209: Metrique Solutions is Your Financial Partner in Business

Michele  00:00

Hello, my name is Michele, and you're listening to Profit is a Choice. Joining me again on the podcast today is Jack Tompkins of Pineapple Consulting. Jack and I, along with a whole team of people work on Metrique Solutions, a Financial Dashboard developed to support creative entrepreneurs just like you. And today we're going to talk about how Metrique Solutions is a financial partner in your business. It's not a replacement for your accounting or your project management software, but an adjunct. Enjoy the podcast.

Michele  00:37

Every day, empowered entrepreneurs are taking ownership of their company financial health, and enjoying the rewards of reduced stress and more creativity. With my background as a financial software developer, owner of multiple businesses in the interior design, industry, educator, and speaker, I coach women in the interior design industry to increase their profits, regain ownership of their bottom line, and to have fun again in their business. Welcome to Profit is a Choice.

Michele  01:14

Hey, Jack, welcome back again.

Jack Tompkins  01:16

Hey, Michele, pleasure to be back once again.

Michele  01:18

Excellent. All right. So we're going to pick up off of the last couple of podcasts that we've done together. And we're going to talk about today is why Metrique Solutions is a good partner to our financial and project management software. Because one of the things that we mentioned in specifically the latest podcast that you and I just completed, we talked about the analogy of watching a football game, and being in different places in the stadium and seeing things in different ways. And so I'd like to extend that analogy to our discussion today. I think that's very relevant. And, you know, we mentioned the myriad of spreadsheets that I had coming in, and the need to consolidate not only where they lived and where they were and how to get to them, but to consolidate the information so that when we gave information, we could use that same information, in many ways, slice and dice the data. And so when we think about that, you know, there's also this thought, I hear it all the time in the interior design industry, and you probably hear it outside of it. I wish there was just one thing that did it all, is there just one program that does everything. And here's what we know, we know from our own work, whenever you are a generalist, you only do things generally. And whenever you're a specialist, you can do things will make a board specially, right, you can go deeper when you are the specialist. And so we have to keep that in mind when we're looking at these different software applications and the solutions that we're providing for our own company. Every product is built with an intention or should be right. And so QuickBooks is not trying to be your project management software, they are being QuickBooks, they are being financial money, management, day to day, keep up with all the details. Project management systems, by and large, are trying to help you manage the project. Now that might be even different from task management. So there's client facing project management, right what they see on their project, and then there's this internal management. And so there's, you know, I mean, I could throw out like, you know, Ivy, Mydoma, Studio Design, Advantage Designer, Logic Design Manager, I mean, I could go on and on and on design files, there's like list of them. And they do what they do, but they don't do at all, even the ones that say they do it. They cannot do everything. They just can't I've seen them they don't. Are there areas where they're great, and areas where they are light. I won't say bad. I'll just say like they're right. And it's true, but just don't go as deep. Exactly. And so, when you're looking and trying to make decisions, I think a lot of it comes down to what is it that you want to track? You know, there's a great book measure what matters. And when you think about what matters for you to measure, what are you trying to look at? How are you using these pieces and parts as a solution, then it's being intentional about what we would call a tech stack. I remember for the last couple of years I've been going through my tech stack. All that needs is you're writing down every piece of technology that you use in your company to solve a problem. And so yes, Metrique Solutions is going to be an addition to your tech stack if you choose to use it, but it is solving a problem that neither the project management tools out there or the financial tools currently out there that the majority of the listeners are using. It's solving a problem that none of them solve. And that's why it's a great partner to them.

