Financial Analyst

Glossary — every heading of this book, explained

The same words your own Book prints. Each heading answers three questions: what it is, how it is calculated and where the data comes from. This page needs no account — send it to anyone you sent the file to.

57 headings, in the language you are reading.

The sheets of the Book

Dashboard

What it is: The first screen of the Book: the closed month's key figures, the plan beside them, the checks and the scenario switch.
How it is calculated: Every figure is a formula over the other sheets — nothing on this tab is calculated a second time.
Where it comes from: Closed months come from your accounting system; the forecast months from the model in this same file.

How to use this

What it is: The instructions for this book: what the colours mean, what a method is and what travels back to Ataski.
How it is calculated: Fixed text — this tab calculates nothing.
Where it comes from: Written by Ataski; the same in every copy of the book.

Model

What it is: The plan line by line and month by month — one row for each line of your own chart of accounts.
How it is calculated: Each row is one formula, built from the method chosen in its «Method» cell out of the engine's own arithmetic.
Where it comes from: The lines and their history come from your books; the method and the blue inputs are yours.

Cash

What it is: Two statements about cash: the closed months as the books report them, and the forecast months Ataski computes.
How it is calculated: A forecast month is a bridge — profit, then working capital, then investment, then financing, then the closing balance.
Where it comes from: Closed months from the cash statement of your accounting system; the forecast from this book's own plan.

Scenarios

What it is: Three versions of one plan — base, downside and upside — and the named assumptions each of them uses.
How it is calculated: One blue cell per scenario; the «In use» column is what the whole book reads, and the switch on the dashboard chooses it.
Where it comes from: Your own numbers. Where you fill one cell, all three scenarios use it.

Balance sheet

What it is: Assets and liabilities by month: the closed months as reported, the forecast months rolled forward.
How it is calculated: The opening snapshot plus the movements of the plan — receivables, inventory, payables, loans and fixed assets.
Where it comes from: Balance snapshots from your accounting system; the days of turnover are your own inputs on «Scenarios».

Actuals

What it is: The closed months exactly as your books report them — grey, and editable nowhere in this file.
How it is calculated: Nothing is calculated here: the numbers are carried over as received, so the whole book has one place to check.
Where it comes from: Your accounting system, or the profit-and-loss file you uploaded when nothing is connected.

Metrics

What it is: The metrics of this book: margins, runway, days of turnover and headcount.
How it is calculated: Every row is a formula over the other sheets — this tab holds no figure of its own.
Where it comes from: Derived; the numbers underneath come from «Actuals» and «Model».

Breakdown · lines

What it is: The closed month broken down by the lines of your own chart of accounts, largest first.
How it is calculated: The postings of the month summed per line, with each line's share of the total beside it.
Where it comes from: The analytics your accounting system publishes; where it publishes none, the tab says so instead of printing zeros.

Breakdown · segments

What it is: The same closed month cut by your own segments — departments, projects or directions.
How it is calculated: The postings of the month summed per segment value, largest first.
Where it comes from: The segment dimension of your accounting system.

Breakdown · accounts

What it is: The same closed month by ledger account.
How it is calculated: The postings of the month summed per account number and name.
Where it comes from: The chart of accounts of your accounting system.

Breakdown · counterparties

What it is: Who the money came from and who it went to in the closed month.
How it is calculated: The postings of the month summed per counterparty, largest first.
Where it comes from: The counterparty directory of your accounting system.

Month close

What it is: The month-close checklist: what is done, what is left and what it is waiting on.
How it is calculated: Each step is a rule checked against this book's own data, not a box somebody ticked.
Where it comes from: The state of your books, plus the steps this workspace has marked done.

Group

What it is: The workspace's other companies side by side: their profit and loss, their balance sheet and their plan in one currency, and what was removed inside the group.
How it is calculated: Each company is a block of columns — its own currency where it differs, and the translation. «Sum» is a formula over the blocks and «Group» = «Sum» − «Eliminations»; only what both books confirm is removed.
Where it comes from: The closed months and balance sheets of the workspace's companies, the period rates and your own counterparty matching rules — the same ones the «Group» page reads.

