A financial dashboard cannot be improvised. There are rules to follow and some tips to know to get by better. Here is an overview to learn how to build an excellent financial dashboard.

The financial reporting is essential because it allows companies, ETI to multinationals, to rely on key indicators to drive their business. Also, the international standardization framework (IFRS), in addition to changes in accounting methods, requires a general presentation of financial statements.

Here are some rules you need to know to build the right financial dashboards.

UNDERSTAND THE USER’S NEEDS BEFORE STARTING

Before you start, ask yourself about the nature of your business, the market in which it operates, and especially the end-user’s needs. To script the data – an essential step in bringing your financial dashboard to life – you have to know the context of the use. Each financial company and profession have a specific and unique use of its data.

A FINANCIAL DASHBOARD DOES NOT HAVE TO BE EXHAUSTIVE!

The risk of drowning in the mass of financial information is one of the first pitfalls that we encounter when developing a financial dashboard. A first way to get around it is to focus on the information available at the right time.

The second is to prioritize its indicators, or KPIs, by importance. A single watchword: get to the point. Don’t forget that a dashboard has two functions: to serve decision-making and to allow it to be communicated to its managers or team.

A DASHBOARD IS AN EVOLVING TOOL

Your financial dashboard is not an end in itself. Think of it as a step in the decision-making process. Therefore, it is necessary to update it periodically and refine its relevance.

This will allow the company’s decision-makers to adjust the decision cycles to the rate at which the dashboard is published and make it a real instrument for managing its performance.

Final Words

Today in most companies, communications are fragmented: financial communications for investors, taking into account new accounting standards, supervision of management functions, accounting, and finance.More and more finance departments are now thinking about the opportunity of unified reporting, and the financial dashboard has become the primary tool to support decision-making.