16th Annual Heartland Regional Council of the IMA Educational ConferenceSeptember 21, 2016

MS Excel: 5 Reports Your CFO Wants (and Probably Doesn’t Have)

PRESENTATIONhttp://bit.ly/cfo-reports-pres

EXCEL WORKBOOKhttp://bit.ly/cfo-reports-excel

Handouts

• Picking up where we left off…deeper dive into reporting▫ Apple, Inc sales analysis by operating segment and

product category (2008 through 2016 ytd, by QTR)• I went right to my network of CFO’s for input on this

session! • We will use Excel to show development of many

reports I mention

About this session…

• General thoughts• Basic management reporting package

Reporting Topics

5 Key Reporting Areas!• Real-time, operational, more predictive reporting• Visualizations• Trailing 12 months (“TTM”, aka “LTM”)• Trending• Mobile

General ThoughtsWhat the CFO’s said…• “Take extra time to make things look professional (clean,

organized, etc.). Put in the effort. It represents who you are.”• “Think beyond the numbers…add value.”• “Pictures are worth a thousand words…anything which shows

trends and anomalies”• “One thing to stress is to be critical of their own work.”• “Attention to detail is important; review your work”• “I don’t want to be a proof-reader; mistakes should be rare…”• “They want information and suggested action steps informed

by the data in a very concise, easy to digest format.”

Basic Mgmt Reporting PackageStatement Comparative Trend LTM Trend

Key Metrics, narrative

Month, YTD, LTM YTD Rolling 12, CUM by Month

P&L Month, YTD, LTM YTD Rolling 12, CUM by Month

Balance Sheets Current Mth, Year-end, Prior Year same month

Rolling 12 months

Cashflows (“Direct” format preferred for internal reptg)

Month, YTD YTD Rolling 12 months

Basic Mgmt Reporting Package - GapsStatement Comparative Trend LTM Trend

Key Metrics, narrative

Month, YTD, LTM YTD Rolling 12, CUM by Month

P&L Month, YTD, LTM YTD Rolling 12, CUM by Month

Balance Sheets Current Mth, Year-end, Prior Year same month

Rolling 12 months

Cashflows (“Direct” format preferred for internal reptg)

Month, YTD YTD Rolling 12 months

What the CFO’s said…• “The reports that I think leaders need are those that predict

the future. We need to see a new orders report so I can start predicting future revenues, profits, etc.”

• “Drill down to G/L account detail by FS line item is one of our goals…”

• “I believe monthly trial balance, bank activity, AR and AP history (not just month or current accounting year – but multiple years with weekly snapshots) is immensely valuable.”

• “Trending of detail from sub-systems – disbursements, payroll, AR, etc. can be very helpful”

Real-time, Operational, Predictive…

• A/R Aging – why 30, 60, 90 buckets?• Disbursements trending reports by vendor• A/P Aging trend to easily manage disbursement

timing• Payroll trends, headcount, FTEs• G/L account analysis / posting level detail• Sales backlog analysis• Cash forecast / rolling projections

Operational - Examples

Family Office Indice Dashboard

Operational Analysis – Family Office Dashboard

What the CFO’s said…• “Pictures are worth a thousand words…anything which shows

trends and anomalies”• “They want information and suggested action steps informed

by the data in a very concise, easy to digest format.”• “Be responsive to your audience. Are you giving them

information that is in a manner conducive to acting on? If you are, it’s visual!”

• “…our growing use of bridge charts (or waterfall). This really is one of the best ways to bring data visualization to life in something that in the past was a reconciliation of some sort. We find a growing use of this across the organization”

Visualizations

Visualizations

Visualizations

Visualizations

What the CFO’s said…• “We get a lot of snapshots and are starting to develop more

trending in our reporting/analysis.”• “We are trying to instill looking at numbers on a trailing time

period, whether 12 months or 4 quarters. This helps identify trends & issues much earlier in the process.”

• “Trending financial information is important to quickly spot potential issues, but it does not come naturally.”

Trending Analysis

• Generally, annualizing data is the best way to get a “feel” for where you are at and more easily spot areas that could be an issue.

• TTM, for comparative purposes, trending – months rolling to TTM, and trending of months on a CUMULATIVE TTM basis.

Trailing 12 Months (“TTM”)

LTM Trends, using Sparklines and

stacked charts for visuals

What the CFO’s said…• “In terms of having the data anytime/ anywhere, it is growing in

importance.”• “The pace of business is constantly accelerating; waiting to have

information routed under old models will have long-term issues.”• “We develop our PPT presentations so they show well on mobile

devices to support our mobile access philosophy.”• “Anytime, anywhere access is reality - as the paradigm shift occurs;

folks realize this will be “the norm” in the future.”• “Mobile is very important. Our executives are time-starved, and

mobile is a way we can help them better leverage their time.”• “Mobile is becoming required vs. nice to have.”

Mobile

Mobile - Excel Skills Assessmenthttp://bit.ly/1vGWGYO

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Assessment dashboard - mobile

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Visuals tell the story from a distance…

Mobile - Smartphone Resource

Mobile – “Highlights” Dashboard

Mobile – “At-A-Glance” Dashboard

Google Docs – Web-based Reporting

• Data • Presentation• Visuals• Trends• Mobile

Takeaways

• Data is everywhere! “How can I leverage this…”• Presentation & attention to detail is critical!• Introduce visuals to convey message• Trends of data• Mobile – always think mobile access

Takeaways

• Search the web▫ “Don Tomoff, Invenio Advisors”

• Flipboard magazines -https://flipboard.com/@dtomoff

Find Don…

Thank you!