Checks

What it is: The arithmetic checks: what has to agree inside this book, and whether it does.
How it is calculated: Each row compares two cells of the book within a stated tolerance; a row that fails turns red.
Where it comes from: The book itself — a check reads no other source, so it still works offline.

Changes

What it is: Every blue cell of this book, with the value it was downloaded with and the value it holds now.
How it is calculated: «Was» is the downloaded value, «Now» reads the live cell; a number typed over a formula travels as an edit to that one month.
Where it comes from: This file. The rows here are exactly what the next sync sends back to Ataski.

Log

What it is: What has happened to this book: syncs, uploads and the edits made in Ataski.
How it is calculated: Copied from this workspace's activity log; building or rebuilding the book changes nothing and is not listed.
Where it comes from: The Ataski audit log of this workspace.

Reference

What it is: Where the dropdowns point, and what every heading of this book means.
How it is calculated: Fixed lists — methods, units, sections, scenarios — plus the glossary and the steps below them.
Where it comes from: From Ataski, except the list of lines, which is your own book's.

Seasonality

What it is: Twelve coefficients for each line that is calculated by the seasonal method.
How it is calculated: The twelve must average exactly one, which «Checks» verifies; «Model» reads the row the scenario switch points at.
Where it comes from: Yours. The first build proposes them from your own history, and after that they are yours to type.

The rows of the statement

Gross profit

What it is: What is left of revenue after the direct cost of delivering it.
How it is calculated: The revenue section total minus the cost-of-sales section total, in the same column.
Where it comes from: Calculated in the sheet, from the sections above it.

EBITDA · operating result before depreciation

What it is: What the business earns from its operations, before depreciation, interest and tax.
How it is calculated: Gross profit minus the total of every operating-expense section.
Where it comes from: Calculated in the sheet, from the rows above it.

Operating result

What it is: The operating result as the books state it: revenue less cost of sales and every operating expense, depreciation included.
How it is calculated: EBITDA minus depreciation and amortisation.
Where it comes from: Calculated in the sheet; depreciation comes from the fixed-asset schedule of the plan.

Profit before tax

What it is: Profit before income tax.
How it is calculated: Operating profit after depreciation, minus interest, plus or minus other income and expense.
Where it comes from: Calculated in the sheet; interest comes from the loan schedule of the plan.

Net profit

What it is: What is left for the owners after every cost, interest and tax.
How it is calculated: Profit before tax minus income tax.
Where it comes from: Calculated in the sheet; the tax comes from the tax calendar of the plan.

The cards in the cockpit

Revenue

What it is: What the company sold in the month, before any cost.
How it is calculated: The revenue lines of the closed month, summed.
Where it comes from: The profit-and-loss statement of your accounting system.

Cost of sales

What it is: The direct cost of what was sold — what it took to deliver the revenue.
How it is calculated: The cost-of-sales lines of the closed month, summed.
Where it comes from: The profit-and-loss statement of your accounting system.

Gross profit

What it is: Revenue minus the direct cost of delivering it.
How it is calculated: Revenue of the closed month minus its cost of sales.
Where it comes from: Both figures come from the closed month of your books.

Gross margin

What it is: Gross profit as a share of revenue.
How it is calculated: Gross profit divided by the revenue of the same month.
Where it comes from: Both figures come from the closed month of your books.

Operating expenses

What it is: What it costs to run the company, beyond the direct cost of sales.
How it is calculated: The operating-expense lines of the closed month, summed.
Where it comes from: The profit-and-loss statement of your accounting system.

Operating result

What it is: What operations earned, before depreciation, interest and tax.
How it is calculated: Gross profit of the month minus its operating expenses.
Where it comes from: The profit-and-loss statement of your accounting system.

Operating margin

What it is: The operating result as a share of revenue.
How it is calculated: The operating result divided by the revenue of the same month.
Where it comes from: The profit-and-loss statement of your accounting system.

