Dashboards and the Scorecard, explained.
Three screens answer "how is this company doing?" before you open a single report: the company's Overview tab, the Companies list across your whole workspace, and the Scorecard. This guide covers what each figure is, where it comes from, what the colours mean, and how to keep them up to date.
| Month | YTD | TTM | Prior Yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profit & Loss | ||||
| Sales | 412,380 | 3,486,200 | 4,612,900 | 4,343,700 |
| Gross Profit | 170,980 | 1,436,300 | 1,898,400 | 1,771,900 |
| Gross Profit % | 41.5% | 41.2% | 41.2% | 40.8% |
| EBITDA | 41,240 | 324,100 | 442,800 | 395,600 |
| EBITDA % | 10.0% | 9.3% | 9.6% | 9.1% |
The top of the Overview tab once September 2026 is in. EBITDA, Net Profit after Tax % TTM, Net cash flow and Cash and cash equivalents tiles sit in the rows beneath. Home & Garden Retail Co is an example company.
1. The Overview tab
The company's dashboard, built from the latest month.
Open a company and you land on Overview. Every figure on it comes from the same reports as Performance, read at the latest month with actuals.
Before there is data, Overview shows the welcome panel or a note that the sync is still running, and only Overview, Jobs and Settings appear. Getting Started covers that stage. This guide picks up once the first trial balance has landed.
The top row is housekeeping: the Current Status card (section 5), the tasks panel with the company's open jobs (the Workflows guide covers it), and a Sync card for Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent when the company is connected.
At a Glance is a small table of the latest month. Sales, Gross Profit, EBITDA and their margins under Profit & Loss, then Operating, Investing, Financing and Net Cash Flow under Cashflow. The columns are Month, YTD, TTM and Prior Yr, which is the TTM a year earlier. Figures are whole amounts with no currency symbol, and a negative shows in red brackets. View P&L and View Cashflow open the full statements.
The five tiles each give one figure in big type, how it moved against last month and last year, and a chart of its history. Green "Up" and red "Down" simply mean higher or lower. Amounts are shortened in the company's currency: in full under 100,000, then in thousands, such as £443k, and in millions from 10 million.
Drilling in. The chart icon at the top right of a tile opens that line's window, as clicking a line in Performance does. The Net Profit after Tax % TTM tile has no icon.
Two of the five tiles. The dashed line is the adopted budget, picked in the dropdown at the top of the tile.
What each tile shows
| Tile | The figure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Trailing twelve months. Its movements show as percentages. | £4,613k |
| EBITDA | Trailing twelve months, always standard EBITDA. | £443k |
| Net Profit after Tax % TTM | Net profit after tax as a share of sales over twelve months. Movements are percentage points. | 6.8% |
| Net cash flow | Trailing twelve months. | £153k |
| Cash and cash equivalents | The balance at the end of the month. | £286k |
The forecast dropdown. Each tile's chart can carry a dashed Forecast line. The dropdown offers Rolling 12 Months, plus Budget and Revised Forecast once one of each is adopted with the star. It starts on Revised Forecast if there is one, then Budget. Change it on one tile and every tile follows. The big figure is always the actual.
Where the charts start. From the Start Date last picked in a line's window or a scorecard metric's window. Actuly remembers it for the company and says "Start date preference saved".
2. The Companies list
Every company, one row each, ready to compare.
The Companies page is where Actuly opens. Each row condenses a company's Overview and Scorecard so you can see who needs attention first.
Under each name sit its industry and its status, such as "Retail • Synced to September 2026". A blue pill counts its open jobs ("1 task"), and an amber Unmatched accounts pill means some accounts are not mapped to a reporting line yet.
Sales (TTM) and Sales Growth (YoY) each come with a small chart of the last twelve months. EBITDA is the trailing twelve months. Amounts are shortened: £443k, £4.6m. On a narrow screen the two sales columns are hidden.
Performance and Stability are the Scorecard's six areas as coloured boxes. Hover over one for its name: Profitability, Growth and Efficiency, then Liquidity, Gearing and Cashflow. A dash means the company has no scorecard yet.
Search companies... matches a name or an industry. The list shows 25 companies a page, with Previous and Next beneath it. Add Company is in the menu at the top right.
