Accounting standards, GST and controls stay the same for everyone. What changes is the handful of drivers that decide your profit and your cash. A generic MIS reports revenue and expenses. Yours should report the drivers.
| Business | What the MIS should follow |
|---|---|
| Generic MIS | Revenue → Expenses → Profit |
| Restaurant | Covers → Food cost → Labour → Outlet profit |
| IT services | Utilisation → Employee cost → Client margin → Cash |
| Real estate | Bookings → Collections → Cost to complete → Project margin |
Pick your family to see the drivers, the questions owners ask, the MIS that answers them and the compliance to watch.
People-led, recurring and export revenue
Capacity, inventory and working capital
Outlets, daily cash and unit economics
Utilisation, billing and collections
Regulation, assets and project cash
Finance shaped by where you are, not what you sell
Your model, your drivers
Your biggest cost is people and your best revenue often recurs or comes from abroad. Growth can hide whether customers, projects and services actually make money, and whether growth is creating cash or consuming it.
Subscriptions, churn and runway
Revenue arrives monthly or annually in advance; value is built in retention, not just new sales.
Products, projects and licences
A mix of product licences, custom development and support contracts, each with different margins.
Billable capacity and utilisation
You sell people-hours. Profit is decided by utilisation, rate realisation and collection speed.
Marketplaces, returns and contribution
Revenue is easy to see; profit hides behind marketplace fees, returns, shipping and ad spend.
Seats, shifts and people cost
Outsourced processes and knowledge work billed by seat, FTE or transaction, with thin margins and high headcount.
Raw materials, production, inventory, labour, overheads, customers and credit. Profit is made on the shop floor and lost in stock and receivables. Finance needs to connect every piece.
Jobs, WIP and retention
Made-to-order jobs and fabrication where each order has its own cost, timeline and payment terms.
Raw material volatility and batch yield
Batch or continuous processes where raw-material prices, yields and imports move margins every month.
Brands, channels and shelf life
Own-plant or third-party manufactured brands sold through distributors, retail, marketplaces and D2C.
Job work, credit and stock
Spinning, weaving, processing and garmenting chains with job work, long credit and seasonal stock.
Distribution, schemes and secondary sales
Products moving through distributors and retailers where trade schemes and credit drive volume.
Projects, warranties and service revenue
Machines and systems sold on order, often with installation, warranties and after-sales service.
Tight tolerances, long cycles, export customers
High-precision, certified components for demanding global customers, with long approval cycles and heavy machinery.
Cash comes in every day across many locations. Profit is decided outlet by outlet, by cost of goods, rent and staff. Growth is only good if each new outlet improves the whole.
Stores, stock and shrinkage
Multi-store or single-format retail where margin depends on assortment, stock turns and store costs.
Central kitchens, franchises and roll-outs
Multi-outlet brands with central kitchens, own and franchise outlets, and ambitious expansion plans.
Food cost, labour and table turns
Single or few outlets where small changes in food cost, staff and rent decide whether the month is profitable.
Seasons, sizes and markdowns
Seasonal collections across stores, marketplaces and D2C where unsold stock becomes markdowns.
Memberships, retention and utilisation
Memberships sold in advance, with value decided by retention, trainer revenue and centre utilisation.
You sell expertise and time. A business can look profitable overall while individual clients, partners, teams or projects tell a very different story.
Firms, partners and engagement margins
Law, architecture, design, accounting and other firms billing for expertise by engagement, retainer or hour.
Retainers, projects and pipeline
Advisory businesses with retainers and projects, where pipeline and team capacity decide next quarter.
Placements, contract staff and payroll at scale
Permanent placement fees and contract staffing where you pay salaries before clients pay you.
Fees in advance, batches and centres
Schools, coaching, edtech and corporate training where fees arrive before delivery and capacity drives margin.
Agencies, facility, logistics and field services
Marketing agencies, facility management, logistics, maintenance and other models built on people and contracts.
Some businesses have regulators, designated accounts, exemptions or asset cycles that change how finance must run. Getting the structure right matters as much as getting the numbers right.
Hospitals, clinics, diagnostics and pharmacy
Patient services, insurance and TPA billing, doctor payouts and pharmacy stock under one roof.
Projects, RERA and contractor cash
Development and contracting businesses where every project is its own business with its own cash cycle.
NBFCs, brokers, advisors and fintech
Lending, broking, wealth, insurance distribution and fintech businesses where the balance sheet and regulators lead.
Hotels, resorts and stays
Rooms, food and beverage and events, with seasonal demand and heavy fixed costs.
Trusts, Section 8 companies, NGOs and CSR
Mission-led organisations funded by donors, grants and CSR, accountable for every rupee.
A startup raising its first round and a group running entities across several countries need very different finance, even in the same industry.
Burn, runway and investor-ready books
Fast-moving businesses where the books must be ready for investors, due diligence and the next round.
Multi-entity, multi-currency, one view
Import / export businesses, multi-entity groups, global service businesses and companies entering India.
Businesses evolve, models overlap and new ones emerge: trading, distribution, agriculture, media, logistics, family businesses and more. You don't need to fit our categories. We start with how your business makes money and build finance around it.
Trading, distribution, family businesses and new models
Any business whose economics don't fit a neat label. We map your drivers first.
Closed by the 12th of the following month, wherever agreed data availability permits.
Transactions updated and monitored every day.
Built for your business model, not an accounting template.
Numbers become decisions, every month.
No single point of failure in your finance team.
Knowledge doesn't live in one person's head.
Or ask us for the Vasudhaiva Industries brochure: one page per industry family, with the drivers, MIS and compliance checklist for your sector.
Is my finance function ready for where the business is going?
Seven dimensions: people, process, discipline, systems, MIS, controls and business partnership. You get a scorecard and a 30/60/90-day roadmap.
What are my numbers really telling me?
Share your data. We build an MIS around your industry drivers, explain it and recommend action. ₹10,000, adjustable against your first engagement.
Let's understand your business before we recommend anything.