Net profit

What it is: What is left after every cost, interest and tax.
How it is calculated: The bottom line of the closed month's profit-and-loss statement.
Where it comes from: The profit-and-loss statement of your accounting system.

Cash in the bank

What it is: The money actually in the accounts at the end of the month.
How it is calculated: The closing balance of the latest closed month, across the cash and bank accounts.
Where it comes from: The balance your accounting system reports, or the balance you entered yourself.

Runway

What it is: How long the money lasts at the current rate of spending.
How it is calculated: Cash divided by the average net monthly burn, printed in weeks.
Where it comes from: Cash from your books; the burn from the closed months.

Monthly cash burn

What it is: How much cash the company spends, net, in a month.
How it is calculated: Cash out minus cash in over the closed month.
Where it comes from: The cash statement of your accounting system.

Days sales outstanding

What it is: How long customers take to pay you, on average.
How it is calculated: Receivables divided by revenue, times the days in the period.
Where it comes from: Balance-sheet snapshots and the profit-and-loss statement of your accounting system.

Days payables outstanding

What it is: How long you take to pay your suppliers.
How it is calculated: Payables divided by cost of sales, times the days in the period.
Where it comes from: Balance-sheet snapshots and the profit-and-loss statement of your accounting system.

Days inventory outstanding

What it is: How long stock sits before it is sold.
How it is calculated: Inventory divided by cost of sales, times the days in the period.
Where it comes from: Balance-sheet snapshots and the profit-and-loss statement of your accounting system.

People on payroll

What it is: How many people are on the payroll right now.
How it is calculated: The rows of the headcount register that are active in the current month.
Where it comes from: The headcount register — imported from payroll or filled in by hand.

Payroll per month

What it is: What the payroll costs in a month, taxes included.
How it is calculated: The salaries and payroll taxes of the active headcount rows.
Where it comes from: The headcount register of this workspace.

Cost of open seats

What it is: What the roles you have not filled yet will cost.
How it is calculated: The planned monthly salary of every seat marked open.
Where it comes from: The headcount register of this workspace.

Open seats

What it is: How many roles are open and unfilled.
How it is calculated: The count of headcount rows marked open.
Where it comes from: The headcount register of this workspace.

Forecast error

What it is: How far the forecast missed the actual result.
How it is calculated: The average absolute difference between forecast and actual, as a share of the actual.
Where it comes from: The forecast versions recorded before the month closed, against the closed month itself.

Weeks reconciled

What it is: How many weeks of the cash forecast have been checked against what really happened.
How it is calculated: The count of forecast weeks paired with an actual week.
Where it comes from: The cash forecast of this book and the bank movements of your accounting system.

Department

What it is: One department's budget in the round now running.
How it is calculated: The total of the lines this department submitted in its own book.
Where it comes from: The budget its owner sent; empty until they send it.

Forecast methods

Units × rate

What it is: A line that comes down to two numbers: how many units or hours you expect, and what one of them costs.
How it is calculated: Each month the volume is multiplied by the rate, while the volume itself grows by the monthly percent you set.
Where it comes from: Volume, rate and growth all sit in the blue cells of this line; nothing here is pulled in from anywhere else.

Price × quantity

What it is: The same arithmetic seen from the sales side: a price per item and the number of items you expect to sell.
How it is calculated: Quantity times price makes the month, and the quantity itself moves by the growth percent you have entered.
Where it comes from: Price, quantity and growth are yours to type into the blue cells of this line — the plan takes them as given.

% of revenue

What it is: For costs that simply follow sales: commission, payment fees, a marketing budget held at a share of turnover.
How it is calculated: The plan's own revenue for that month is taken, and your percentage of it becomes the value of the line.
Where it comes from: Revenue comes from the plan itself; while there is none forecast, the line honestly stays at zero instead of guessing.

% of another line

What it is: A line pegged to a neighbour: support as a share of payroll, packaging as a share of the goods you sell.
How it is calculated: You pick the line to follow and a percent; each month that line's value is multiplied by the percent you chose.
Where it comes from: The number comes from another line of this same plan, and stays at zero for as long as that line is empty.

