Glossary

Using Profitability Exception Dashboards to Streamline the Monthly Analysis Process

Written by Nils R. | Nov 24, 2021 8:00:00 AM
How can Financial Dashboard s Drive Faster and Better Decisions? As CFOs increasingly become key players in the Monthly Analysis Process, they must rely on modern self-service corporate performance management (CPM) and business intelligence (BI) tools. Using interactive Financial Dashboards like the Profitability Exception Dashboard template shown below enables them and users from the leadership team to experience near real time profit and margin outliers that help drive faster and better decisions. Who uses Profitability Exception 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 board members and executives with timely and concise Financial Dashboards. Companies use key features like the ones below to support their users with effective analysis that helps drive sales strategies and expense management.
  • Year-to-date (YTD) gross profit, EBITDA and Net Profit metrics
  • Top five GL account level variances related to each profitability metric
  • Ranked charts based on amount of variance vs prior year and budget
The Profitability Exception Dashboard template can be used as a key element of the Monthly Analysis process: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Example of an Profitability Exception Dashboard to Streamline the Monthly Analysis Process[/caption] The Profitability Exception Dashboard is a ready-to-use Financial Dashboard from the Solver Marketplace A Brief Description of the Profitability Exception Dashboard Template Financial Dashboards like the one seen in the image above are interactive and parameter driven and typically contain sections with top 5 charts, KPIs and interactive filters. One of the important features that aid the user in the analysis process is the ability to apply color on variances in the KPIs. This helps the user to easily see where there may be profit issues. Profitability Exception Dashboards are often used in conjunction with expense and revenue dashboards as well as profit & loss reports. 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