Statutory accounts show only the minimum information required for the public record. This limits your ability to have meaningful advisory conversations with clients, particularly when they need to demonstrate business performance for finance applications or loans. The Business Performance Report solves this by analysing up to six years of your client’s nominal ledger data and presenting it as clear, visual trends. It generates a professional financial performance report with charts, tables, and AI-written commentary that your clients can actually understand. The result is a ready-made discussion document you can take straight into your next client meeting, moving the conversation from compliance to advisory value.

Beta feature:  The Business Performance Report is currently in beta as part of Bright's Early Adopter Programme. The feature is fully functional and supported, but still evolving. You will be asked to acknowledge a short disclaimer on first use.

Before you start

Check your permission is enabled

The Trends button will not appear in the sidebar until the Business Performance Report permission has been enabled for your user account.

Note for practice administrators:  This is the most common reason users cannot see the Trends button. Always check the permission first.

To enable the permission:

1.  Go to your practice Staff and Access Permissions settings.

2.  Locate Business Performance Report in the permissions list.

3.  Tick to enable it for each user who needs access.

4.  Save your changes.

The permission takes effect the next time the user logs in.

Generating your first report

1.  Open the relevant client business in BrightAP.

2.  Click Trends in the left-hand sidebar.

3.  On first use, tick the disclaimer confirming you understand this is a beta feature, then click Proceed. You will only see this once.

4.  Select Generate a new report.

5.  Wait while the report is prepared — this typically takes 20–40 seconds. During this time, BrightAP is gathering up to six years of nominal ledger data and sending it to the Bright AI platform for analysis.

What your report includes

Your report opens with five default metrics displayed in the main panel, and a further five optional metrics available in the right-hand sidebar.

Default metrics

These appear in every report automatically:

▪  Revenue Trend

▪  Revenue vs Cost of Goods Sold

▪  Revenue vs Operating Expenses

▪  Gross Profit Margin %

▪  Operating Profit Margin %

Optional metrics

These can be added from the sidebar at any time:

▪  Cash and Bank Balances

▪  Debtor & Creditor Balances

▪  Debtor Days & Creditor Days

▪  Working Capital Trend

▪  Break-Even Point

Each metric includes AI-generated commentary describing what the numbers show, with the option to display a chart, a data table, or both.

Tip:  For a full explanation of what each metric measures and how to use it in a client conversation, see the article: Understanding your report metrics.

Important things to know

▪  Read-only: The BPR analyses existing ledger data but does not write back to, alter, or post anything in your client's accounts.

▪  Data quality: The report is based solely on data held in BrightAP. If the underlying ledger contains errors or incomplete years, these will be reflected in the output. We recommend reviewing the trial balance before using the report in a client meeting.

▪  Saving: If you have previously generated a report for a client, you will be offered the option to open the saved version when you next click Trends — or you can choose to generate a new report. Generating a new report replaces the previously saved version. Export to PDF or Word before starting fresh if you need to keep a copy.

Everything you need to get started  - guides, demos, FAQs, and direct support is in one place: Explore the Business Performance Report