AFP GUIDE TO

Data Visualization: How to Tell

Number Stories with Pictures
FP&A Guide Series

Sponsored by

Issue 6

AFP GUIDE TO

Data Visualization: How to Tell

Number Stories with Pictures
FP&A Guide Series
Sponsored by

Contents

1
2
4
6
7
8

Sidebar: Tips on dashboards

Sidebar: Taking dashboards to the next level

13

Sidebar: Dont give up on tables

16

Sidebar: Pie charts

17

Sidebar: Software packages

19

Conclusion

18

Checklist: Best practices

21

Checklist: Things to avoid

22

Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams are increasingly being challenged to produce
and organize financial data, and also convey it through intuitive images.
Without the ability to organize and present data efficiently, decision-making takes longer.
Information can also become lost or outdated. Moreover, understanding the story may
become difficult for not only FP&A teams, but more importantly, for management and key
decision makers.
FP&A teams need a reliable, efficient, and interconnected method of organizing and presenting
their financial data. Telling a story simply and effectively through intuitive images makes it
easy to communicate and collaborate throughout all levels of the companygiving
management more time to interpret and make critical decisions.
With this in mind, Workiva is pleased to partner with the Association for Financial
Professionals (AFP) to produce this AFP Guide to Data Visualization: How to Tell Number
Stories with Pictures.
This guide explores how finance professionals look at data visualization as a way to solve
problems, identify patterns, and understand whats driving organizational performance.
The guide also provides real-world examples of how FP&A teams are implementing
visualization today.
As FP&A teams explore ways to provide better visual representations of their data, they also
should look for reporting solutions that enable them to:
Create intuitive and compelling stories easily using graphs and charts, with the ability
to drill down or show high-level trends on strategic measures showing business
performance to multiple audiences within their organization
Ensure one central source of truth for information that can be linked into financial reports,
dynamic, at-a-glance dashboards to management, and presentations that enable readers
to digest key messages rapidly
Encourage collaborative and productive conversations to identify and find answers to key
business questions that will improve the quality of analysis, so insights are communicated
to executive management and the board more efficiently
Companies are pushing hard for better graphical representation of data. FP&A teams are
expected to visualize whats important without distracting from the key message at hand.
Interacting and reporting data from one central data set will play an integral role in telling a
story with accurate and consistent information across charts, graphs, and dashboards.
Joseph Howell
Managing Director and Co-Founder
Workiva

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Executive Summary
Graphical excellence is the well-designed presentation of interesting data a matter of substance, of statistics, and of
design. Graphical excellence consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision and efficiency. Graphical
excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the
smallest amount space. Edward R. Tufte
Financial planning and analysis professionals are increasingly using charts and graphs to visualize data, interact with
information, and present it to senior management and the
board to tell stories and drive important conversations.
Graphical information is more intuitively absorbed in
our minds and can capture large amounts of data in a
much more succinct format, allowing FP&A to spot
and show trends, patterns and anomalies more effectively.
Using graphics, finance professionals can tell better stories, pinpoint action items, and create effective
dashboards that allow management to see the business at
a glance. These dashboards need to be tailored to audiences more high-level for the board, more detailed for
operations. However, they should all draw on the same
set of data, or version of the truth.
FP&A professionals are only beginning to use highlevel visualization to interact more effectively with their
data, perform their own analyses, validate hypotheses, ask

www.AFPonline.org

deeper questions, and prepare presentations for senior

management. They can do so at increasing rates of speed,
which means more time to think and analyze, more
dynamic, real-time analysis and reporting, and less time
spent collecting data and struggling with creating charts.
New tools are emerging that allow analysts to use
data visualization to dig into patterns and identify
problem areas quickly, often tied directly to the companys performance database. Going forward, interactive
data tools will allow finance professionals to not only
confirm hypotheses, but ask additional questions and
continue to interact with the data to explore new areas,
thus providing continuous feedback to management.
As the use of data visualization becomes more widely
used by finance, which many say is lagging compared to
areas like marketing and sales, it will unleash a greater
power of analytics and enable professionals to deal with
an increasing amount of data.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Introduction: The Trend

Survey shows more finance professionals are looking to data
visualization to help solve problems, identify patterns and
anomalies, and understand whats driving their
organizational performance.
The trend toward greater use of visualization among
FP&A professionals is still growing. A lot of them are
still focused on numbers, said Craig Schiff, president
and CEO of BPM Partners, a vendor-neutral advisory services firm specializing in business performance
management (BPM) and business intelligence solutions.
However, the data from the 2014 BPM Pulse Survey
of finance professionals shows the desire for change is
strong. Asked if they require data visualization beyond
typical charts or graphs offered in Excel, 40 percent of
the finance professionals surveyed responded that they
do. Thats a large and growing number, Schiff noted.
More interactive features scored highest (71 percent)
when asked what kind of data visualization capability
respondents would like to have. They really want to
understand whats going on behind the scenes. Graphics
are great. The important thing is that not all the visualization tools provide the ability to drill back into the
detail to broaden your own understanding of the graph
that brought the issue to your attention. Fifty percent
of respondents also wanted more chart types and tools
in order to present the data with specialized graphics.
The last question the survey asked about data visualization is from what source respondents would prefer
to acquire these tools. The choices were: third-party
providers, included in their performance management
solution, or doesnt matter. According to the results, 71
percent preferred that the data visualization capabilities
be integrated into the core product. One of the challenges of the third-party tools is how to connect them to
the source data, Schiff said. That integration is already
built into the budgeting tools. Those systems also speak
the financial language and are designed for business
end-user self-sufficiency. Many of the standalone tools
require more IT knowledge to connect them to the data
sources. We believe that data visualization is a growing trend, and there is still a lot of opportunity for the
vendors to add value.

