app.rossfintech.com/guide · Ross Insights — User Guide

Ross Insights User Guide

How to Use Ross Insights

One platform for financial reporting, budgeting & forecasting — built for small businesses, private colleges (FASB) and public universities (GASB).

Small Business

Private College (FASB)

Public University (GASB)

Overview

One workflow, three frameworks.

Ross Insights turns the data you already produce — a trial balance or spreadsheet — into board-ready statements, budgets, dashboards and narrative. The same steps work for every client; the platform swaps the statement format, terminology and metrics to match the framework.

Project it (forecast)

Start from assumptions, build projected statements, dashboard and budget-vs-actual with Base/Best/Worst scenarios and seasonal adjustments. Best for small business.

Prepare it (actuals)

Upload real numbers and produce finished statements, ratios, a board dashboard and AI narrative. This is the primary path for higher-ed monthly reporting.

The universal flow

Pick framework

Upload data

Prepare Statements

Analyze

Budget vs Actual

AI Report

Export

Start here

Pick the framework in the top header: Small Business, Higher Ed — Private college (FASB), or Higher Ed — Public university (GASB). Each client’s data is stored separately by framework.

Your data stays yours

Files are read in your browser and are never uploaded or stored on a server. AI features receive account names, column names and shapes, or summary totals only — never account-level amounts, cell values, or personal or student data.

Choose your framework

Pick the reporting language that matches the organization.

Comparison	Small Business	Private College — FASB (ASC 958)	Public University — GASB (34/35)
Best for	Companies & nonprofits planning and reporting	Private, nonprofit colleges & universities	State / public universities & agencies
Core statements	Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow	Statement of Financial Position; Statement of Activities	Statement of Net Position; Statement of Revenues, Expenses & Changes in Net Position
Equity / net section	Equity	Net Assets — With / Without Donor Restrictions (or 3-class)	Net Position — Net Investment in Capital, Restricted, Unrestricted
Cash flow	Indirect	Indirect	Direct (four categories)
Budget format	Monthly budget vs actual; growth-driver forecast with scenarios	Management budget monitor (annual basis) + driver-based forecast (1, 3 or 5 years)	Budgetary Comparison (Original / Final / Actual / Variance, encumbrances) + driver-based forecast (1, 3 or 5 years)
Signature metrics	Gross margin, EBITDA, net margin, runway, ending cash	Operating margin, days cash, primary reserve, endowment spending, ED composite score	Change in net position, state-appropriation dependency, debt-service coverage, days cash

Switch frameworks any time from the header. Each keeps its own statements, budgets and settings; small-business data is never affected by higher-ed work and vice-versa.

Getting your data in

Use the fast assisted route or the fully manual route.

Fastest

Option A — Upload a trial balance

Open Prepare Statements → Upload Trial Balance and choose an .xlsx or .csv file.

The assistant proposes a GL-to-statement-line mapping. Review, adjust and Apply; your mapping is retained for next time. Choose the month, then select YTD or month-only.

Only account numbers and names go to AI — never amounts or personal data.

Option B — Import from spreadsheet

Download the template for your framework, fill the statement tabs and upload it.

Rows are matched by label. Any unknown rows become custom lines so client-specific detail is retained instead of dropped.

Confirm it ties

The balance check reads ✓ Balanced when assets equal liabilities plus equity, net assets or net position — and cash flow ties to balance-sheet cash.

Higher-ed clients can also add supporting schedules: net-asset or net-position roll-forward, endowment roll-forward and functional-expense matrix. Each schedule ties back to the statements.

Prepare statements & analysis

Statements build in the selected framework; Analysis translates them for leadership.

Small Business

Revenue, gross profit & margin, operating expenses, EBITDA, net income & margin, ending cash and runway.

Private College (FASB)

Net operating result, operating margin, days cash, endowment spending, primary reserve and estimated ED composite score — plus current ratio, working capital, debt-to-equity, long-term debt, program and support ratios.

Public University (GASB)

Change in net position, operating margin including state appropriations, state-appropriation dependency, days cash, primary reserve and debt-service coverage.

View as ▾

Every chart card has a small View as menu. Switch to line, bar, area, or pie/donut; only sensible views are offered. Defaults stay unchanged until you choose, and your choice is remembered across the Dashboard, Analysis charts and Budget Dashboards for all frameworks.

