Month-end takes a week of copying
Someone exports from QuickBooks, the job system and the online store, pastes it all into a workbook and fixes the formulas. By the time the report is ready, the month is half over.
Data analytics in Edmonton: one view of the numbers that matter
Dashboards and reporting for Alberta owners who run the business from spreadsheets. We pull figures from accounting, job costing, CRM, e-commerce and the spreadsheets themselves into one view you can trust, built in Power BI or as a custom dashboard. From $4,500, in three to six weeks.
Updated
Reporting
From $4,500
3–6 weeks · fixed quote first
What usually brings people here.
Two reports, two different answers
Sales quotes one revenue figure, accounting quotes another, and the meeting turns into an argument about whose spreadsheet is right instead of what to do next.
Job margins discovered too late
You learn a job lost money weeks after it closed, when the last invoice is entered. By then the crew, the estimate and the client have all moved on.
What you have when we are done.
One set of numbers everyone uses
Each measure has one written definition and one source. Revenue, margin and backlog mean the same thing in the owner's dashboard, the sales meeting and the accountant's report.
Reports that build themselves
Data refreshes on a schedule from the source systems, and the weekly summary lands in your inbox on the same morning each week without anyone exporting anything.
Margins visible while the job runs
Hours, materials and costs are compared with the estimate as they come in, so a job drifting over budget shows up while the job can still be steered.
Every figure traceable to a record
Click a number and see the invoices, jobs or orders behind it. When a total looks odd, you can find the cause in minutes rather than trusting or ignoring it.
What is included.
- Workshop to agree the key numbers
- Written definition for each measure
- Connections to accounting, CRM and store data
- Spreadsheet and data clean-up
- Power BI or custom web dashboard
- Drill-down from totals to source records
- Scheduled email reports
- Access set by role
- Training for the people who use it
- Documented handover of data sources and logic
How it runs.
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01
Discover
We sit with the owner and managers to agree the few numbers that drive decisions, then find where each one lives today and how it is currently calculated.
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02
Design
We write a definition for every measure, sketch the dashboard pages, and decide between a well-built workbook, Power BI or a custom dashboard based on users and budget.
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03
Build
We connect the sources, clean the data, build the calculations and check every total against figures you already trust, such as your accountant's year-end numbers.
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04
Launch
We switch on scheduled refreshes and email reports, set access by role and train the people who will read the dashboard, so the first Monday meeting uses it.
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05
Optimise
After a few weeks of use we remove what nobody looks at, add what people keep asking for and fix any source that keeps feeding in bad data.
In detail
What is data analytics for a small business?
For an owner-run company it is less about statistics and more about trust: one place where revenue, margin, cash and workload are current and agree with each other. In practice, an Edmonton analytics project starts by pulling those figures automatically from the systems that already hold them, instead of retyping them.
In most small companies the data already exists. It sits in QuickBooks, a job costing tool, a CRM, an online store and a drawer full of spreadsheets, each with its own version of the truth. The work is joining those up, cleaning what is messy and agreeing what each number means.
Which numbers should an owner actually watch?
Usually between five and ten. Pick the figures that change a decision: work booked but not yet billed, gross margin by job or product, cash coming in over the next month, overdue invoices and how busy the crews or staff are. If a number would not change what you do this week, it does not belong up front.
We write each measure down in a short glossary: its name, the formula, the source system and who owns it. That glossary settles most arguments before they start. For contractors, the list usually centres on job costing and backlog, and the systems behind those figures are covered under software for contractors and trades.
Excel, a dashboard or something custom?
Excel is right when one or two people use the numbers and the data arrives in a few files. A dashboard such as Power BI fits when several people need the same figures refreshed from live systems. Custom work makes sense only when reporting must live inside your own software, or the logic is too specific for standard tools.
| Option | Best for | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| Well-built Excel workbook | One or two users, data from a few exports, a monthly rhythm | Your existing licence; any tidy-up quoted from $4,500 |
| Power BI dashboard | Several users, live data from accounting, CRM and job systems, weekly or daily use | From $4,500, 3–6 weeks, plus Microsoft licences |
| Reporting inside custom software | Dashboards built into a quoting, scheduling or job costing system | Part of an $18,000 – $50,000 build, 8–16 weeks |
A standalone custom web dashboard, without new software around it, also sits in the Reporting band and is quoted after discovery. If the real gap is a missing system rather than missing reports, custom software development is the better spend.
