Frank can help you spot which clients, jobs, or product lines are draining your business, but the quality of the answer depends on how well your transactions are categorised.
This article explains how to ask Frank the right questions and what to check if the answers feel incomplete.
Ask Frank Directly
The fastest way to start is to open the Frank chat and ask. Frank has a full CFO prompt library covering profitability, so you can ask in plain English:
"Which of my clients is costing me the most in expenses relative to what they pay me?"
"Show me my profit by product line over the last 3 months."
"Which jobs have had the highest costs this quarter?"
"Compare revenue vs expenses for [client name]."
The more specific you are, the sharper the answer. If you just ask "what's losing me money?", Frank will give you a broad view. If you name a client, job type, or product, Frank can drill in.
What Frank Needs to Give You an Accurate Answer
Frank works with your real bank transactions. For profitability analysis to work, two things need to be true:
1. Income is being attributed correctly. If payments from different clients all land in the same account with no distinguishing information, Frank can't split them by client on its own. The more your income transactions have clear descriptions, like a client name or job reference, the more Frank can work with.
2. Costs are categorized in the right area. Frank uses Departments and Categories to classify your spending. If your costs for a particular job type or product line are consistently tagged, Frank can compare them to the revenue they generate. If everything sits in one broad category, you'll only see a blended picture.
How to Improve Your Categorization
If Frank's answers feel too broad, it's usually a sign that transactions need better labelling. To fix this:
Go to Transactions in Frank.
Filter by a specific supplier, category, or time period to find the relevant costs.
Update the Category or Department on those transactions to reflect the right job type or product line.
Use Rules to automate this going forward, for example, "any transaction from [supplier] goes to Department: Landscaping Jobs."
Once your costs are consistently categorized, Frank's profitability answers become much more reliable.
You can see this video to help you categorize transactions
What to Look For in Frank's Answers
When Frank returns a profitability breakdown, look for:
High cost, low revenue areas: where you're spending significantly more than you're receiving. These are your loss-makers.
Negative trends over time: a client or job type that used to be fine but is becoming more expensive to service.
Disproportionate costs: one client or job that accounts for a small share of revenue but a large share of expenses (labour, materials, admin).
If a number looks off, ask Frank to explain it: "Why is [area] showing a loss?" Frank can walk you through which transactions are driving the result.
Summary
Start by asking Frank directly in the chat, use a specific client, job, or product name for the sharpest answer. If the results feel incomplete, check that your income and cost transactions are categorised clearly. From there, Frank can reliably show you where your business is making money and where it isn't.
Remember that you can also use CFO Briefings here: https://hellofrank.ai/briefings