Companies
Search companies...Sort by:Company Name3 companiesSorted by Company Name. Home & Garden Retail Co's boxes match its Scorecard in section 3. Copperleaf and Harbour Street are example companies too.
Sorting the list
Pick a field in Sort by:, and use the arrow beside it to flip the order.
| Sort by | First pick puts at the top |
|---|---|
| Company Name, Industry, Status | A to Z |
| Sales, Sales Growth, EBITDA | The highest. Companies with no figure go last. |
| Active Jobs | The most open jobs |
| Performance, Financial Stability | Green, then amber, then red, by the section's overall colour |
| Alerts | Companies with alarms, then warnings |
When the row changes. The figures and boxes are saved each time the company's reports are rebuilt: after a sync, a Refresh Report, a save of Choose report lines or a refresh step in a job (section 5). Changing a company's currency is a special case: the list keeps the old symbol against its figures until the next refresh.
Alerts counts alarms and warnings only where alert monitoring is switched on for your workspace. Otherwise the column shows a dash.
3. The Scorecard
Twelve ratios, rated against the company's industry.
The Scorecard tab asks two questions: is the business performing, and is it financially stable? It answers each with three areas, two ratios in each.
Performance covers Profitability, Growth and Efficiency. Financial Stability covers Liquidity, Gearing and Cash Flow. Each area is a card with a gauge and its two ratios. Hover over an area's name for a sentence on what it measures.
The latest month. The ratios are worked out from the latest month in the company's reports, so the Scorecard moves on whenever new actuals arrive. It always reads actuals, never a forecast.
Four labels. Each area and section reads Good in green, Moderate in amber or Concern in red, or N/A in grey when none of its ratios could be rated. A ratio is grey when it could not be worked out, such as interest cover for a company with no interest, or when there is no industry range for it. A ratio's figure reads N/A when its value is missing or exactly zero.
The ranges belong to the industry. Actuly holds a low and a high mark for each ratio, per industry, and uses the company's Industry from its company details (Getting Started). Choose the industry that fits, because a 2.15x asset turnover is strong for one sector and weak for another.
September 2026 for a retailer. The Financial Stability cards' gauges are left out here to save space.
How the colours add up
- Each ratio against its range. Below the low mark is red, between the marks amber, above the high mark green. For a ratio where lower is better, such as Debt to Equity or the Cash Conversion Cycle, it runs the other way.
- Each area takes its worse ratio. One amber ratio makes Profitability Moderate, even beside a green one. A grey ratio is left out.
- Each section averages its areas. Red counts 1, amber 2, green 3. An average under 1.5 is Concern, under 2.5 Moderate, and anything higher Good.
So Home & Garden Retail Co's Performance is Moderate: (2 + 3 + 1) / 3 = 2.0. Its Financial Stability is Good: (3 + 3 + 2) / 3 = 2.7, even with Cash Flow amber.
| Area | Ratios | Better when |
|---|---|---|
| Profitability | Return on Capital Employed, EBITDA % | Higher |
| Growth | Sales Growth, Operating Leverage | Higher |
| Efficiency | Assets Turnover; Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) | Higher; lower for CCC |
| Liquidity | Current Ratio, Operating Cash Flow Coverage | Higher |
| Gearing | Debt to Equity Ratio; Interest Cover | Lower for Debt to Equity; higher for cover |
| Cash Flow | Operating Cash Flow Margin, Free Cash Flow to Debt Ratio | Higher |
4. Commentary
Click a ratio for the story behind its colour.
Any coloured ratio on the Scorecard opens a window that explains it. For the board pack, the Scorecard block in Documents adds AI commentary.
The metric window. The header reads "Home & Garden Retail Co > Free Cash Flow to Debt Ratio", with Start Date: and Forecast: dropdowns. Beneath, the ratio's name in its colour, a description of the ratio, and What's happening?. Beside them sit the figure, how it moved against last month and last year, and a chart. Lower down come Why it matters? and What to do next.
Where that text comes from. It is written guidance for the company's industry, the ratio and the colour it scored, so every amber Free Cash Flow to Debt Ratio in retail reads the same. It explains what the colour usually means and where to look. It is not written about this company's numbers. Grey ratios do not open.