Do you require data visualization capabilities

beyond standard charts and graphs?

24.0%
35.1%

Yes
No
Not sure

40.9%

What data visualization capabilities do you

need that you are not getting today? (select
all that apply)
70.6%

More interactive
More chart types
(heat chart, fractals,
tree map, bubble
chart, etc.)

56.5%

Access to more
data sources
(internal)

43.5%

Access to more
data sources
(external)
Not sure

21.2%
7.1%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Where would you prefer to get these data

visualization capabilities from?

15.3%
11.8%
72.9%

Included in
performance
management
solution
Doesnt matter
Third-party
solution that
may access my
performance
management
data

Source: BPM Partners 2014 BPM Pulse Survey

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Most humans are wired for visual learning and understanding, said Gary Cokins of Analytics-Based Performance Management and co-author of Predictive Analytics: Forward Looking Capabilities to Improve Business
Performance. Very few people can examine data tables
and pick out trends or grasp big-picture issues, he
continued. Even statisticians and data scientists who
are better equipped than most to deal with data in all its
forms benefit from graphical interpretations.
Data scientists and business analysts need to be able to
communicate in straightforward, visual ways with broad
and diverse audiences. FP&A professionals consistently seek better ways to support decision-makers, said
Madison Laird, CFO of Funding Profiles, a visualization
software provider that brings together finance executives
from companies such as HP, Microsoft, Citigroup, Cisco
and IBM. Theres increasing pressure from the CEO and
COO to view finance as a keeper of the facts and provider
of key insights. They dont want a series of data points or
another fact pact. They want the analysis that helps them
decide on a strategic direction for the organization.
FP&A spends a large amount of time managing large
amounts of information, to craft a lot of insight. A lot of
time is spent taking numbers and presenting them in a
compelling way, said Joe Howell, managing director and
co-founder of Workiva. Visualization gives data credibility.
It gives credence to what theyve done, he said.

Tell a story in an intuitive way

Finance professionals are increasingly turning to images,
such as graphs and charts, to find out whats going on
behind the scenes, and to create more compelling stories that
drive decisions and spotlight action items for management,
the board, and operational leaders.
The ultimate goal of data visualization is to present a
story and highlight whats important. Data visualization
begins with telling a story, but its power is in enabling
the next question to be answered, said Mike Saliter,
vice president of global market development at Qlik, a
provider of data visualization software.
Historically, visualization has been more focused
on empowering people to confirm their intuition and
to validate a hypothesis as part of the underlying data
through analysis. However, the market is shifting, said

www.AFPonline.org

Saliter. Theres a current trend to better communicate

and share findings with others. The concept of data
story telling enables you to wrap the interactive visualization and data with a narrative.
The challenge has always been to present a story and
to communicate it in a more operational, practical way,
said Sherri Liao, EPM advisory U.S. practice leader of
The Hackett Group. The idea is to understand the
outcome and the action items that management needs to
pursue. People are more visual. Using data visualization
allows FP&A professionals to more effectively say what
theyre seeing in terms of financial results.
Thats why heat maps have such an immediate and intuitive impact: red is negative, green is positive. When theres a
lot of red on the map, people are visually motivated to ask
the important questions. Its more intuitive, said Liao.
I think speed of insight is the key, added Jim
OConnor, principal with The Hackett Group. For the
last 20 years, FP&A got out of the transactional side
and more into analytical. With visualization, they have
the capacity to do that. The reality is that executives are
busy. To tell an effective story, you need a concise dashboard with insightful graphs.
Stephen Few, author of Show Me the Numbers:
Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, takes it one
step further. Because of their visual nature, graphs tap
into the incredible power of visual perception to communicate quantitative information. When the story that
you wish to tell is contained in the datas patterns, trends
and exceptions; or when it depends on your audiences
ability to compare entire series of values to one another a graph will do the job best but only if you avoid all
too common design flaws.
Different vendors and consultants have developed
a number of effective visual components to aid their
customers. However, according to Karuna Mukherjea,
senior director of Product Marketing at SAP, this has
created a problem. The issue were running in to is that
there are too many visual components that are not standardized, she said. Different consultants do it in different ways. We need to work with an organization whose
mission is to standardize the visualized components. The
idea is to view the visual components like musical notes
there are so many different types of music, but the
notes used to create them are the same.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Senior management needs to see, in one glance, the

five metrics that best illustrate the health of the business.
It comes down to not only breaking it down to visualized components but to how and where the business is
going, which is more important from an engagement
and interaction standpoint, said Mukherjea. Getting
those visual elements that can tell the story behind the
data is taking that big data component that we have in
finance today and telling the story for the data.
The trick is to visualize whats important, said Howell. People sometime visualize whats easy versus what
matters, or what looks good rather than whats important. That can be distracting from the point and from
the message. You have to tell a story prior to even getting
into the room with them.
Wdesk by Workiva builds a single source network of
an organizations most valuable data, helping to create consistency of information across all departments.
Thats central to our product, Howell explained. You
use the same data set. Its not about fancy artwork. Its
about how you tie it all together.