Jack Tompkins  05:12

Yes. And to your point on two pieces, it's not a new problem. This is a new solution. That's right. And it's a partner, not a headache, not this thing that's going to replace anything. Those other the QuickBooks and the project management and, frankly, everything else they stay in their lane. Metrique is a nice bridge to what functionally are some of the most important pieces of your business in kind of operations, right? Project management, right? Financial Peace,

Michele  05:41

right? It's an independent add on to your tech stack that allows you to have a different view. Now, when you go look at your projects in your project management, or when you go look at the black and white p&l, you could actually pull that up on one for those of you that have two screens on one screen and pull up Metrique solutions on another screen and interpret it. It's almost like jet when you were a little boy. Yeah, take you back here, right? You're a little boy. Do you ever remember listening to a book on tape, similar to an audible or taking a book and listening to it and holding the book and turning the pages? So

Jack Tompkins  06:20

yeah, that's a cheat code. So I didn't have to read.

Michele  06:23

Well, so Brantley, our youngest is dyslexic. And we didn't know of course, until he's like second grade. But when he was little bit smart, and a memory, like off the charts, right. So he's reading, it was something like the bear and the strawberry or I don't know, some little the Big Bear and the red, red, strawberry. But he's got this little hard book, he's in kindergarten, or no four year preschool. And he's got this little book, he's got a little cassette tape. Remember when we had cassette tapes, and it's dropping in his little boom box. And he's hitting play. And as it reads, he's following along with the pictures. And then it says do and he turns the page, that signal, turn the page. So he turns the page, he's reading the book, ding, ding, ding. But he's hearing it. And he's seeing it. So he's pulling that data and that information, and if you will, in more than one way. And we talk about learning all the time. And I had to go learn how to teach him because I kind of homeschooled him for a year in there for dyslexia. And it was some people learn tactically, some learn audibly, some learn by seeing, and then some learn by touch by feel that kinesthetic kind of thing. So anyway, when he was doing the book I keep is moving the pages. He was looking at it, and he was hearing it. So he's interpreting and pulling in data in more than one way. That is what I love, our love. Let me finish that story. Because it's kind of funny. So later, we were all excited thinking, look how he's reading, because he could without the cassette, read the page. Then he would go, ding, and turn the page, he had memorized the ding to know he should turn the page to continue with what he had memorized.

Jack Tompkins  08:12

Oh, that's awesome. Isn't that? Cool?

Michele  08:14

It was so funny. We're like, why is he thinking while he's reading the book, and they'd like he'd be like doing and he'd smile and turn the page. And then we realized it was a big set, he had memorized the whole book. And that's what was his cue to turn the page. Wow, that's impressive. Isn't that crazy? Oh, he can. He's memorized entire movies, like whole movies crazy. Let's pull it back to the numbers a minute. When you can pull up again, we're talking about Metrique Solutions as a partner to your financials, when you can pull up that income statement that p&l And you're looking at black and white numbers on the page. That's one way of interpreting that data. But when you can turn around and look at a visual representation of that data, slice and dice four or five different ways. Now that data makes more sense. And that's why that partnership just like with him with having the book and having a cassette. That's why people love Audible, and they're like, I've got plenty of people that say to me, I won't read a book, but I will listen to a book. That's why podcasts are so awesome. We're able to take information and use it in different ways than just reading a book. And that's the same thing. I think we don't want to just read a p&l inside a financial software system. We want to see it Yeah, right.

Jack Tompkins  09:36

Yeah, that was my favorite part of the story about Bradley was that he was following along with the pictures. The pictures is what Metrique does.

Michele  09:45

Yeah, it's the pictures that create that visual. What are some other ways that you see Metrique as a partner in solutions to project management and financial management software applications?

Jack Tompkins  09:59

So I think we've talked about it a little bit, maybe just touched on it. But it's a partner in the sense that QuickBooks is really good at invoicing, right? Amongst other things, but it's kind of the big thing. And then it'll kind of show you and they have a couple visuals in there, it'll show you, hey, you've got this much outstanding. This much is overdue, whatever the little graphs are, and you think, okay, great, that's helpful. And then it kind of ends there. Right? They might do here's like, a total year to date revenue, if you're looking in the right spot, but it kind of does end there. And Metrique kind of picks up there. So that transition or that bridge between specifically QuickBooks and Metrique keep invoicing in QuickBooks, Metrique's not going to do that obviously, right,

Michele  10:43

right, right. We're not trying to replace your financial software. That's not who we are, and not what I want to do.

