Most owners find out how the month went weeks after it ended, usually from an accountant. The Insights dashboard is the alternative: one screen that answers "how is my business doing right now?" without running a single report — profit for the month, cash in against cash out, who still owes you, where revenue comes from and where it goes, and where you stand on VAT.
It's also the reward for keeping the books current. Every number on it is built from what you've recorded, so the dashboard gets sharper the more of your day-to-day actually lands in stub — and the emptier it looks, the more it's telling you about your record-keeping rather than your business.
What to know before you trust it
- Every figure is a door, not a dead end. Click any number and stub opens the transactions behind it. That makes the dashboard the fastest way in the whole product to find a mis-dated, duplicated or mis-categorised entry — you spot the odd figure and fix the cause in the same click.
- A figure that looks wrong is nearly always uncategorised transactions. Nothing uncategorised reaches your income and expense breakdowns. Clear the backlog and the dashboard usually corrects itself — see When report numbers look wrong.
- It's a highlight reel, not a formal report. Nobody outside the business will accept it. Lenders, investors and accountants want a Profit & Loss and a Balance Sheet, and the tax authority wants the VAT report.
- Monthly profit and cash in/out answer different questions. Profit counts invoices when you send them; cash counts money that actually moved. Seeing a healthy profit next to thin cash isn't a bug — it means money is sitting in unpaid invoices.
- Every tile follows the month selector. The whole dashboard shows the month (or range) picked at the top — so before you worry about a strange figure, check which month you're looking at.
Where to find it
Click Insights in the sidebar — it's also the first screen stub opens when you log in. The arrows at the top step back or forward a month, and clicking the month itself opens longer ranges. Step through two or three months and you're reading a trend rather than a snapshot.
What's on the dashboard
- Profit — what you made after expenses in the period you've picked.
- Sales and Purchases — what you invoiced and what you bought, with the trend.
- Outstanding sales and purchases — raised but not yet settled.
- Cash in and Cash out — money that actually hit your accounts versus money that left them.
- Income and Expenses — the breakdowns, so you can see where revenue comes from and where it goes.
- Invoices and bills — who still owes you and what you owe; each tile shows overdue items when there are any, upcoming ones when there aren't.
- Bank accounts — balances, and anything waiting to be reconciled.
- Sales Tax Summary and Income Tax Summary — where you stand with SARS, plus, on a premium plan, a prompt when a return is due.
Open the detail behind a number
Click any figure and stub opens the transactions that make it up — fix anything mis-dated, mis-categorised or entered twice while you're there.
Which report do I actually need?
The dashboard is the summary; the full reports open from it when you need the detail.
- Checking profitability → Profit & Loss
- Checking whether you can afford something → Cash Flow
- Prepping for tax → VAT / Sales Tax plus Profit & Loss
- Working out what's driving sales → Sales report
- Cutting costs → Expenses report
- Snapshot of what the business is worth → Balance Sheet
- Checking the books balance → Trial Balance
Tip: Open Insights for two minutes at the start of each week. The habit is worth more than any single number on it — you catch the mis-categorised entry, the overdue invoice and the cost that crept up while all three are still small.