Practitioner perspective
When explaining financial results to executives whose
first language isnt numbers, finance professionals should
start by educating them at a macro level and defining key
metrics. As a general rule, the simpler the graphics used
to convey the information, the better.
According to Jim Robertson, vice president of FP&A at
Emeritus, one should always start by asking: Whats the best
way to communicate the story to the audience? The story
needs to be a standalone document, he said. You never
know where a presentation is going to end up. You cant
assume that any of your key points will be highlighted unless
theyre in the document. Build a presentation that someone
who is smart, but not necessarily knowledgeable about the
topic, can pick up and get the point youre trying to make.
Graphics can be very a very powerful tool when telling a story with quantitative data, especially if you are
trying to draw particular attention to a salient topic, or if
you are trying to summarize large quantities of data in a
meaningful way, said Irena Barisic, deputy CFO of the
Brookings Institution. However, she cautioned, Graphics always have to be presented in context, or introduced
as part of a larger context, in order to tell the full story.

Data visualization can also help promote clearer

understanding by turning big data into small data. For
example, You can use a simple line graph to show a 5to 15-year trend on profitability, said Barisic. Clearly a
significant amount of data goes into generating profitability figures, especially when we are trying to look
at results over multiple years. All of this data can be
presented with a clear message of trend and potentially
even forward forecasting in one line graph.
However, its important to use graphics that are not
intimidating or difficult to assimilate. In some instances
it may be appealing to use graphs over tables, said Barisic, but if individual values need to be identified, then
tables are a more appropriate medium to use even if they
might be slightly less visually appealing.
For all their positives, there are times when graphics
are not the appropriate medium to convey a message.
Sometimes a simple summary in a Word document or
a PowerPoint slide with bullet-points suffices. Youve
got to be selective and match the display medium to the
story, said Barisic.
The trend is toward more visualization, said Bruce
Hunt, vice president of FP&A for a technology company. It doesnt matter whether its a table or a graph, what
matters is that the person using it can grasp the underlying meaning of whats being presented.

Ask the right questions

The power of data visualization lies in its ability to drive
strategic decisions by helping management find the answers
to key business questions.
According to Graham Wills, RAVE chief architect
and statistician with IBM SPSS, any successful data
visualization project starts with clearly identifying your
goals, which starts by asking the right questions. Is the
goal is to assist in managing global risk and governance,
to increase sales, or something else? Assuming its about
risk, youd probably want to know which areas are most
risky, or where do things go unreported? Visualization
will answer those questions, said Wills.
A successful image asks and answers multiple questions. Visualization almost always asks better questions, said Wills. For example, where do problems occur
that are not handled rapidly, how long does it take for

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

them to be handled, and what is their geographical location? You have to be able to answer the broader questions so people can discover more about the problem,
he said. Its a sort of partnership with the user.
Its also important to try to tie in predictive analytics, continued Wills. If something happens, what is
the total amount of money youre predicted to lose, and
should you be concerned about the average amount or
the big amounts that are the outliers? Thats the data you
choose to highlight and the context for the analytics.
The measure of value or success of a visualization project
is whether it helped answer the questions.
In order to be able to tailor the image to the audience,
You have to be asking the right questions, said Amanda
Pype, user researcher at Tableau Software, a leading visualization software provider. What do they want to know? The
most important thing is to understand the audience and
what theyre trying to get out of the data. Also, use charts
that they can easily understand, she advised. You dont want
to spend 10 minutes explaining the chart.
One key concern is the reliability of the forecast,
according to Andrew Mosely, director at Metapraxis, a
London-based visualization vendor. Across all indus-

tries, the most common business question is: how credible are the forecasts of our business units? said Mosely.
And when a forecast appears either too optimistic or
overly pessimistic, how can our FP&A team present the
data visually to support their dialogue with the business?
Every business needs to be on top of its numbers. The
challenge is finding out as soon as possible if youre not
going to make that forecast rather than being presented
with an impossible last-minute challenge. Having time
to take action puts you back in control.
Metapraxis software contains a calculation engine that
creates statistical scenarios, which are then presented visually to show trends and variances. Alternative scenarios
are automatically created, against which you can test the
management forecast, according to Mosely. We call this
visualization the Windsock chart (see below).
The Windsock chart tracks the evolution of the
subsidiarys updated year-end forecasts throughout the financial year, comparing them against the annual budget,
prior year performance and a statistical risk range. The
chart shows that the current management forecast for
Net Sales is at the very top of the current risk range and
may be too optimistic.

Western Europe Net Sales Windsock

www.AFPonline.org

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

To provide context, an accepted practice by analysts

is to first establish a hypothesis in the learning stage of
analysis, said Cokins, and then to validate or refute the
hypothesis in the confirmation stage. The key is to establish a high-gain hypothesis, which, if confirmed, can lead
to substantial favorable actions with results. An example
of a hypothesis is: Which type of consumer segment is
most likely to respond to deal, discount, or offer? An
effective way for analysts to communicate the hypothesis
they intend to test is to initially involve those who will be
making decisions based on the outcome of the test. Revisions from their inputs can then be made.
To make your chart is an act of what Randall Bolten, a
former Silicon Valley CFO and author of Painting with
Numbers: Presenting Financials and Other Numbers So
People Will Understand You, calls quantation. Quantation is the act of presenting numbers, e.g., financial
results presented electronically or in a written form, for
the purpose of informing the audience.
To make data valuable and meaningful to your audience
you need to have a sense of what decisions the people in your
audience are facing, what problems they are facing, how they
think about those decisions and problems, and your own
ultimate goal in preparing your report, said Bolten.