Monthly amount

What it is: The plainest option there is: one amount that repeats every month — rent, a subscription, a fixed retainer.
How it is calculated: Whatever you type stands in every month exactly as typed: no growth curve, no seasonal swing, no quiet recalculation.
Where it comes from: The amount lives in the blue cell of this line and changes only at the moment you rewrite it yourself.

Last month × growth %

What it is: For a line that keeps climbing at a steady clip: take where it ended and let it compound month after month.
How it is calculated: In the first month the base rises by your percent, and after that the same percent lands on the result before it.
Where it comes from: The base is this line's last closed month in your books, unless you type a starting figure of your own over it.

Seasonal profile

What it is: For a business with a high season and a dead one: December heavy, August thin, the same shape every year.
How it is calculated: A steady level is multiplied by the coefficient of each calendar month, so a peak never becomes the new normal.
Where it comes from: You set the twelve coefficients; the level is read off this line's last closed month in your books unless you type one.

Employees × rate

What it is: The payroll shape of a line: how many people stand behind it and what one of them costs you per month.
How it is calculated: Headcount times the cost per person makes each month, and the headcount itself can rise by a monthly percent.
Where it comes from: The figures sit in your blue cells, and where the plan keeps a hiring register the headcount is taken from there.

Revenue from the CRM pipeline

What it is: Revenue taken from the deals sitting in your CRM — offered on revenue lines only, since a pipeline knows nothing about costs.
How it is calculated: Deal amounts fall into the months their deals are expected to close in, and that sum is the value of the month.
Where it comes from: It is read from the CRM you connected, whichever one you use, and each read records the date, the system and how many records came back.

Payroll from the HR system

What it is: Payroll taken from the HR system you already run — offered on payroll lines, where the staff list is the honest source.
How it is calculated: The salaries and contributions recorded against each month are added up, and that total stands as the month's figure.
Where it comes from: It is read from your connected HR system, and every read keeps the date, the system asked and the number of records.

MRR from billing

What it is: Recurring revenue as your billing system sees it — Stripe, Chargebee, Recurly or Paddle: subscriptions that bill month after month, on revenue lines only.
How it is calculated: Active subscriptions are brought to a monthly amount and added up, and that total is the recurring revenue of the month.
Where it comes from: Everything comes from ONE connected system: Stripe when it has subscriptions, otherwise the first connected of Chargebee, Recurly, Paddle. Until one is connected the method is shown but cannot be chosen.

Revenue from store orders

What it is: Revenue counted from the orders your online store actually takes, rather than from an estimate you type in.
How it is calculated: Order totals are grouped by the month the order was placed in, and the month's total becomes the value of the line.
Where it comes from: Orders come from the store platform you connected, whichever one you sell on, and only revenue lines may use it.

Working the Book

Step by step

Words, not pictures: this book is opened in three places that look nothing alike — the downloaded file, the Google Sheets panel and the Excel panel — so every step names a cell and a colour instead.

1

Start on «Dashboard»: the closed month, the plan beside it and the checks. The scenario switch is cell C3, and it moves the whole book.
2

Blue cells are yours — type in them. Grey cells came from your accounting system and cannot be edited; everything else calculates itself.
3

On «Model», choose how a line is calculated in the «Method» column. The words come from the list at the top of this sheet, and the row's formula changes with your choice.
4

Fill in what that method needs in the blue cells beside it: the amount, the growth per month, the growth per year, or the line it is a percentage of.
5

A seasonal line keeps its twelve coefficients on «Seasonality». They have to average exactly one — «Checks» turns red if they do not.
6

The three scenarios live on «Scenarios». The «In effect» column is the one the whole book reads, and the switch on «Dashboard» decides which scenario fills it.
7

Before you send anything, read «Changes»: every blue cell you touched is a row there, with the value you received and the value you typed.
8

Send it back: in Google Sheets and in Excel press Sync in the Ataski panel; with the downloaded file, upload it on the Plan page. «Log» records what arrived.