What's my annual growth rate?

Bottomline calculates your year-over-year revenue growth rate and shows whether you are accelerating, steady, or decelerating.

Am I building equity or just earning a salary?

Bottomline tracks retained earnings growth, margin expansion, and revenue quality to show whether you are building long-term value.

What's my business roughly worth?

Bottomline estimates your business value using SDE multiples based on your industry, size, and growth rate.

Am I working harder for less money?

Bottomline tracks your revenue per hour of effort and compares it to your expenses, showing whether you are scaling or just adding complexity.

Is my business healthy right now?

Bottomline checks 7 health signals every month and gives you a single score: Healthy, Caution, or Critical.

Am I better off than I was a year ago?

The simplest question in business and the one that requires the most honest answer. Here's how to compare where you are today to where you were 12 months ago, across the numbers that actually matter.

7 min read

The short answer

Are you better off? Compare five numbers: revenue, net income, net margin, cash reserves, and customer count. If 4 out of 5 are higher than a year ago, you are genuinely better off. If revenue is up but net income and margins are down, the growth is costing you more than it is returning.

Revenue growth alone does not mean you are better off

A year ago your business did $62,000/month, kept $8,600 (13.9% net margin), had $48,000 in the bank, and served 24 customers. Today you are doing $79,000/month (up 27%), keeping $7,100 (9.0% net margin), have $41,000 in the bank, and serve 32 customers.

By revenue and customer count, you grew significantly. By the numbers that actually matter for financial health (net income, margin, cash reserves), you went backwards. You are busier, stressed, managing more people and complexity, and keeping less money.

The year-over-year comparison is the most honest assessment of progress because it strips out monthly noise and seasonal effects. It shows the real trajectory.

Five numbers to compare year over year

Revenue. Total income for the last 12 months vs. the prior 12 months. This is your growth headline.
Net income. Bottom-line profit for the same periods. This is what you actually kept.
Net margin. Net income as a percentage of revenue. This tells you the efficiency of each dollar.
Cash reserves. Bank balance today vs. 12 months ago. Are you building a buffer or depleting it?
Customer count or base. How many active customers this year vs. last year. Are you building a broader base or relying on fewer, larger clients?

How to run the year-over-year comparison in QuickBooks Online

1
Run two P&L reports
Go to Reports→ “Profit and Loss.” Run it for the last 12 months. Note Total Income and Net Income. Run it again for the prior 12 months. Calculate the change for each.
2
Compare Balance Sheets
Go to Reports→ “Balance Sheet” as of today. Note Total Bank Accounts. Run it again as of 12 months ago. Compare the cash positions.
3
Count customers
Go to Reports→ “Sales by Customer Summary” for each 12-month period. Count unique customers with revenue. Compare the counts.
4
Score yourself
Revenue up? Net income up? Net margin up? Cash up? Customer count up? Score out of 5. If you score 4-5, you are genuinely better off. 2-3 is mixed. 0-1 means the year made things worse, even if it felt busy.

Total time: about 20-25 minutes. Three reports, some subtraction, and a moment of honest reflection.

How to run the year-over-year comparison in Xero

1
Use the P&L comparison feature
Go to Accounting → Reports→ “Profit and Loss.” Set the range to 12 months and use “Compare with: Previous Year.” Revenue, expenses, and net profit changes are calculated for you.
2
Compare Balance Sheets the same way
Run the Balance Sheet with the previous year comparison. Check the Bank / Cash accounts section for the change in cash reserves.
3
Check customer count from Income by Contact
Go to Accounting → Reports→ “Income by Contact” for each period. Count unique contacts.

Total time: about 15-20 minutes. Xero's comparison features make this faster than in QuickBooks.

Why this annual review deserves an hour of your time

Monthly reports have noise. A bad month might be seasonal. A great month might be a one-time deal. The year-over-year view strips out that noise.
It forces the right question.Not “did we hit our revenue target this month” but “are we genuinely in a better position than we were 12 months ago?”

Or get your year-over-year comparison automatically every month

Bottomline connects to your accounting software and runs this comparison automatically. It shows you the 5-point scorecard every month so you always know where you stand relative to a year ago:

Year-over-year scorecard

Revenuewas $721K+31%

Net incomewas $88K-2%

Net marginwas 12.2%-3.1 pts

Cash reserveswas $48K-15%

Active customerswas 98+45%

Score: 2 out of 5. Revenue and customers grew significantly, but net income is flat, margins shrank 3 points, and cash reserves declined. You are growing but not keeping the growth. The year was a net loss in financial position despite looking like a win on the top line.

From a real Bottomline report. Year-over-year comparison across all five key metrics, with a clear score.

Bottomline gives you the answer to “am I better off?” every month, with specific context on what improved, what declined, and what to focus on next.