Practitioner perspective
According to Barisic, when sharing financial information, the focus is to keep the executive team informed,
as well as to facilitate decision-making and performance
measurement. In order to accomplish these goals:
Use simplified terminology to convey financial
results, assumptions, and conclusions.
Focus on the most salient points and provide sufficient but concise information without being overly
technical and detailed.
The financial discussion needs to be high level and
tied to business strategy. Executives are generally
action-oriented with a forward focus; therefore, you
should always answer the following questions:
- Why does this data matter?
- What impact does the financial result/conclusion
have on us today and in the future?
Be audience-specific.
Always be prepared to discuss any financial information in more detail should it become necessary.

Identifying patterns
Graphs are at their most powerful when helping finance
professionals, and by extension, management, identify
patterns and anomalies. Visualization, particularly of large
amount of data, can reveal trends and deviation from
trends that can compel management to ask the important
questions and take corrective action where necessary.
Visualization can help you see and understand patterns in your own data and help you communicate those
pattern to others. The visual nature of graphs endows
them with their unique power to reveal patterns of various types, including changes, differences, similarities
and exceptions, writes Few. Graphs can communicate
quantitative relationships that are much more complex
than the simple associations between individual quantitative values that tables can express.
According to Pype, Visualization allows you to
understand data holistically, she said. Once you start
looking at graphs, its easier to spot the outliers. Its
incredibly powerful as a complement to statistical information. If you need to show more than one number,
theres no better tool for communicating with others.
For example, how do I compare one region to another?
A visual representation is almost always better when
it comes to comparing patterns. Its highly efficient. A
well-crafted visualization allows the audience to see the
important information immediately.
Visualization is not adding tremendous value when its
in the hand of an analyst whos doing basic profit and loss
(P&L) or balance sheet analytics. According to Schiff, it
starts gaining power when finance professionals are examining high volumes of data in order to spot trends.
Graphics can clearly highlight the trends, particularly
things like activities by certain types of customers, where
manually looking through large amounts of data would
be simply impossible, he said. Putting graphics on top
of analysis intended for a wider audience is important.
The main benefit is the opportunity to clearly communicate your findings to others, especially when you go
outside of finance.
Another place where graphics can be helpful is in
looking at variances, from forecast or budget. You can
chart actual versus the forecast or budget and explain
the trend. Using simple tools like stop lights or gauges

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

can make it clear even to the most casual user where

you stand in terms of achieving targets. A key point
to appreciate for the CFOs finance and accounting
function is that columns-and-rows tables, typically from
spreadsheets, cannot reveal trends, outliers, or key items
for attention, said Cokins.
Pie charts, graphs, and histograms are arguably the
most popular ways to display table data. Advanced
methods can use three-dimensional views (e.g., sales
by product type, region, and customer segment). Even
more advanced features have real-time interactive
features where one can slide the cursor on an independent variable in the graph (e.g., sales volume), and the
dependent variables (e.g., profits) will instantly reflect
the change.
In terms of live data visualization, thats still in an
innovative stage and has improved the quality of the
conversation where its available, Liao said. You can
understand whats going on faster. You can better understand performance, gross margins, product margin and
market share.
Heat maps are one of the most popular mediums
for live data visualization. Another is geographical area
maps, which are helpful in answering questions such
as: are we doing better in Asia or Europe? You can look
at each shipping location, its collections delays, and its
number of customer complaints due to delays, and link
the three data points to find the common root. Charts
make it easier to understand, said Liao. It helps complete the story.
Visualization can improve the quality of analysis
so that insight gets generated more efficiently. This
enables FP&A to communicate more effectively with
the executive managers and directors of the business,
said Mosely. Visualization facilitates this dialogue. It
also harnesses the power of the human visual system to
digest key messages rapidly. Visualizations can be more
engaging than tables, particularly when they are designed to answer a well-thought-out business question.

www.AFPonline.org

Tailor the image to your audience

Most FP&A professionals and experts agree that data
visualization should be matched to the audience, with
simpler images for boards and senior management. The idea
is to quickly communicate key business indicators, pinpoint
areas of action, and raise key questions. Thats not always an
easy balance to achieve.
If you dont think carefully about the balance between
complete, accurate and useful for your particular audience, they might not get what they need to get out of your
reports, and then all of your work, collecting and presenting your information, may be for naught, said Bolten.
The visualization design and layout has to fit the audience. Its definitely not one-size-fits-all, said Saliter.
Its a best practice to tailor the interface to meet the
expected level of interactivity and analysis.
CEOs and executives need to see very high-level trends
and indicators, according to Saliter. They need to see
if things are trending up or down, but they often dont
need the same level of interactivity and drill down that
management and business analysts need.
Analysts need to be able to dissect the numbers and
ask the next question. You need a lot more self-service
and the ability to investigate, he said. Ive seen situations where companies tried to offer the same level of
analytical self-service to the board and senior executives,
and adoption was low. It actually creates a negative effect
since senior executives can get turned off or intimidated
by too many bells and whistles.
According to Bolten, The most important thing you
can do is keep their [audience] needs in mind when you
design your reports if you want to inform, enlighten, advise, guide, warn or even entertain, the most important
thing you must do is reach your audience. No matter
what your objectives are, if you cant reach the audience,
you wont be able to communicate with them.
When you present to the board or senior executives,
present your information in trend lines. Dont give them
just one or two spots, said Ivan Koon, a former FP&A
professional who now works as an adviser to start-up
companies. Be consistent in how you present information. Your executive team and the board must be able
to instantly tell how the business is trending over time.
Show exceptions through the same set of graphs. Those

