Glossary

Using 48 Month Expense Trend Dashboards to Streamline the Monthly Reporting Process

Written by Nils R. | Dec 24, 2021 8:00:00 AM
How can Financial Dashboard s Drive Faster and Better Decisions? As CFOs increasingly become key advisors 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 48 Month Expense Trend Dashboard template shown below enables them and users from the executive team to experience near real time expense trend analysis that help drive faster and better decisions. Who uses 48 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 data driven expense decisions:
  • Trend analysis with four years of actual expense data as well as current year budget
  • Ranking by expense account and category
  • Comparison of multi-year history and budgets
The 48 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 48 Month Expense Trend Dashboard to Streamline the Monthly Reporting Process[/caption] The 48 Month Expense Trend Dashboard is a ready-to-use Financial Dashboard from the Solver Marketplace. A Brief Description of the 48 Month Expense Trend Dashboard Template Financial Dashboards like the one seen in the image above are interactive and parameter driven and often contain sections with expense tables by GL account and trend charts. One of the important features that aid the user in the analysis process is the ability to instantly zoom in on any GL expense account by selecting one or more rows in the tables and watch the corresponding values highlighted in the trend charts. 48 Month Expense Trend Dashboards are often used in conjunction with budget models, profit & loss reports, variance and KPI dashboards. 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