A presentation at the #IMA Heartland Regional Council Educational Session on September 21, 2016 (This was the 2nd of 2 presentations)

1. 16th Annual Heartland Regional
Council of the IMA Educational
Conference
September 21, 2016
MS Excel: 5 Reports Your CFO Wants
(and Probably Doesn’t Have)

2. PRESENTATION
http://bit.ly/cfo-reports-pres
EXCEL WORKBOOK
http://bit.ly/cfo-reports-excel
Handouts

3. • 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…

4. • 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

5. General Thoughts
What 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.”

6. Basic Mgmt Reporting Package
Statement 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

7. Basic Mgmt Reporting Package - Gaps
Statement 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

8. 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…

9. • 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

10. Family Office Indice Dashboard
Operational Analysis – Family Office Dashboard

11. 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

12. Visualizations

13. Visualizations

14. Visualizations

15. 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

16. • 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”)

17. LTM Trends, using
Sparklines and
stacked charts for
visuals

18. 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

19. Mobile - Excel Skills Assessment
http://bit.ly/1vGWGYO
19

20. Assessment dashboard - mobile
20
Visuals tell the story
from a distance…

21. Mobile - Smartphone Resource

22. Mobile – “Highlights” Dashboard

23. Mobile – “At-A-Glance” Dashboard
Google Docs – Web-based Reporting

25. • Data
• Presentation
• Visuals
• Trends
• Mobile
Takeaways

26. • 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

27. • Search the web
▫ “Don Tomoff, Invenio Advisors”
• Flipboard magazines -
https://flipboard.com/@dtomoff
Find Don…
Thank you!