Jack Tompkins  10:49

Exactly. This is the audio book to go along with the visual or I guess probably in this case, it's the visual to go along with the audio. It's hey, here's what happened QuickBooks did your invoicing. Here's that actually means, right? Another way to interpret it. Yeah, yes, exactly. And here's what way to interpret it. That actually makes sense. And it's easy to look at. So it's that partner that bridge, whatever you want to call it. And the same on the project management side to where there's a whole lot going on in there. Right? There's nitty gritty details and what person is doing what and that doesn't often tie to financials, at least not directly, right. Metrique, kind of, again, builds that bridge to the project management and says, Great, here's what we're doing. Here's what we're allotting here's our capacity. Here's what that means for the business and for the financials, and it's a very good partner.

Michele  11:39

That's right, we both well, and you know, when we talk about financials, people tend to only think about dollars, but our time is money. And it just happens to be spent on our calendar. Yeah, right. You don't get it back either. You can make more money, but you don't make more time. And so that is also that part of Metrique now. And what's coming, is to continue to bridge the gap between the day to day tactical management of a firm, and the overall strategic plan of a firm, it's kind of showing these visual KPIs or key performance indicators. And if we were to just break it down into layman's terms, what are you trying to hit what goal like just a number, that's why we're called metric solutions. The whole reason there is Metrique is metric and French, we're just in a metric as a measurement. We're measurement solutions. If you really want to boil it down, what are you trying to measure? Here's a solution for that, to help you run your firm with confidence. Here's what people are asking me all the time. I don't know when to hire, I don't know if I can afford to hire, I don't know what the numbers look like to hire. Well, while we may not, at this point, have a measurement for hiring, we can certainly build it into a budget and manage the budget and see when we have the money to be able to do the things that we say that we want to do. And so there is a way to work out what does that mean, strategically for my firm for me to do that? What is it that I need to bring in an income to be able to cover that? And here's the budget that supports that. Now, let me manage to that.

Jack Tompkins  13:19

Right. Right. And it's a really good point, too, because specifically, like when to hire, or when to say yes to a new big project or something like that. It becomes this gut instinct decision, or it starts off as a gut instinct decision of like, Yeah, I think, you know, I feel like we've got a lot in the pipeline, we should probably bring somebody on. And it transforms with intrigue to, yeah, we should hire them in one month, because we have another project starting and we know is going to take this many hours, or at least we think it's going to take this many hours, which is which we can see. Right. And it's that is when our capacity is at its highest. And we don't have the staff for it. And so it becomes this, huh, I think I should do it to get the numbers back and get up again, that confidence that we talked about in the last episode, or one of the previous ones, that confidence of the data is backing you up, it makes all the difference.