Budget vs actual & close

Monitor performance, explain variance and finish the monthly close.

Budget vs Actual

Load the budget once; actuals flow automatically from the statements with no re-keying.

Small Business: monthly budget vs actual with scenarios.

Higher Ed: annual-appropriation monitor with Original, Final, Actual, Available and Variance; public universities also include encumbrances. Favorable and unfavorable results use auditor-style coloring.

Budget Dashboards include usage vs target, variance waterfall, pacing, cumulative trend, a custom table builder and PDF/Excel export.

Journal Entry Assistant: describe an entry, receive a balanced draft, validate it against your chart and export to QuickBooks, NetSuite, Sage or CSV.

Reconciliation: match book vs statement, flag exceptions and hand adjusting entries to the Journal Entry Assistant.

Everything is propose-and-approve.

Forecasting & budget building

Project next year — or five — from drivers, for private colleges (FASB) and public universities (GASB).

On Assumptions, pick the framework in the header. Small Business keeps the growth-driver forecast. Private College (FASB) and Public University (GASB) open a driver-based builder that produces full projected statements — in the same audited format as your actuals — plus a draft budget.

Fastest

Start from what you have

Enter your June 30 opening balances, copy them from your latest actual month, or upload last year's statements with the same import template. Upload last year's budget for comparison, or download the driver template, fill it in and upload it. Implied rates — collection days, depreciation rate, endowment spending rate — are calculated for you with a one-click Use.

Set the drivers

Every input shows its dollar result live:

Enrollment & tuition — FTE by term and segment, rate increase, discount rate.
Housing, dining & auxiliary — beds × occupancy × rate, meal plans.
Government & gifts — state appropriations (GASB), Pell, grants, gifts, endowment spending.
Compensation — salaries by function with raise, fringe and inflation, or upload position control for position-by-position payroll with vacancies and new hires.
Capital, debt & timing — capital projects and depreciation, bond issues and principal, billing and collection timing.

Statements that tie

The forecast builds the projected Statement of Activities or SRECNP, the Statement of Financial Position or Net Position, and the cash-flow statement — indirect for FASB, direct with the operating reconciliation for GASB. Cash is calculated, never typed. Every month must show ✓ Balanced and ✓ Cash ties, and warnings flag negative cash, discount rates over 60% or occupancy over 100%.

Scenarios & sensitivity

Base, Best and Worst — flex enrollment, discount rate, occupancy, appropriations, gifts or inflation, or detach a scenario and edit anything. Compare them side by side (days cash, primary reserve, ED composite) and see which drivers move the result most.

Multi-year & rolling

Choose next-year budget, a 3- or 5-year outlook with annual statements and KPIs, or a rolling current-year forecast that keeps actual months and forecasts the rest.

Into the budget & board package

Send to Budget writes the chosen scenario into the Original and Final budget. Switch Prepare Statements to Projected to see the statements, board dashboard and Statement Package on the forecast. AI Report adds a Projected source for forecast commentary, board budget proposals and scenario comparisons.

Forecast in six steps

1Pick Private College (FASB) or Public University (GASB) in the header and open Assumptions.
2Set opening balances — upload last year's statements or copy your latest actual month.
3Enter or upload drivers: enrollment, rates, discount, compensation, capital and debt.
4Check ✓ Balanced and ✓ Cash ties and review any warnings.
5Set Best and Worst scenarios and compare them; choose a 1-, 3- or 5-year horizon.
6Send to Budget, view Projected statements, and export or generate the AI narrative.

AI report, assistant & exports

Turn reviewed figures into editable narrative and a complete reporting package.

AI Report

Choose Projected, Prepared or Budget vs actual; select a report type and Generate. Framework-specific reports include commentary, action items, board budget reports and an integrated Executive Board Package. The model reads only on-screen figures, never invents or benchmarks. Every draft supports Edit, Copy, PDF and Word.

In-tool AI Assistant

On Prepare Statements, ask questions or propose changes in plain English. Every action is propose-and-approve, logged and undoable.

