Some refreshing American business know-how to ease into the week:

What do McDonald's, Godiva Chocolates and Merrill Lynch have in common? In varying ways, but with common success, they have relied on a 120-year old bottom-line business performance tracking system and measurement tool called Beat Yesterday.

Sam Walton used it in the early days of Wal-Mart to drive growth; Inc. Magazine once described it as the "secret weapon" of top retailers; and today, in both its original book form and Windows-ready software format, Beat Yesterday continues to help small businesses and top corporations alike drive business.

To know where you are going in business, you must know where you have been. "To perpetuate growth, it must be measured." So quoth former Merrill Lynch all-star broker Eileen DeVries, who gathered more than $700 million in assets while building a multi-million dollar business at ML--relying on BY to drive performance.

BY uses sales tracking from previous days, weeks, months and years to help predict a business's future financials. If you want to spot trends, catch leaks, stimulate growth and anticipate markets, BY provides a practical, facile way to get there. Neiman Marcus, Sears and Williams-Sonoma are among other name players who get it and use it.

It's IT and accounting made simple, it helps retailers stick to their budgets and manage their numbers, and the smart guys selling it--brothers Brian and Barry Jessurun, whose entrepreneurial grandfather invented BY in 1888--are two bona fide money-where-their-mouth-is guys. Check out the product, and if you are ever in northeastern Connecticut, swing by their eateries, the Vanilla Bean Cafe in Pomfret (where Coke officially launched Vanilla Coke) and 85 Main Street in Putnam.

Beat yesterday? Just the sound of it makes sense.

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