Michele  14:12

The other thing that I think is also interesting is in a project management system, the majority of them I'm going to speak for the majority, they give you some data that I would say is on the very top of the income statement. In other words, if you use them to run revenue through right, which many of them you can purchase through, like you can send a client, here's a list of everything for your home, the client can hit pay and pay through that project management system. And then that project management system either sends that information to their financial system of QuickBooks, if it keeps it internally, it might there are one or two that do that. The majority of them have some type of a link to QuickBooks or an API or some people are manually entering the data over there. And perhaps they're keeping detail in one place and, you know, they're keeping more of a summary level somewhere else. But the challenge with the majority of the project management systems is they do not show the expenses of the company. They don't show anything below gross profit. So because they're only taking in income, they're not paying out business expenses, the most that you could get from them is, here is what's come in, here's potentially what's promised if you're running your estimates or whatever. And you are proposals, here's what's been paid. And here's the gross profit in there, if you put in all the details to show that as opposed to just the, the amount, right? So again, based on how much data but that shows you nothing, majority of them don't show you anything for the but they're not meant to let me I don't want to say it as if they're not doing their job. They're not meant to that's not what they were created to do. And they're not showing you the bottom, like where you paid for water delivery in your firm. And laughing because somebody just called to ask if what my water delivery service was? Yeah, I don't think it's called going to the kitchen and getting it out of the fridge. Yeah, that's my water delivery. But it doesn't show all of those day to day activities of running the firm, not meant to doesn't show it again, a couple of them do. So what that does is it gives you a very limited picture, in general of the top half of your income statement. But it doesn't show you everything. That's why a Metrique is so important. Because if you go from and some of them have some beautiful visual representations in the project management of different things, but it's not the whole company. It's not the entire picture. It's a piece of the picture. And so totally awesome to look at. It just doesn't tell you everything. And so what I hear a lot, especially in the design community is a data all this information in my project management system, I've got this information in my financial management system. I don't know how to make them work together. I don't understand the gap between what's here and what's here to understand what to do and how to use it. And that's what retreat comes in and does.

Jack Tompkins  17:15

Right, exactly. And I apologize, there's some neighborhood dogs in the background, if you can hear that. That's awesome. But you're exactly right, though, it's taking something that is intentionally, let's focus on the top. And let's focus on the how to and the operations in the day to day and showing you the rest of the picture. Right. It's kind of Alright, great we filled in, if you're like doing a paint by numbers kind of thing, fill in the first 50. And now Metrique can do the other half of it. Right, because a halfway done picture. You can kind of see what it's going for. But you literally get the full picture with Metrique.

Michele  17:52

And you can see where there's a difference or a discrepancy between the two. Because we're going to be at least in this first version we have we're pulling from the financial software. And so because we're going to be pulling from a QuickBooks right online, or desktop or whatever, you're going to be able to look at that. And now compare it back to your project management system. So you're going to start visually seeing things that will help you understand if you will, in some ways visual, as opposed to interpreting numbers to visual, right.

Jack Tompkins  18:21

Yeah. Which is such an easier comparison. I mean, because looking at like, if you're looking at one number, and it's 25%, it's great. You can compare 25% to 30%. When you have 14 different numbers or 14 different percentages, and you're comparing them to a different 14 set of numbers, no way better to picture, do in 30 seconds. It's easy.

Michele  18:41

You know, that was one of the things in one of my prior podcasts that I did. I think that I think it's coming out. It came out in January. And it was about when we do measure what matters it's about having a way to measure it that is consistent. And I used an example of in my grandmother's home, she had a piece of paneling in the kitchen, and we all used to walk up to that pan lay we'd put our little feet back to the side. We didn't have to take off your shoes, that was the rule. And they would take like a pen or pencil flat on your head and they'd make a mark on the wall. And they'd write your name, your age and the date. And Jack this was all the way back. My granddaddy died when I was seven years old and he is measured on that panel. My uncle's my aunts, my sister, my kids are measured on that panel. And when my grandmother can no longer live there and she moved out and sold the house. We took the panel out my sweet brother in law who is contractor he went out and found a piece of paneling from like the 1950s or 60s or whatever and replaced it in there when we sold the house over the wasn't a gap. But we save that panel and I say that because we all measured to the same panel. The same way you have to take off your shoes couldn't count the fact if you had big hair like I did in the 80s, they would always get mad, I'd be like, go at the top of my hair, and they'd smash it down to the top of my head. Just saying it, we use the same way of looking at our data in air quotes, right of our measurements. So that when we had a comparison, we were comparing on one panel to one thing, and that's what Metrique does, is it gives you one way to measure and then other things are looking at it. So you're comparing the data all the same way.

Jack Tompkins  20:28

Yeah, that's a really cool story. Number one, it's a great comparison and sort of analogy to Metrique as well, much like the football analogy, it's you kind of get to see where you're ranked over time. And you'll get into a whole discussion about historical data right from your dad, to your son and everything in between and who stacks up where and, and how are they doing it versus that and maybe

Michele  20:53

My grandfather was like, six foot four. And so we're all trying to see who can get up there.