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

graphs should illustrate where/when the lines have

changed and why the exception happened. Make it really
quick and easy to explain business trends. If you do that,
you can save so much time by anticipating their questions, and help decision-making to move forward faster.

Practitioner perspective
The biggest challenge in communicating financial
information really depends on the audience, according to the vice president of finance at a multinational
technology corporation. When you have a broad, mixed
bag of audiences, with some who understand numbers
and some who dont, you have to strike the right balance
between detail and conceptual information, he said.
Finance is often about very precise messages, for example,
revenue is reported with precision. The challenge is to keep
it broad enough for the audience to understand what youre
trying to say versus trying to deep dive, said the vice president of finance. In my work, Ive learned that graphics that
are simple work more effectively, he said. They have to be
connected to the story youve got to tell and the top-level
message youre trying to communicate.
Thats true of both senior level executives and broader
audiences. It doesnt mean you dont have to be armed
with the details behind it. Keeping it simple and wellstructured is the most important thing.
To tailor the presentation, think about the nuance
you need to include and the degree of detail you need to
provide, he said. With broader audiences, you may use a
detailed view of next years budget, but your presentation
to senior executives would be different. Its an adjustment that takes time. Thats the biggest challenge, he
said. Most finance folks have the data but also have
many presentations to do. Its time consuming to actively
keep tailoring those messages.
David Mann is director of financial planning and
performance of Tufts Health Plan, a health management company with $4 billion in revenue. According
to Mann, the biggest challenge in communicating data
is in ensuring executives feel ownership of the numbers
so they actually care. The second biggest challenge is
including the right level of details.
The question is what material things they need to
know to manage their business, he said. As a result,
every deck is different and in a digestible format. It goes

to the key information that they need to see, and the

frequency with which they need to see it.
From a graphics perspective, every executive and every
company is different. A lot depends on culture. In my
previous company, most of the communication was
through graphics, said Mann. This company is more
numbers oriented. They see graphics as potentially hiding the truth. Culture is huge in the role graphics play.
Theres a clear executive preference in how they like to
view things.
According to Hunt, the message has to be tailored
to the board and executive committee. These are very
smart people who see multiple presentations each day.
Its very important to include the key takeaway from
each graph in the actual image. As you go down the
chain, you provide more detail and need not highlight
the key takeaway because the audience is close enough to
the story to get it instantly.

Constructing dashboards
Dashboards are perhaps the most common use of visual
displays, particularly those used by finance professionals to
communicate key financial metrics to senior management.
Creating an effective dashboard is no easy task: most struggle
with selecting the right charts and striking the right balance
between high-level visualization and detail.
According to BPMs Schiff, its important to keep the
content of your visual dashboard simple and specifically
relevant to your audience. A dashboard is an opportunity to think about whats important to this business,
include only a handful of strategic key measures and how
the business is performing against them, so you really
focus on whats important, he said.
Laird found that as soon as you develop a dashboard,
its relevant for a quarter. Then management says, what
we really need to see is this. They want a different format. It becomes a moving target, he said.
What were seeing is a trend to seek out advisors who
can provide more agile analysis to explain the implications of the data. Executives, in my experience, are very
short-sighted. They want someone to tell them what the
right decisions are. They want trusted advisors who can
be agile enough to answer the tough questions. Thats
not something any application can provide.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Creating dashboards is ultimately a presentation

exercise, not an analytics effort, said Joseph DAscoli
managing director, Office of CFO Solutions at FTI
Consulting. Effective dashboards utilize a variety of
techniques, from spark-lines to color variations, but
the key is the relation of the technique to the data and
insight being shared. We strive for clarity and preservation of white space in our dashboards to avoid information overload and focus on the key takeaways from
the data.
One of the main reasons that dashboards work is
that they flatten multiple data displays into a single
space. This allows the viewer to draw connections between several analyses and understand the data as much
more than the sum of its charts. Dashboards should
be designed to maximize this effect, allowing the user
to understand the interrelations of the data displayed,
he said.
Additionally, DAscoli said, providing context is
essential to dashboard creation. Data visualization tools
enable data summarization with averages, standard
deviations, upper and lower quartiles allowing viewers
to easily understand the datas context. Avoiding the
snapshot tendency and blindness to trends is critical;
effective dashboards also provide derivative or change
over time information.
According to SAPs Pype, to design an effective
dashboard, youve got to know your audience. Things
can get really cluttered really fast, she said. If its in an
interactive dashboard, give a good overview first and
allow users to filter and drill down to relevant details.
And be sure to create different dashboards for different
audiences. The interaction should lead them to ask
the questions they need to ask. Anticipating the question will support the users analytical flow.
When creating a dashboard, simplicity is key. Dont
just build it and throw it over the wall, said Saliter.
It needs to be an iterative creation process. Show it to the
users. Get feedback and adjust by incorporating that feedback into the next iteration. (See examples next page.)

