RunSmart

Spotlight Reporting

A Spotlight Reporting Alternative for QuickBooks Advisory Firms

Spotlight Reporting helps firms create visual reports, dashboards, forecasts, and consolidated financial views. RunSmart helps firms turn QuickBooks month-end close work into forward-looking advisory insights, risk alerts, and client-ready reports.

How Spotlight Reporting and RunSmart Are Fundamentally Different

The Core Question:

Do you primarily need polished reporting, dashboards, and consolidated financial presentation, or a more automated way to turn completed QuickBooks close work into forward-looking advisory insights? That distinction explains most of the differences between Spotlight Reporting and RunSmart.

Who Each Platform Is Built For

Each platform is designed for a different type of user and workflow. Understanding who it is built for is often the fastest way to determine which one fits your needs.

When Spotlight Reporting Is the Better Fit

Spotlight Reporting is best suited for users who:

Need polished management reports, dashboards, and financial visualizations

Prepare reports for boards, investors, lenders, or stakeholders

Work with consolidated reporting across multiple entities

Want flexible report templates, charts, and visual financial storytelling

Need reporting, forecasting, budgeting, and dashboards in a presentation-focused workflow

Spotlight Reporting excels at:

Visual financial reporting

Dashboards and KPI presentation

Consolidated reporting

Forecasting and budgeting reports

Presentation-ready financial storytelling

If your primary goal is to create polished reports, dashboards, forecasts, and consolidated views for stakeholders, Spotlight Reporting may be the better fit.

When RunSmart Is the Better Fit

RunSmart is better suited for users who:

Serve QuickBooks clients and want to turn month-end close into advisory insights

Need automated forecasts, health scores, risk alerts, budgets, and client-ready reports

Want to quickly identify which clients need attention after close

Help clients evaluate decisions around hiring, spending, financing, pricing, payroll, and growth

Want to reduce manual spreadsheet work around forecasting, planning, reporting, and monthly review

RunSmart emphasizes:

QuickBooks-based advisory forecasting

Automated financial health insights

Client risk alerts and financial signals

Operational planning and decision modeling

Client-ready reports after month-end close

If your primary goal is to create a repeatable advisory workflow around QuickBooks clients, RunSmart is typically the better fit.

Key Difference: Reporting Presentation vs Advisory Workflow

Spotlight Reporting and RunSmart both help users get more value from financial data, but they support different parts of the advisory process.

Spotlight Reporting

Spotlight Reporting’s Orientation

“How should financial performance be presented?”

“What do the reports, dashboards, KPIs, and forecasts show?”

“How do entities, periods, or business units compare?”

“How can we create a polished financial report for stakeholders?”

RunSmart

RunSmart’s Orientation

“Which QuickBooks clients need attention after close?”

“What financial risks or signals are starting to emerge?”

“How may hiring, spending, financing, pricing, or growth decisions impact future cash flow and profitability?”

“What should we discuss with the client next?”

Both platforms support advisory work, but they are designed around different workflows.

Operational Planning Is Where the Tools Diverge Most

Understanding performance is important, but many client conversations quickly become forward-looking. Firms are often asked whether a client can afford to hire, increase spending, take on debt, pursue growth, or absorb margin pressure. This is where the difference between reporting-led advisory and decision-led planning becomes more apparent.

Spotlight Reporting

Spotlight Reporting Approach — Create Visual Reports and Forecasts

Create polished financial reports, dashboards, and visual presentations

Build forecasts and budgets as part of a reporting workflow

Consolidate and compare performance across companies or groups

Present financial results clearly to clients, boards, lenders, or stakeholders

Strong fit when reporting, dashboards, forecasting, and consolidation are the primary needs

Answers: “How should financial performance be reported and presented?”

RunSmart

RunSmart Approach — Model Decisions Before Clients Commit

Includes planners and forecasting tools for:

Workforce, hiring, and payroll impact

Expenses and spending plans

Loans and debt

Pricing and revenue assumptions

Growth initiatives

Models how those decisions affect:

Cash flow

Profitability

Margins

Financial health over time

This makes RunSmart useful when firms need to help QuickBooks clients understand what may happen next without building or maintaining separate spreadsheets manually.

Business Health: Interpretation vs Insight

Another difference is how insight is delivered.

Spotlight Reporting

Spotlight Reporting presents performance through dashboards and narrative reports that must be interpreted for action.

This is useful for firms that want polished financial presentation, flexible reporting, and visual storytelling for clients or stakeholders.

RunSmart

RunSmart translates QuickBooks data into financial health assessments, risk alerts, forecasts, budgets, and reports that indicate where performance is improving, stable, or weakening over time.

This is useful for firms that want to quickly identify which clients may need attention and turn monthly financial review work into clearer advisory conversations.

