Regardless of the size of the business, financial reporting is a mandatory practice. For decades, the reporting process has been tedious and time consuming. Not to mention that it is static and difficult to understand for users unfamiliar with spreadsheets and other number-driven formats, leading to a decline in the quality of their presented data.
As industries become more competitive day by day, the need to present relevant financial data in a more interactive and intuitive format becomes critical. This is where the dashboard comes in.
Basically, a financial dashboard is an analytical tool that visually presents relevant financial data in a visually appealing way in real-time. This makes relevant insights understandable for the average user, simplifies the decision-making process and makes it more accessible to every relevant stakeholder.
To keep up with their potential, here are 5 benefits you can apply to your company.
Get a centralized view of financial data
As mentioned, financial dashboards are an interactive analytics tool that provides a centralized view of your most important key performance indicators. Although static financial reports in the form of PowerPoint presentations and Excel sheets have been used for decades, they do not provide the level of interaction needed to make quick decisions in today’s competitive landscape.
Dashboards enable you to visualize your most relevant data sources on a single screen, allowing you to gain effective insights into your performance and make informed decisions to ensure financial stability.
Save time and resources
Creating a manual report is always a daunting task that involves a lot of manual work. Modern financial dashboards can be created and updated automatically in real-time. That way, you’ll always have the latest data in your hands and be able to avoid the hassle of manually collecting and updating data in the past.
This real-time access will allow you to identify any issues and deal with them before they grow up. In the long run, your business will save money and time that can be invested in implementing performance improvement initiatives.
Financial forecast
Thanks to modern predictive analytics technology, financial dashboards allow their users to create accurate performance predictions. By analyzing a mix of historical and current performance data, financial dashboards can make assumptions about revenue and expenditure as well as any unplanned situations that may affect them.
Financial forecasting always depends on skilled experts. Modern dashboards offer a self-service method that lets you create predictions with just a few clicks. In this way, financial managers can decide where to allocate their annual budget based on the given insights.
Increase profitability
Increasing profits is one of the main goals of any finance department. Having 24/7 access to financial data through an interactive dashboard allows any relevant stakeholder to stay on top of any recent developments as well as closely monitor progress against the business’s core financial goals. It gives management the ability to find trends, patterns and opportunities for improvement that will move the company forward.
Over time, this will lead to a significant increase in profitability which will also present a great competitive advantage.
Improve communication
Last but not least, using modern financial dashboards can significantly improve internal communication and efficiency. Financial Analysis Tools offers the possibility to create online dashboards that can be easily shared and accessed from any device with an Internet connection. Accessibility enables employees at this level to use data for their decision-making process and collaborate with others to implement initiatives to move the finance department forward.
And not only that, these analytics tools are user-friendly, making them easy for an average business user to create and navigate.
In short, modern financial dashboards create a common language among different business users, helping those who have more financial experience to find the data of those who have less experience and use it to increase performance. Visualizing your most important financial indicators in a central position will allow you to reach your core goals and focus your efforts on improving operational efficiency.
With all of these benefits in mind, dashboards have become a well-established practice for successful financial management, and companies that offer their full potential will differentiate themselves from the competition.
