Using Business Tools for Planning and Decision-Making

Business Tools work best when used at the moment of a specific decision — not as ongoing dashboards. Think of them as calculators you reach for when you have a concrete question:

• *Should I switch to a cheaper supplier in Vietnam?* → Landed Cost Calculator
• *What if the pound drops 10% before my invoice is due?* → FX Risk Modeller
• *Which of my suppliers is a liability?* → Supplier Scorecard
• *Is this TikTok trend worth acting on?* → Social Commerce Intelligence

Before setting a retail price for a new product, run the Landed Cost Calculator for three supplier scenarios: your current supplier, a lower-cost alternative, and a premium alternative. Save all three. Then ask AskBiz: *'If I switch to Supplier B, what margin do I need to maintain at current sell prices?'* — the AI will use your saved landed cost figures to answer.

If you have large international payments due in the next 90 days, run the FX Risk Modeller for each one. Save the outputs as 'worst case', 'base case', and 'best case' scenarios. Add these to your cash flow dashboard as a planning overlay — this shows your team the range of possible cash positions depending on exchange rate movements, and helps you decide whether to hedge.

Run the Supplier Scorecard at least once a quarter for each key supplier. Over time, you build a trend view — a supplier whose score is declining across three consecutive quarters is a risk worth addressing before it becomes a supply chain crisis. Share the scorecard with your operations lead or accountant via a scheduled report.

Business Tools and the AI chat work together. After saving a tool result, you can reference it in the AI chat:

• *'Based on my saved landed cost for the Q2 Vietnam shipment, what should my minimum sell price be to hit 40% gross margin?'*
• *'Compare the FX risk on my three saved scenarios and recommend the hedging approach with the best risk-adjusted outcome'*

The AI has access to all your saved tool results within your account.