I get a text message and email daily of sales by departments for each of my retail businesses. The message is sent without any human intervention. It tells me the business has closed for the day. In a couple of instances it has revealed an unacceptably early closure. The most important benefit is knowing how key departments are performing without having to log in a check.
While the text messages and emails are no substitute for professional business reporting, they are real time check-in with performance.