Jack Tompkins  20:58

He's the aggressive budget. Yeah,

Michele  20:59

my cousin is six foot five. We're like you totally get those genes. I'm five foot three. I totally did not. Yeah, but it is and it's cool. It's and it's so special that we have it in my mom's house. And so we're at then, you know, maybe one day when our grandkids will stand up for that panel and measure them. That'd be kind of cool. That'd be awesome. But when we're thinking about Metrique and we're looking at a couple things we haven't even talked about, you mentioned it kind of briefly, but even just measuring billable hours, because that time is money. The fact that Metrique gives you the ability to say not only do I want to budget for the year, I just love this like this just gives me goosebumps and excitement. Not only do I want to budget my financials for the year, but I'm going to budget time for the year, I'm going to be intentional about how our firm spends our time. So therefore, these positions, if you will are billable at this rate, and this number of hours per month, and of course with overrides here and there as you need them. But now I can start to look at what is even available for us to do how many working client specific working hours do we have in a day and a week? In a month? We now know. So now I can understand what's coming, let's say from a project management system, if you will, how many hours are there that are needed in this project? I now have another way to look at what's even available in my company to know am I over? Am I under just on a quick look of this project? It's going to take me 872 hours and I only have available 100 In that same time period. Okay, we have a problem.

Jack Tompkins  22:46

Right? I'll look at it from a different perspective in the stadium, if you will to keep that analogy running. What actually happened versus what you estimate? Yeah. So did it take 10 hours and you budgeted for 20? That's okay, that your investments probably not gonna be 100%. Right. But next time you get a similar project like that, you now have that to refer back to and you can say, I can make a better estimate, I can plan better, I can take on more projects, all the good things that come from that,

Michele  23:13

even down to the employee level, I thought we had the capacity to work at a 50% billable amount, meaning if they work 40 hours a week, I'm expecting them to build 20 hours a week. And consistently I'm seeing month over month for the last three months, it's fallen off or it's gone up? How can I compare that? Do I need to change that person's percentage up or down to be more realistic of what's really happening at this particular time? Or did I plan for that person to work and I forgot they had vacation. And I didn't change that budget. And so now work that I anticipated us being able to do we didn't do because they're not here. And so being able to go in and modify and keep up with that just gives you yet another planning tool tactically for what to do, if you will, on the field.

Jack Tompkins  24:08

Yeah, it's the one central hub for it too, which is nice, right? Because you can see how that pretty directly impacts your financials, right. And you can see whether it was the bill or percentage, or the amount of hours or the estimate that's coming off of it, you can kind of see it, and how they relate to each other, just on the next sheet or on the next tab, right. And it's all kind of right there. Which again, paints that picture that kind of becomes like the operational headquarters for your business. That becomes as much of a one stop shop as you want.