Where does the data come from, and how clean is it?
From the systems you already use: accounting such as QuickBooks, job costing and scheduling tools, your CRM, an online store and the spreadsheets that fill the gaps. Most connect through a documented export or integration. The data is rarely clean, so the early part of every project includes fixing duplicates, mismatched names and missing codes.
Some clean-up is a one-off. Some needs a change upstream, such as a required field on a form or a rule that a job cannot close without a cost code. Where staff re-key data between systems, fixing that with business automation often improves the reports more than any chart could.
How much does data analytics cost in Edmonton?
A reporting project from Glasshead Tech starts from $4,500 and takes three to six weeks, at a figure agreed up front. Cost rises with the number of sources to connect, the amount of clean-up and the number of dashboard pages and scheduled reports. Power BI licences, where used, are paid to Microsoft directly.
Scheduled reports are part of the build: a summary emailed each Monday, an overdue-invoice list on Fridays, a month-end pack that assembles itself. The full set of bands is on our pricing page. The dashboards, data connections and documentation belong to you. Send us the report you rebuild every month and expect an answer within 24 hours.
Asked before they write.
How much does a business dashboard cost in Edmonton?
Reporting projects start from $4,500 in CAD and take three to six weeks. Where your project lands depends on how many data sources feed it, how much clean-up is needed and how many pages and scheduled reports you want. Power BI licences, if you use Power BI, are billed by Microsoft and are not part of our price.
Do we need Power BI, or will Excel do?
If one or two people read the numbers monthly and the data comes from a couple of exports, a well-structured Excel workbook may be enough, and we will say so. Power BI earns its place when several people need the same figures, refreshed automatically from live systems, with access controlled by role.
Can you connect to QuickBooks and our job costing software?
Usually, yes. Most accounting, job costing, CRM and e-commerce tools offer a documented export or integration that a dashboard can read on a schedule. During discovery we check each system you use and tell you in writing which ones connect directly and which need a workaround, such as a scheduled export.
What is not included in a data analytics project?
Software licences, changes inside the source systems and cleaning historical data beyond what the dashboard needs are outside the standard scope. So is building a new operational system. If the reports show that a process needs one, we quote it separately as custom software, and you decide whether it is worth doing.
How do you make sure the numbers are right?
Before launch, every total is checked against figures you already trust, such as your accountant's month-end or year-end reports. Each measure has a written definition and a named source, and every number can be traced down to the records behind it. When a source keeps feeding bad data, we fix it at the source where possible.
Who can see the dashboard?
Only the people you choose. Permissions follow job roles: a crew lead sees their own jobs while the owner sees the whole company. Personal information about customers or staff stays out of the dashboard unless someone genuinely needs it, which keeps the reporting simpler to secure and your privacy obligations easier to meet.
Often paired with this.
Automation
From $2,5002–4 weeks per workflow
Glasshead Tech builds business automation for Alberta companies, so nobody re-keys data between the tools they already pay for: quotes become invoices, web enquiries land in the CRM with an owner, and reports assemble on schedule. Each rule-based workflow costs from $2,500 CAD, takes two to four weeks and is quoted fixed before work starts.
Custom software
$18,000 – $50,0008–16 weeks
Glasshead Tech does custom software development in Edmonton, building the systems Alberta companies run daily operations on: quoting, scheduling, job costing, safety documentation, field capture, client portals and booking. Builds cost $18,000 to $50,000 CAD and take 8 to 16 weeks, with a fixed quote before coding starts. You own the code, data and accounts at handover.
Send us the spreadsheet you dread.
Tell us which reports you rebuild by hand and where the numbers come from. You get a reply within 24 hours, and a fixed price after we have looked at the data.