Effective data visualization is about more than making pixel-perfect charts; it’s about transforming complex data into actionable insights.
In this blog, we will explore the impact of visualising financial data and provide five top tips for financial data visualization tailored specifically for the office of the CFO.
How will financial data visualization help your organisation?
Enhanced clarity
Visualizing financial data simplifies complex financial reports, making it easier for stakeholders to understand the financial health of the company at a glance.
It also allows for quick identification of trends, outliers, and potential issues– get ahead of things early, or seize an opportunity and gain a commercial advantage!
Speedy decision-making
CFOs and senior members of the finance team are often faced with critical decisions that require timely information.
Visualizing data ensures that users access and interpret financial data quickly, enabling them to make well-informed decisions on budgeting, investments, and resource allocation.
Improved communication
Visualizations serve as a common language that bridges the gap between financial experts and non-financial stakeholders. CFOs and finance professionals can use these visuals to effectively communicate with the executive team, board members, and investors.
The better-designed and more interactive the visualisation, the better!
Strategic planning
Visualizing financial data provides CFOs with the necessary tools to develop and adjust long-term financial strategies. You and your team can model different scenarios and evaluate the potential impact on the organisation’s financial health, or use financial data to inform reasonable goals and KPIs.
How can I leverage the benefits for my organisation?
These impacts are vital to streamline financial reporting and keep your competitive edge, but getting there can be challenging. According to Gartner, only 16% of decision-makers believe financial data can be easily leveraged for decision making. The right platforms, solutions, and strategies are necessary in order to truly see the benefit from financial analytics.
Read on for five top tips that will help your organisation unlock the potential of your finance team.
Tip One: Choose the right visualization tools
Heavy use of Excel is a good indicator of an immature budgeting process. More mature processes rely less on spreadsheets, and favor purpose-built FP&A solutions that provide access to common databases, manage data scenarios and related workflows, and ensure transparency.
Selecting the appropriate visualization platforms is the vital, foundational step to elevating your financial analytics. Invest in a solution that will cater to your particular financial data needs, such as powerful reporting functionalities and intuitive dashboards.
Vizlib is, by far, the most trusted solution for Qlik Sense. If you’re to transform your Qlik Sense environment into a cohesive, user-friendly finance platform, Vizlib Finance is the perfect choice.
The interface will be familiar to those who have used spreadsheets, but underneath the hood lies sophisticated, game-changing financial analytics capabilities. This allows CFOs and finance professionals to perform in-depth financial analysis with ease.
If you’d like to learn how we transformed a leading construction company’s financial reportings, check out our Tectum Group success story Qlik + Vizlib: streamlining reporting and extending app usability.
Tip Two: Standardise your reporting
Our next tip is to use standardised templates and reporting formats. Consistency ensures that your team and stakeholders can quickly interpret financial data across different reports, making comparisons and trend analysis easier.
Templates ensure that each report comes with a coherent and brand-appropriate look, for a more professional and bespoke finish.
It’s also easier for less technically adept or time-strapped users, who can benefit from a framework rather than creating reports from scratch.
Vizlib Finance comes with read-to-use templates. The journey from blank page to functional, beautiful report has never been shorter, and it’s jam-packed with customisation options to make them your own!
Tip Three: Embrace interactive features:
Interactive visualizations allow users to drill down into data, revealing more detailed insights. This feature is invaluable for CFOs and the finance teams when they need to investigate specific financial elements or pinpoint why they’re seeing something in a visualization.
Interactivity is very much one of Vizlib’s specialties. We make it easy to add context at a hover, and empower teams to discuss and share financial data securely directly within Qlik Sense.
This brings your financial reporting to life, and makes teamwork much easier.
Tip Four: Ensure data accuracy
Accuracy is always important, but it’s an absolute non-negotiable when it comes to financial data. Implement data validation processes and double-check the integrity of your data sources. Errors in financial data can lead to costly mistakes.
One great way to improve data accuracy and prevent human error is automation. Learn more about how Vizlib helps you implement automated reporting in our blog here.
Tip Five: Drive data adoption
Vizlib Finance is designed with user-friendliness in mind. Those without a technical background can quickly learn to create powerful financial visualizations, and power users will find all the advanced analytics features they require.
This is vital. The true impact of financial visualizations can only be realised when they are created, shared, and discussed throughout your teams and organisations. Promoting adoption through choosing an intuitive solution is key to getting the most out of your analytics, and your investment in Qlik Sense.
Get started with financial data visualization with Qlik and Vizlib?
Want to see more of Qlik + Vizlib in action? View and download examples on our Demo Apps page. You can also book a demo here.