www.AFPonline.org

Tips on dashboards
Following are some tips from
DAscoli to help you design an
effective dashboard.
Include only the information that
is relevant to the decisions senior
managers will be making. There is
a propensity to include all available data and metrics. This defeats
the purpose of the dashboard and
will make it difficult to identify key
pieces of information that will drive
better business decisions.
Keep the metrics strategic, objective
and measurable. Example: In finance,
its not important to measure the number of projects implemented; we want
to know what impact those projects
had on company performance.
Provide a clean, consistent dashboard that conveys insight. Many
dashboards include a plethora of
colors, graphs, and fonts. Competing
or inconsistent use of color will draw
the eye in a variety of directions and
confuse the audience as to what the
colors mean. A variety of graphs
require the reader to continually
decipher the meaning, slowing them
down as they work to interpret the
meaning of each type of visual.
It is essential to design effective,
actionable dashboards. It is often
the case that a report suggests
something counter-intuitive to
corporate thinking or tradition, so
the information included must be
defensible and accurate. The design
must demonstrate knowledge of
business processes in order to
inspire confidence.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Dashboard Examples: Qlik

Finance KPIs: Executive CFO dashboard combining key performance indicators from multiple
data sources, including unstructured commentary data.

Credit Risk: Financial risk KPIs and heat map showing concentrations of risk across different
dimensions (e.g., industry, customer, country, credit manager).

10

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Exec Dashboard: Inventory analysis from a supply chain provider that correlates inventory
against sales and expenses.

Practitioner perspective
The message needs to be tailored to the audience. How
thats done depends on the objective of the message, according to Barisic. For the board and for senior management, I
prepare materials with a high-level focus, including only the
most salient points necessary for decision-making, over the
horizon risk management, or as support in strategic objectives development, she said. For operational leaders, the
focus is on more detailed, specific and technical information.
Operational leaders need information to enable their day-today decision-making, so messaging needs to be focused and
more frequent.
Before even beginning the dashboard design, I think
very carefully about the objectives of the dashboard, the
messages that it should convey, the audience who will
utilize the dashboard, as well as the frequency of data updating and dashboard dissemination, Barisic continued.

www.AFPonline.org

Once she has that information, Barisic decides what

data she needs to collect. She then sketches the graphs
on paper and moves them around so that the real estate
of the one-page dashboard is utilized most efficiently and
effectively. I also ensure that related data is not fragmented, she said. When shes satisfied with the design,
Barisic moves the graphs into Excel where I make
further iterations based on how well the graphs I have
chosen actually convey the story I wish to tell.
As for the level of detail, dashboards should portray
information in a clear, concise, meaningful and efficient
way, according to Barisic. Dashboards are meant to
provide an at-a-glance monitoring, which can only be
achieved if the level of detail is minimized based on
the audience, she said. Summarized information that
requires additional detail once initially reviewed should
be provided as a supplement to the dashboard.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

11

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Ultimately, Barisic said, dashboard design and development is an iterative process. Even when the initial
draft is completed and presented to the audience, we
should be receiving and welcoming additional feedback
on the dashboard itself and how well it is communicating to the audience. This feedback is then incorporated
into future iterations of the dashboard.
Barisic sticks to one page or a single screen for at-aglance review. Measures that are related and need to
be reviewed together should be on the same page (basic
visual perception and data visualization studies). Fragmenting data is not recommended when data shown is
linked and needs to be viewed together. This is not only
important for dashboards, but for the design of other
financial management tools as well (e.g., financial system
design, particularly data entry screens).
The goal of a dashboard is to communicate information to an audience in a simple, clear and effective way,
Barisic said. This means that we need to fully understand the objectives of the audience before designing the
dashboard. Once we have a good understanding of their
objectives, we have to decide on an appropriate display
media to use: graph types or well-designed tables. We
need to know how to organize dashboard information so
that data is meaningfully and effectively organized and
not fragmented.
Consistency is also important. Choose a display media or two and stick to them, said Barisic. If you have
multiple display media, such as bar charts, line charts,
tables, etc. in one dashboard, the viewer will need to
adjust their view and perception to absorb the layout and
message of each display/. This adjustment takes time
that most executives have very little of, especially if they
are trying to very quickly make a decision.
To assess whether a chart is good or not, I look to see
if the graph enables me to process all of the data quickly,
Barisic said. The question she asks is: Can I easily interpret
the graph, and is my focus drawn to data or some other
aspect of the graph? She also looks to see if the information
is presented via an appropriate media/graph type. Then I
continue to evaluate the scaling and labeling and the use of
color. Has everything that needs to be eliminated from the
graph been done so that the focus is on data only?

