Written by Nils R. | Feb 9, 2021 8:00:00 AM
What is
a
Monthly Trends in Revenues and Expenses
Report? Revenue and Expense trend reports, sometimes referred to as Statement of Activity trend reports, are considered monthly financial statements and are used by finance teams and executives to easily get a broad view of financial seasonality and other trends. Some of the main functionality in this type of report is that it automatically displays actual (or budget) for all months of the year. Another popular version of this report shows rolling twelve or eighteen months in the columns. The rows are laid out like a typical sources and uses of funds financial statement. The charts on top of the report help the user visualize the key metrics. You find an example of this type of report below.
Purpose of
Revenue and Expense Trend Reports Universities and colleges use Revenue and Expense Trend Reports to easily detect month to month or quarter to quarter trends and anomalies in the organization's financial results. When used as part of good business practices in a Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) department, a higher education institution can improve its speed and agility to make important business decisions, and it can reduce the chances that the avoidable outcomes are left untouched for longer than necessary.
Revenue and Expense Trend Report
Example Here is an example of a Revenue & Expense Trend Report that can be produced for actual or budgeted financials. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2560"]
Higher Education Reporting - Monthly Trends in Revenues and Expenses Example[/caption] You can find hundreds of additional examples
here
Who Uses This Type of
Report
? The typical users of this type of report are: CFOs, budget managers, and analysts.
Other
Report
s Often Used in Conjunction with
Revenue and Expense Trend Reports Progressive Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) departments sometimes use several different Revenue and Expense Trend Reports, along with monthly variance reports, balance sheets, cash flow statements, financial dashboards and other management and control tools.
Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From? The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from management systems or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others. In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions.
What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards? Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:
- Native ERP report writers and query tools
- Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
- Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
- Dashboards (for example Microsoft Power BI and Tableau)
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Cloud Solutions and More Examples