AI commentary in documents. Add a Scorecard block to a document and it shows the scorecard for the document's month. Tick Commentary, choose a Position (Above scorecard or Below scorecard) and press Generate. The AI writes up to 80 words in plain UK English from the colours, the ratios and how they moved, with the company's industry in mind.
Home & Garden Retail Co > Free Cash Flow to Debt Ratio
What's happening?
What to do next
An amber ratio's window. The guidance text here is illustrative; the real text depends on the industry. "Why it matters?" sits below the description, out of this excerpt.
Approving scorecard commentary
- Generated commentary lands marked as AI generated, with an Approve button. Read it, edit it in the box if you want, then approve.
- Press Generate again to replace it with a fresh draft. Anything you typed is replaced too.
- Download PDF asks you to approve every pending AI text first. Download Draft does not.
- The block follows the document's report date, so changing the date moves the scorecard with it. Generate again so the words match.
5. Keeping it fresh
New actuals in, and every dashboard follows.
The Overview, the Scorecard and the Companies list are all saved from the company's reports. Rebuild the reports and all three move on together.
Four things rebuild the reports. A sync from the accounting system. Refresh Report in the Report Options menu in Performance. Saving Choose report lines in Performance. The refresh step in a job, such as the Monthly Close and Sync (Cloud) job, which syncs, refreshes and asks you to review the month (Workflows guide). Each rebuild re-scores the Scorecard, updates the company's row on the Companies list, and sets its status to the month the data now runs to.
Syncing from the Overview. The Sync card pulls new figures without waiting for the job. Choose Last Month, Last 3 Months, Last 6 Months or All Time, then Sync now. The status turns orange, such as "Syncing Xero", and the page shows "Syncing your data. This page will update automatically when it's done." Advanced Sync opens the full connection wizard. Demo companies have no Sync card.
Unmapped accounts. On a connected company, the Current Status card counts accounts with no reporting line, such as "2 unmapped accounts", with a Fix button. Fix opens the connection wizard at the accounts that need a reporting line.
A sync in progress. The page checks every ten seconds and redraws the dashboard when it finishes.
| Status reads | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Synced to September 2026 | The reports were rebuilt and run to September. |
| Syncing Xero | A sync is running. QuickBooks and FreeAgent read the same way. |
| Sync Failed | The last sync did not finish. Check the job's sync task, or sync again. |
When a figure looks stale
- Read the status first. "Synced to September 2026" says which month the data runs to.
- Last month missing? It probably has not been synced yet. Sync Last Month, or open the company's Monthly Close and Sync (Cloud) job.
- Changed a mapping or a calculation? Use Refresh Report in Performance so the Scorecard and the Companies list pick it up.
- Forecast line missing from a tile? Budget and Revised Forecast appear only once a version is adopted with the star (Forecasting guide).
In short
The Companies list says where to look. The Overview and Scorecard say why.
- The Overview reads the latest month: At a Glance, five tiles with movements and charts, and the Scorecard.
- EBITDA on the tiles and the Companies list is always standard EBITDA. At a Glance follows an EBITDA-variant profit measure.
- The Scorecard rates twelve ratios against the company's industry. An area takes its worse ratio; a section averages its areas.
- Click a coloured ratio for written guidance. AI commentary on the scorecard is a Scorecard block in Documents, approved before it goes out.
- A sync, Refresh Report, saving Choose report lines or a job's refresh step rebuilds the reports, and every dashboard follows.
More guides
Keep going
Performance
Financial History, Performance vs Plan, and building Report Formats.
Dimensions
Where dimensions come from, Standard and Split, the Dimensions view, forecasting by dimension.
Forecasting
Versions, the three ways a line gets its numbers, special lines, and why everything balances.
Documents
Getting the data right, blocks, your own calculations, AI text and the AI Assistant, saving, locking and exporting.
Workflows
Schedules, jobs and tasks, assignments and notifications, and where to see everything.
Non-Financial Indicators
Setting them up, entering them each month, reading, forecasting and reporting them.
All help guides
Every guide, grouped by what you are doing.
Still stuck? Contact support and we will get back to you.