12

According to the high-tech company finance director,

the company uses multiple dashboards with numerical
information for the finance folks who want to see the
numbers behind the image. The dashboards are almost
always daily and include some graphics. While he says
that there are no hard-and-fast rules on how to design
good dashboards, We try to design them to fit the
broadest set of users and make them highly legible and
consistent, he said.
yvind Strand, business domain responsible for
finance, HR and CRM for the Business Intelligence
Competency Centre at Norwegian risk management firm
DNV GL, has been working with maritime, technology and energy performance management and business
intelligence his entire career. The objective of DNV GL,
he said, is to make itself and its core customer smarter,
safer and greener. We use performance management and
fact-based analytics to differentiate ourselves, he said. The
dashboards are thus not only used internally but also in
customer interface.
The whole objective with KPIs is to support everybody in the organization to make better decisions and
to contribute to developing the company, he said.
And the main challenge is to ensure the measurement
generates action. The problem is often that employees
cannot see how their actions fit into the overall goal.
So visualization is for top management as well as for
providing line-of-sight to employees so they can see how
they contribute to the goals on a daily basis. Customer
service managers or key account managers must be able
to see how to work toward the customer, improving
the services provided and business processes in order to
contribute to the strategy and growth.
We were challenged to trigger engagement and
introduce celebration of good results not just red
flags. Over the past 3-4 years, we have tried to wrap this
information into a good story, because good stories always have a compelling advantage, said Strand. When
we started to work with a strategic KPI dashboard, it
was mainly meant for senior management, but then it
became about getting everyone in the organization to
understand our main objectives and strategy and to see
beyond their daily work.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

DNV GL Dashboard

Source: DNV GL. Data shown is for illustration purposes only and does not reflect DNVs real status.

According to Fleishman, the most effective dashboards are one-pagers that are not too dense and use all
the information on the slide to tell a story in a unique
way. Hes a fan of switching out the graphs so people
dont get used to seeing the same thing every week and
are instead drawn to the new image. It gets people attention because its new, he said. Adding a little text to
explain the visual is also very helpful.

Mann disagrees. When I think about what graphics to

show, I think about two things: information thats recurring on a monthly or weekly basis that should have a consistent format and consistent graphics, for example P&L;
and expenses on a monthly basis versus budget, performance metrics. You need to establish a common format.
That makes it easy for executives to scan the report and
instantly get a sense for how the business is performing.

Taking dashboards to the next level

According to Strand, The best way to become smarter and differentiate yourself is to
give the customer something thats not offered by others. In the maritime area, for
example, our customers must ensure that their vessels comply with a number of quality
standards. For instance, the port authorities control the vessels coming to port. If they do
not comply with the requirements, they will get deficiencies and, in the worst cases, be
detained and not allowed to leave port. This is a big threat to the ship owners.
Port authority controls mean higher costs and loss of income for the ship owner, he said.
We have systems in which we track a lot of data related to a customers vessels and the
segments that are natural to benchmark them against. We are able to assist them in
identifying the problems, analyzing possible causes, and recommending improvement
activities all based on the available information our customer service managers
possesses through this performance dashboard. Its not about the data only. It sparks
dialogue with customers and builds trust between us.

www.AFPonline.org

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

13

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Example Dashboard #1

Not everyone tailors the message to specific audiences. Interestingly, from a visual standpoint, we
communicate a good bit of the same information in
the same form to different audiences, said Dan McGowan, CEO of Pioneer NV Federal Credit Union.
For instance, its not uncommon at our monthly staff
meetings for employees to see some of the very same
PowerPoint slides the board sees at its meeting, he
said. A big part of the reason for that is a desire to
be transparent to all stakeholders. Still, he said, We

14

note that some of the associated verbal commentary may

be modified to fit the audience.
The dashboard the credit union uses has been nationally
recognized more than once as an example of best practices
in the field. Admittedly, to the casual observers eye, it
may look like a jumbled mess of tables and graphs, he
said. But to the CEO, CFO, and COO, this one-page,
legal-size landscape dashboard tells us where we begin the
day every day of the year and keeps us focused on the key
success factors of the business.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Example Dashboard #2

McGowan frequently uses double-axis graphs to show

relationships among different items.
And year-over-year composition of assets to show the trends:

Source: Pioneer NV Federal Credit Union

www.AFPonline.org

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

15

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Dont give up on tables

My central premise is that presenting numbers is a communication skill,
Bolten said. One of the things that you have to do is present them in a way
that your key information can be easily and quickly grasped. Thats especially
important in a world where people arent spending much time looking at your
information. If you know that people in your audience spend five minutes, how
clearly you present the information can mean the difference between their
spending five minutes absorbing the content, or four minutes figuring out how
to read it, and just one minute absorbing the information. Of course thats true
for both graphs and tables.
My recommendation is to consider presenting more information in tables.
Its a more consistent and concise way to present all of the information. Then
pick 2-3 graphs for the week. By selecting only a handful, youre more likely to
make executives understand the important points, he said.
Visual presentation is most useful when youre trying to present a trend
or pattern, Bolten said. The problem with most graphs is that they take up
a lot of space to present relatively little information. Often youre just trying
to communicate information and not make any specific point, and you dont
know which data points the people in your audience will be most interested in.
Presenting all that information in graphical form may just end up being boring,
confusing, and uninformative.
While its true that many people insist they prefer to get graphs, the reality
is that if you showed executives a bunch of graphs and then instructed them
to turn off the screen and tell you what theyve learned from the graphs, youd
be astonished by how little information theyd have actually absorbed, Bolten
said. I absolutely think theres a place for graphical presentation. Its just that
its too easy to make the assumption that presenting in graphs and tables is
just a matter of presentation preference. It has to be about the kind of information thats being portrayed. Theres really a time and a place for a graph and a
table. The overlap isnt nearly as big as most people think. Even if you do the
graphs correctly, the information content can be surprisingly light. Tables can
be more complete and more precise. When you create a graph, have somebody else look it over and then ask them to tell you what theyve learned from
it. Youd be surprised what you find out.

