard at month end

   Pick a regular moment — the first evening of the new month works well — and open your dashboard. The headline figures are already there: income invoiced, payments received, jobs completed and what's outstanding, with no spreadsheet to build and no receipts to add up first.

   The habit matters more than the timing. A review you actually do every month beats a thorough one you do every April.

   The TradePlanr dashboard showing monthly income, jobs completed and outstanding invoices

2. 2. Check income against last month

   Look at what you invoiced and what actually arrived in the bank — they're rarely the same number, and the gap between them is your cash-flow story. Compare against the previous month or two: one quiet month is noise, but two or three sliding in the same direction is a trend worth acting on while there's still time.

3. 3. Review what's still outstanding

   Check the outstanding figure and the invoices behind it. Money you've earned but not collected is the most fixable problem in a trade business — a couple of reminders sent tonight can turn next month's cash flow around before you've priced a single new job.

   The overdue invoices view with amounts owed and days outstanding per customer

   Tip

   If the same names keep appearing in the overdue list, consider deposits or shorter payment terms for those customers — the review is where you spot the pattern.

4. 4. See where the work came from

   Look at the jobs you completed and what types they were: boiler services, rewires, call-outs, full installs. Your busiest work types tell you what the business actually is, rather than what you set out to be — and whether the work you do most is the work that pays best.

   Cross-check against job profitability (expenses logged against jobs make this honest). A work type that fills the diary but returns thin margins is a quiet problem hiding inside a busy month.

   A breakdown of the month's completed jobs grouped by work type

5. 5. Use the numbers to price and plan

   This is where the five minutes pays for itself. If a type of job consistently comes in under what it's worth, the next quote goes up. If the diary shows a quiet fortnight approaching, you've got weeks — not days — to fill it: chase the quotes you've sent, message regulars who are due a service, or finally take that bigger job you'd been deferring.

   Quiet weeks spotted early are a scheduling problem. Quiet weeks spotted late are a cash-flow problem.

6. 6. Keep an eye on the VAT threshold

   If you're not VAT registered, a monthly glance at your rolling twelve-month turnover is worth the few seconds it takes. Crossing the registration threshold without noticing creates an expensive, backdated headache; seeing it coming months out lets you plan properly. If you're approaching it, that's the moment to talk to an accountant about timing and options.

   Tip

   The threshold applies to your rolling twelve-month turnover, not the tax year — a strong run of months can take you over sooner than you'd expect.

Five minutes, once a month: income, outstanding, work types, diary ahead. Do it a few months running and you'll make pricing and planning decisions with numbers instead of gut feel — which is most of what separates a trade that's busy from a trade that's doing well.