Written by Nils R. | Dec 14, 2021 8:00:00 AM
How can
Financial Dashboard
s Drive Faster and Better Decisions? As CFOs increasingly become central figures in the Monthly Reporting Process, they must rely on modern self-service corporate performance management (CPM) and business intelligence (BI) tools. Using interactive Financial Dashboards like the 36 Month Expense Trend Dashboard template shown below enables them and users from accounting and other department teams to experience near real time GL expense metrics that help drive faster and better decisions.
Who uses
36 Month Expense Trend Dashboard
s and What are Some Key Analytical Features? In today’s fast-paced business environment, CFOs are under high pressure to supply end users like controllers and department managers with timely and concise Financial Dashboards. Companies use key features like the ones below to support their users with effective analysis that helps drive self-service expense management and profit growth:
- Two years of history, budget and current year estimate (actual + forecast) figures with sorting and drill to monthly detail
- Side-by-side comparisons of budgets and actuals
- Interactive, monthly expense trend chart with multiple historical years as well as current year budgets
The 36 Month Expense Trend Dashboard template can be used as a key element of the Monthly Reporting process: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2560"]
Example of a 36 Month Expense Trend Dashboard to Streamline the Monthly Reporting Process[/caption] The 36 Month Expense Trend Dashboard is a ready-to-use Financial Dashboard from the
Solver Marketplace.
A Brief Description of the
36 Month Expense Trend Dashboard
Template Financial Dashboards like the one seen in the image above are interactive and parameter driven and typically contain sections with actual and budget figures by account category and account, with both monthly and annual trend charts. One of the important features that aid the user in the analysis process is the ability to use charts that are dynamic and that update based on which expense items in the two tables the user clicks on or which parameters are being selected. 36 Month Expense Trend Dashboards are often used in conjunction with expense variance dashboards, profit & loss reports, and budget models.
Data Integration to Transaction Systems Most organizations these days want automated and streamlined
planning,
reporting and
analysis. However, many of the benefits described earlier rely on best of breed Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools and/or Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities as well as data marts or data warehouses that use pre-built integrations to the organization’s ERP system. Oftentimes, they also need integrations to other key data sources like CRM, subscription systems, payroll tools, etc. Modern, cloud-based ERPs like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance (D365 Finance), Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Sage Intacct, Acumatica, Netsuite and SAP have robust APIs which allow for dynamic integrations to CPM and BI tools that are fully automated and flexible to run on a schedule or on-demand.
Additional Resources to Aid with Research of Templates, CPM and BI Tools
- Templates from Solver that are pre-built and that work out-of-the-box using the Solver CPM cloud. Click here.
- Template examples: You find more than 500 CPM and BI Template examples here.
- Interactive Dashboard examples: Try Power BI dashboard templates from Solver here.
- Software evaluation and selection:
- Creating efficient processes:
