AskBiz Getting Started: How to Go From Zero to Business Intelligence in Under an Hour

Step 1: Create your account and set up your profile#

Sign up at askbiz.co — no credit card required on the free plan. After signing up, complete your business profile: business type (eCommerce, retail, wholesale, services), primary sales channels, the currencies you trade in, and your primary supplier geographies. This context helps AskBiz provide more relevant answers from the start — it knows to factor in import duty when you ask about landed cost, and to monitor the right currency pairs for your FX risk.

Step 2: Connect your first data source#

Go to Sources and connect your primary data source. If you sell on Shopify: click Shopify, enter your store URL, and authenticate — data syncs in 5-15 minutes. If you sell on Amazon: click Amazon Seller Central, choose your marketplace, and authenticate through SP-API — data syncs in 10-30 minutes. If you use QuickBooks or Xero: click the relevant integration and authenticate with your accounting credentials. If you do not have a direct integration available: export your sales data as a CSV and upload it through File Upload. Connect the data source you have the most questions about — you can add additional sources after your initial exploration.

Step 3: Ask your first 10 questions#

Go to the Ask page and start with the questions you have been asking manually from spreadsheets. Suggested first questions for an eCommerce business: What is my revenue this month compared to last month? What is my best-selling product by revenue and by gross margin? Which products have the lowest gross margin? Which customers have not ordered in the last 60 days? What is my average order value trend over the last 6 months? What is my return rate by product? Which products am I likely to run out of in the next 30 days? What is my revenue by acquisition channel? How many new customers did I acquire this month? What is my repeat purchase rate? Each answer will likely prompt follow-up questions — follow them. The more you ask, the more useful AskBiz becomes as it builds a picture of your business.

Step 4: Set up your daily brief and alerts#

From the Settings page, enable the Daily Brief — you will receive an email each morning with your Business Pulse score, the previous day's key metrics, and any significant changes from your data. Then set up your first alerts from the Alerts page. Recommended starter alerts for every eCommerce business: low stock alert on your top 5 products (notify when below 30 days of cover), revenue anomaly alert (notify when daily revenue is more than 25% below the 30-day average), and return rate spike alert (notify when any product's return rate exceeds 15% in a rolling 7-day period). These three alerts catch the most common operational emergencies before they become expensive.

Step 5: Add your cost data for margin analysis#

Revenue analysis is immediately available from your connected store. Margin analysis requires cost data. If your product costs are set in Shopify (Cost per item field) or in Amazon (cost of goods in Seller Central), AskBiz pulls them automatically. If not, go to Products and either set costs individually for your top 20 products or upload a cost CSV with SKU and cost per unit. For importers who want true landed cost (including freight, duty, and FX), use the Landed Cost Calculator to input a shipment and calculate true landed cost per unit — then save it against the relevant products for ongoing margin tracking. Once cost data is added, margin questions become available: which of my products has the highest and lowest gross margin, what is my overall blended gross margin, what would happen to my margin if freight costs increased 30%.