Summary Comparison

Decision Factor

Choose Spotlight Reporting If…

Choose RunSmart If…

Primary User

You are an accountant, advisor, CFO, or finance team focused on reports and dashboards

You are an accounting, bookkeeping, or advisory firm serving QuickBooks clients

Main Goal

Creating visual reports, dashboards, forecasts, and consolidated financial views

Turning month-end close into forecasts, insights, alerts, budgets, and advisory reports

Comfort with Finance

Your team wants flexible reporting and presentation tools

Your team wants automated insights that reduce manual review and spreadsheet work

Entity Structure

You need consolidated reporting or group-level financial views

You primarily work with single-entity QuickBooks clients

Output Style

Presentation-ready reports, dashboards, KPIs, and financial visuals

Client-ready advisory reports, forecasts, health scores, and risk alerts

Planning Focus

Forecasting and budgeting within a reporting and presentation workflow

Operational decision planning around hiring, payroll, expenses, financing, pricing, and growth

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Conclusion

Spotlight Reporting and RunSmart are not substitutes in the traditional sense. They reflect two different advisory workflows.

Spotlight Reporting helps firms create polished financial reports, dashboards, forecasts, budgets, and consolidated views.

RunSmart helps firms turn completed QuickBooks month-end close work into forward-looking forecasts, financial health insights, risk alerts, budgets, and client-ready advisory reports.

Understanding that difference usually makes the choice clear. If your firm needs visual financial reporting, dashboards, forecasting, budgeting, and consolidated reporting, Spotlight Reporting may be the better fit. If your firm wants a more automated way to identify which QuickBooks clients need attention, refresh forecasts after close, surface financial risks, and prepare advisory reports without building spreadsheets manually, RunSmart may be the better fit.

Disclaimer

This comparison is based on publicly available information and our understanding of each platform’s intended use cases. Product features, pricing, packaging, and capabilities may change over time. Please review each provider’s website for the most current information.

Real insights. Real decisions.

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"What impressed me most is how easy it is. I don't have to build complex models again."

Brad Kingsford

CPA

"I can scan my entire client base and quickly spot where margins are projected to tighten without digging into each set of financials."

Ashley Chen

CPA

"I’m not building models or digging through reports anymore—it’s already laid out for me."

Brian O’Connor

CFO

"I don’t have to rebuild models just to answer basic ‘what happens if this changes’ questions."

Samantha Lee

Bookkeeper

"I save a ton of time on monthly reviews now. Most of the work is already done when I log in."

Daniel Brooks

Accounting Firm Owner

"It’s straightforward and easy to use. I didn’t have to spend time figuring things out."

Michael Patel

Small Business Owner

"Portfolio View is probably my favorite part. I can quickly see what’s going on across all my clients."

Misty Callen

Senior Advisor

"The forecasting alone is a game changer. I don't have to build or model anything manually and its so much more reliable then what I've seen from others."

Kassi Ramirez

Fractional CFO

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Frequent Asked Questions

More asnswers to common questions about how RunSmart works and what you can expect.

How do you compare against other financial planning & analysis (FP&A) software?

Many FP&A platforms are built for dedicated finance teams and require significant setup, configuration, and ongoing financial modeling. RunSmart is designed to give business owners powerful financial intelligence and planning capabilities without the complexity of traditional FP&A software.
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Simply connect your QuickBooks account and RunSmart automatically analyzes your financial performance, generates forecasts and insights, monitors your financial health, tracks budgets, and produces professional reports without requiring you to build or maintain complicated financial models.

Do I need a strong background in finance or accounting to understand RunSmart's results?

No. RunSmart is designed to make complex financial information easier to understand, even if you don't have a background in finance or accounting.
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Plain-language insights, helpful tooltips, and an extensive library of help articles explain financial concepts and results throughout the platform. RunSmart also includes an AI-powered chatbot that can answer questions and explain unfamiliar financial concepts in simple terms whenever you need additional help.

What makes RunSmart’s forecasts more reliable than other tools?

RunSmart's forecasts are built from your historical QuickBooks data using advanced statistical forecasting techniques widely used by Fortune 500 organizations. Instead of relying on simple growth assumptions or fixed percentage increases, RunSmart automatically selects and applies statistical forecasting models tailored to your business's historical data to produce more reliable financial forecasts.

By continuously analyzing historical business performance, RunSmart generates rolling financial forecasts that help you evaluate hiring, pricing, borrowing, spending, expansion, and other important business decisions with greater confidence.

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Can businesses with less than 2 years of history use RunSmart?

Standard and Premium plan users can begin using RunSmart with less than 24 consecutive months of QuickBooks history. While financial forecasting will not be available until 24 months of historical data are available, you can still analyze your historical financial performance, monitor your business's financial health, review key financial metrics, compare your performance against industry benchmarks, and generate professional reports.

Once your business reaches 24 consecutive months of historical QuickBooks data, financial forecasting is automatically enabled. This allows RunSmart's statistical forecasting models to identify longer-term trends and seasonal patterns, helping produce more reliable forecasts.

Pro plan users require at least 24 consecutive months of historical QuickBooks data before using RunSmart. The Pro plan is designed for businesses that need advanced forecasting, scenario planning, budgeting, workforce planning, automated reporting, and other forward-looking financial planning capabilities, all of which depend on sufficient historical data to produce reliable results.

Does RunSmart support consolidations or class tracking for budgeting?

No. RunSmart is intentionally designed for single-entity businesses and does not support consolidating multiple companies or budgeting by class.

RunSmart focuses on helping firms analyze each client independently so trends, risks, and performance changes are easier to detect, explain, and address.

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Does RunSmart work without QuickBooks Online?

At this time, RunSmart only supports QuickBooks Online.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Put your financial data to work with a platform built to forecast performance, evaluate decisions, and gain clearer financial direction for your business.

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