Michele  24:41

Yeah, you and I had talked about it from you know, and I've talked all the time on the podcast about numbers tell a story, that it's a language financials is a language and people often say I don't speak that language. Well, just like any language, the more you speak it, the more you know it, the more you stay away from it, the more that you're ever moved and have don't have that ability. I took French for three years in high school, I exempted and took a took a class in college but exempted two years of French in college. Now I can read French, but I have more difficulty recalling the words and the tenses, and all of that to speak it fluently. And so I can ask where the bathroom is, I can say, you know, what time is it, I can do color, I can do some very, very small things. hello, goodbye. Thank you all those small niceties. But I could not have a full on conversation with somebody in French. If I had kept speaking French and working in French, I could do that. Well, financial fluency to me is the same way, I become more and more and more and more fluent in numbers. Because I spend a lot of time reading and analyzing and interpreting numbers. If I waited a year before I ever looked at a financial document, it would take me longer to try to figure it out. And I would start to potentially lose that skill set. And how did I do that? Now what was I doing? And I recognize that and I think that's why the fear comes in, in one way around understanding the numbers. It's all black and white. It's on a page. I don't even know what I'm looking at. I don't know why I'm looking at it. I always used to joke with people and I would say, Does your bookkeeper send you your documents each month? They do. Okay, so I said did you understand them and read them and analyze them? Or did you put a check on Yeah, they came in? I just put a check that yeah, they came in. And so when we're looking at financial fluency really being able to speak the language of numbers and speak the language of financials. I think Metrique is like the primer. It is like the coloring book version of understanding those numbers and being able to speak it because it is delivered in that different way into to me, again, not telling anybody don't use your QuickBooks or don't use you know, your accounting software. I'm saying use it. But then let Metrique come and interpret it for you. It's almost like going on our phones where we have like Google interpret, and you can say what does that mean? And Metrique does that for you? I mean, that's just so exciting to me. That's what I wanted to put out into the world, honestly, you know, it's so funny. I was in a book, a collaborative book, and I'm super proud of that. And it's awesome. And people kept asking me, when are you writing your book when you're writing your book when you're writing your book? And I just kept thinking and thinking and thinking and praying and what am I going to write, we're gonna write and all of a sudden, I'm like, I'd rather write Metrique, I'd rather solve the night give somebody another book but give them a tool. So I look at Metrique as my book. I look at it as my offering to the world. I mean, I know it sounds kind of goofy and grandiose, but in my heart, I would rather give you the tool to solve it. Then another set of words to tell you what your problem is.

Jack Tompkins  28:02

Right? And no, that comes across very genuine, I would assume anybody who works with you, that's like the first thing that comes out of them to so are out of that conversation. So I think that comes through. So one, congratulations because an awesome offering to the world. Right and increasing that financial literacy. It is that translator that helps you read an income statement. And it also to your point, the more you look at it, the better you get at financials, the easier it is to understand them, the better you get. And Metrique does both of those makes it easy to understand and encourages you to look at it more regularly. You can be a financial wizard by the end of the year if you're looking at it every month, right? I mean, it is a really really cool product that is so much more helpful than a book objectively I think you made 100% the right call also cuz I probably wouldn't been involved in the book and I'm involved with a trade show.

Michele  28:56

Know it in there. Yeah.

Jack Tompkins  29:01

But I think it is a really, really good way and meet your goal to have being that financial translator and it makes a big difference in people's businesses and all of our clients are business owners so it impacts their lives really positively.

Michele  29:14

I think what spurred me on and all of this and why I see this as a as a partner as a shaking of hands with your project management and the shaking of hands with your financial management is in my coaching practice check I am asked all the time shall we meet with my count it with me? Michele, can you meet with me and my bookkeeper helped me understand what they're looking for. Help me know how to get it, help them understand what you're looking for, for me, help me do these things. And I've got to tell you, there are so many things about I love my clients and there's so many things about them that make me so proud of them. But when they call me or text me or email me and they say Michele, I spoke to my accountant, my bookkeeper. And I asked them questions and I was able to answer their questions and they asked me who are you? Like, how were you? Where did you get this information? And how do you understand this now, they're like, it sounds crazy, but they feel grown up, they feel like they're really owning that aspect. And I just about and bursting with pride when they call me because number one, they don't need me on that call anymore. They now own it. And you know, my tagline on the scarlet thread side is what you own, you can change. And so because they own those numbers, they own that understanding. And it's a muscle that they're building that financial muscle that they're practicing the language, practicing the language, practicing the language, to all of a sudden one day that language is so natural, that they speak it if you've ever spoken to somebody where English is their second language, many of them one of my friends, she's from Peru, and she'll say to me, I think in my native language, and then I have to translate it to English and when I say it, and so when you speak it in English, I sometimes translate it back into my native language. Like they're in their mind doing that, until one day, the words just make sense without having to do the mental translation. And I would say that Metrique is exactly that helping you over time. Just understand it when you see it, instead of having to have that mental translation go on.