Exports

Statements, dashboards and budgets export to PDF and Excel; narratives export to Word. Statement Package assembles cover, dashboard, statements, schedules and tie-outs. Private colleges also receive a configurable Monthly Report Package.

Ad-Hoc reporting

Match, total and compare any two or three spreadsheets — the VLOOKUP / SUMIFS work, automated.

Ad-hoc requests usually mean getting two exports to agree — the budget file vs the GL, position control vs the HR roster, a vendor list vs AP. Ad-Hoc does the lookup work for you, diagnoses why rows don’t match, and hands back an answer plus an Excel workbook you can defend. It works the same for every framework.

Fastest

Ask in plain English

Load your files into slots A, B (and optionally C), then type what you need — e.g. “Total the GL by org and account, match it to the budget, show remaining and % used, and flag anything over budget.”

The assistant proposes a plan and fills in the operation settings for you, with a one-line summary of what it understood. Review or change anything, then click Run — nothing runs until you do.

Use Refine to adjust with a follow-up, or re-apply an earlier plan from Prompt history.

Or build it with the dropdowns

Pick Left and Right files and an operation:

Lookup / Join — VLOOKUP / XLOOKUP / INDEX-MATCH. Keep all, matched only, everything, or only the unmatched rows.
Aggregate-then-Join — SUMIFS / COUNTIFS: total a detail file (like GL transactions) by key, then match it to a summary file (like the budget).
Calculated columns & flags — Remaining, % Used, Variance, or a flag such as “Over Budget”.
Key cleanup — trim spaces, upper-case, pad leading zeros, strip prefixes, normalize IDs like P123 → P00123.
Chain steps — send a result back into a slot and run the next operation.

Match diagnostics — before you run

Ad-Hoc shows the match rate both ways, explains why keys don’t match (leading zeros lost, numbers vs text, trailing spaces, mixed formats), and suggests one-click fixes with the projected improvement — e.g. Pad Org to 6 + Trim Acct → 0% → 93%. It warns about duplicate keys a VLOOKUP would silently get wrong, and proves control totals tie: total in source = matched + unmatched, to the cent.

Review the result

Tabs for Result, Only in Left, Only in Right, Duplicate Keys and Diagnostics — so exceptions like unbudgeted spending, vacant positions or employees not in position control are listed, not hidden.

Export — values

A clean workbook: Result, both exception lists, duplicate keys, diagnostics & control totals, and a Plan sheet documenting exactly what was done (your workpaper trail).

Export — live formulas

Turn on Live formulas to get real XLOOKUP (or INDEX/MATCH for older Excel) and SUMIFS formulas against the included source sheets, with the key cleanup written as formulas — so a supervisor or auditor can click any number and trace it.

Confidential by design

Files are processed entirely in your browser. The plain-English assistant sees only your request, the file and column names, and each column’s shape (e.g. “6-digit text, leading zeros”) — never amounts, names, IDs or any cell values. Tip: file names are shared with the assistant, so rename a file if it contains a client name you’d rather not send.

Ad-Hoc in six steps

1Open Ad-Hoc in the sidebar.
2Upload two or three .xlsx or .csv files into slots A, B and C.
3Type your request — or choose the operation and key columns from the dropdowns.
4Check Match Diagnostics and apply any suggested cleanup.
5Click Run and review the Result and exception tabs.
6Export to Excel — Values, or Live formulas for a traceable workbook.

Quick start

Your monthly run, in eight steps.

1Pick the framework in the header.
2Upload the trial balance or import a spreadsheet; confirm the mapping.
3Post to the month and confirm ✓ Balanced.
4Open Analysis and review KPIs — plus ratios for FASB.
5Check Budget vs Actual and Budget Dashboards — or build next year's forecast on Assumptions.
6Set each chart’s View as.
7Generate the AI Report narrative and edit it.
8Export the package to PDF, Excel or Word.

What to have ready

Framework	Files and figures
Small Business	Trial balance (or P&L / balance-sheet figures), budget and prior-period figures.
Private College (FASB)	Trial balance, prior-year balances, adopted budget and any roll-forward, endowment or functional-expense detail.
Public University (GASB)	Trial balance including deferred outflows/inflows, pension/OPEB and capital assets; original and final budget, encumbrances and prior-year figures.

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