Jack Tompkins  31:22

Yeah, It's funny that you mentioned that my sixth grade social studies teacher said you don't know a language until you can think it. That's right. Right. And now once you get in, like completely involved and start using Metrique a lot, you can start thinking in that financial language, and you'll start seeing numbers pop out in your head. And it's kind of cool, because it's literally not a second thought, right? It's just, that's just what's natural.

Michele  31:48

And you start to realize which numbers you need to focus on when I think that is another important point to make, we are going to have a lot of different visuals on that dashboard to help you. And there may be times in your business where you don't look at certain visual indicators, and you look at others or one means more to you than another means you and that's totally okay. And it can change throughout your financial year, what you're looking at, like, for example, in January, I'm not necessarily going to be as tied to my year to date to budget like actuals to budget right in January it Yeah, might look at it just to say am I a portion of the way 10% of the way, where am I but I'm not going to be as freaked out in one month when I'm comparing an actual to a year long budget. But by the time I start getting in September, October, that particular graphic is going to matter so much more to me than it did in January. And that's what I also love about it is it gives you a quick way to look at the screen and decide what's most important at that moment in your business. Look at just that one thing quickly. And if you want to get out, like you don't have to stay there and you don't have to pull out your calculator. And you don't have to ask yourself, because here's what I get all the time. Now, what two numbers do I divide? What do I divide by? What do I multiply by what because it's been so long, I don't remember that. And so this just immediately shows it to you. And you can again that three to five minutes and move on and do something else.

Jack Tompkins  33:23

Yeah, I think you're exactly right. And even looking at it, I was going to say at the halfway point in June, but every quarter or 25% to your goal at the end of q1, if you are great. You could be done for the day and checking your financials, how easy would that be? Right? Everything I'm doing is making sense that I'm hitting my budget, and I'm on track with a big enough sample size, right? Good enough for the day. Yeah,

Michele  33:47

and we have so many other options, rolling three months. I mean, we got all kinds of things. And that I think is important, because it's not just a quarter, based on the calendar. It's not just January, February, March, I'll give you a prime example. When we change our pricing structure some times mid year, right, three months out from that change is what we want to look at is the first quarter of that new strategic financial decision making. And that is hard to do visually, and other software right now. But in this one, we can say we want our quarter to be February, March, April, or I want to look at it from this point to this point and have it visually show me where I am are the changes did it hurt me? Did it help me? How did my strategy decisions impact my financials? And so you can break it down into subsets of the data to look at that way.

Jack Tompkins  34:42

Right. And for the folks who were like kind of like oh, geez, that's a lot of math. Right? What's February, April? I don't know is that part of q1 and q2 Metrique does the math for you. Just like rolling through months and it does the math for you. Think about it how you want to think about it Metrique will probably do the rest.

Michele  34:58

That's right. I love that. I love that. I don't want to keep banging it over the head here. But I do think what is important is when we are all evaluating our tech stack, we're all evaluating. This is the problem I have, here's the solution. One of the things that I think is interesting with a visual representation of financial data and other data, because we're not just sticking on the financials, with regards to money, right? We're looking outside of that, is the idea of how do I plan for what I want to measure because we talked about measure what matters, I think what's cool is sometimes you may not even know what you need to measure. But if you measure and look out what we show you on the dashboard, you're going to be 90% of the way there, if not 100%. So in other words, it actually sometimes shows you a need that you didn't even know you had, it shows you visually an indicator that you didn't even know you needed to track. And that's what I think is so cool.

Jack Tompkins  36:01

You're exactly right. And I use this analogy in a lot of different data instances or examples with business, where it's just start with something sorry, I know I need to track my revenue for this month, boom. Start there, and let the snowball build from there. That's right, because you'll start picking up Ooh, what about this? What about this and your mind will come up with the next questions and answers for you.

Michele  36:25

Right? In my Pricing without Emotion, Understanding your Financials and Master Your Profit are my trademark courses. I have in almost everything that I think it is in all of them. Here's the metrics you need to look at here are the metrics you need to look at. And so in my coaching practice, people okay, now, what do I need to do monthly? Now, what do I need you to quarterly? Now? What do I need you to yearly? Zero in order I need to do a man. And the beautiful thing is the Metrique dashboard does every bit of it for you. So now my answer instead of a long checklist and do this, do this, do this, do this, divide this, look at this, look at this, look at this measure this, you know, this is your indicator, now can just say go look at the dashboard, look at it conservative, look at it aggressive look at it actual, or is not actual accrual of cruel versus cash. Thank you. Gotcha. Brain just went off on a trip there. So look at it both ways. Now you immediately you toggle a button. And when you toggle, you're looking at accrual, you're looking at cash, you're looking at all of these in a moment, just click, click, click click, versus 3,576 and 21 cents divided by Now what number was that? Now? Let me do that. 15 more times. I'm just this one report. It's click click. Yep.

Jack Tompkins  37:43

Done.

Michele  37:44

see so much better than me writing a whole book to tell you what to click?

Jack Tompkins  37:48

Right, exactly. They actually just put the button in front of them.

Michele  37:51

That's it. I'm not saying I'll never write a book, because I think they're awesome. I'm an avid reader. But this was just something that in my mind, let me just show you how to do it instead of telling you how to do it. And that's what books do books tell us what to do and how to do it. But they don't do it for us. And I know with my clients, they are so busy, so busy. They don't need another person telling them what to do, they need another person giving them a tool to do it. And that's why it was so important to me to build Metrique and to build it as quickly and in the way that I did and to make it available so that they can have it even in my coaching. We now don't just coach the owner, we actually provide eight hours of operational support every month, dedicated to every client that I have. And so when we do that, that ops person that we are dedicated to those firms can help them with Metrique. So you know, in other words, they don't even have to do it, they just have to show up and look at the screen and click a few buttons. And they can walk away and go back to doing what they love to do.

Jack Tompkins  38:57

Right. And I know we're probably wrapping up on time pretty soon here. But it's not another thing that you have to do in your week and check the box and blah, blah, blah. It saves you time, it saves you four or five different things that you're already probably doing or think about in some fashion and just puts it all together and boom, there it is you gained time which is very difficult to do by using Metrique.

Michele  39:18

Absolutely. And again, don't throw out all your other software. This is not to throw it out. We're here to shake hands with all the software. And I think that's exciting for me because I have relationships and friendships and partnerships with bookkeepers, with accountants with owners of project management companies. And that's exactly what we're here to do is say, let us just come to the game and help everybody out solve an even bigger problem than any of us do individually. And that that's an exciting place to be.

Jack Tompkins  39:52

It is it's cool. It's exciting to us, honestly, it changed our business.

Michele  39:55

I know I use it for my own business. I'm like That's exactly what I want, what I need what I do get rid of my spreadsheets. I've been using it myself for the last year. So I love it. I love it. Awesome. Well, Jack, thanks for having a conversation about how we can be partners with these other companies in a solution setting for our clients. And again, look forward to talking to you on and off throughout the year about Metrique.

Jack Tompkins  40:22

Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me on. Again, Michele. Always a pleasure.

Michele  40:26

Thank you, Jack once again for joining me in the conversation. We are all just so very excited about the possibilities that Metrique Solutions has to offer. If you want to know what's happening now and what's coming in the future, check out MetriqueSolutions.com and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Metrique Solutions. You can also sign up for our launch information by going to our website. We are choosing to take our financial seriously and to monitor to them visually. Because we all know that profit doesn't happen by accident. Profit is a Choice is proud to be part of the DesignNetwork.org where you can discover more design media reaching creative listeners. Thanks for listening, and stay creative and business minded.