16

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Pie charts

FY 14 Q2 Forecast Total: $750,000

Theres a big debate about the utility of pie

charts. Most experts advise against them,
noting that they are harder to read and often the small differences between slices are
easy to miss. Below is an example of a chart
first created as a pie chart and then, when
rules of best practices in visualization are
applied, recreated as a bar.
Our current belief is that getting rid of
either completely is not productive, said
Laird. Our built-in construct library does
contain pie charts for certain contexts; we
believe they are especially useful when
comparing the impact of two different scenarios on an annual basis when limited
variables (3 or 4) are involved (usually a
business unit or region). In this case, it might
be any measurement: OPEX, bookings, revenue, contribution margin, etc. Many would
argue that a column or bar format would be
preferable even in these cases. We would
say that, especially in the example provided
here, simplicity is actually preferable and
easier for cognitive processing.
According to Mosely, pie charts can act
as a useful visualization
When you want to affect your
audience emotionally.
When you want to quickly communicate a part-to-whole relationship.
When approximate values are enough
to have a productive discussion.
But only if
The parts make up a meaningful
whole; if not, use a different chart.
You can define the entire set in a way
that makes sense to the viewer.
The parts are mutually exclusive; if
there is overlap between the parts,
use a different chart.
You want to compare the parts to the
whole, rather than to each other.
You have fewer than eight parts; pie
charts with lots of slices (or slices of
very different sizes) are hard to read.

www.AFPonline.org

Computer Services
2%
Editing/Publishing
Travel and Business Entertainment
2%
2%
Conference, Meetings
and Exhibits
7%
Office Expenses
and Other Costs*
7%

Salaries
and
Benefits
61%

Depreciation, Interest
and Maintenance
10%
Contracts and
Professional Fees
9%

FY 14 Jan Actual Total: $387,000k

Computer Services
2.7%
Editing/Publishing
Travel and Business Entertainment
1.4%
3.5%
Conference, Meetings
and Exhibits
5%
Office Expenses
and Other Costs*
8%

Salaries
and
Benefits
60.3%

Depreciation, Interest
and Maintenance
9%
Contracts and
Professional Fees
10.1%
*Other costs category includes marketing and promotions costs.

Data graphed after applying data visualization rules:

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Salaries and Benefits
Contracts and Professional Fees
Depreciation, Interest
and Maintenance
Office Expenses
and Other Costs*
Conference, Meetings
and Exhibits
Travel and Business
Entertainment
Computer Services
Editing/Publishing

FY14 Jan Actual

FY14 Q2 Forecast

*Other costs category includes marketing and promotions costs.

Multiple benefits were achieved by applying data visualization

rules:
a. Two graphs have been combined into one allowing for
a. Easy comparison between data sets (FY14 Q2 Forecast
to Actual)
b. Additional real estate on documents with limited space
b. Different type of display media was used to more clearly
show the relationship between the expense types
c. Color was used sparingly to mark forecasted expense
percentages drawing attention to the most important
aspects of the graph
d. By using a different display media there is more data
flexibility. For example, another dimension could be added
to the bar graph such as FY14 budget data etc.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

17

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Conclusion: How FP&A interacts with data visualization

The ability to interact with data is growing, and data visualization is expected to become more and more utilized
among finance professionals as they realize the power interacting with their data, especially as the amount of data
expands exponentially and the pressure to produce dynamic insight for management continues to rise.
While are seeing greater adoption among FP&A professionals, said FTIs DAscoli, I would characterize
usage as fairly low among finance teams today. We currently see much more usage of these tools in commercial areas
of the business, sales and marketing as an example. I think
there are several opportunities for FP&A to better leverage
data visualization within their company. For example:
Using better graphical depiction of financial results,
budgets and forecasts across the many attributes of a
business can yield better insights.
In companies where data analytics are not widely
used, FP&A has an opportunity to enhance its position as a business partner and knowledge broker.
Visualization enables the analyst to interpret data,
both text and images, added colleague Vic Datta, a
senior managing director and leader of FTIs Office of
the CFOs Performance Management Practice. The new
business environment demands a richer, more complex
understanding of trends and indicators, which cannot often be obtained by traditional analytics, he said.
Visualizations are so capable and powerful at conveying
knowledge that they can be more effective than words at
changing peoples minds.
One of the most important benefits of visualization is
that it allows us to access huge amounts of data in ways
that would not otherwise be possible, Datta said. A
recent Gartner study revealed that approximately 70 percent of company analysts are still using Excel as a primary
tool. However, that trend is changing given the quantum
increase in data that needs to be analyzed complex
analysis outside the capabilities of Excel.
Visual tools have been steadily gaining traction for
some time now as a great way to share quantitative
analytics, according to Adam Berry, managing director of
Financial Enterprise Data Analytics at FTI. In fact, the
types of tools that are in the market today are much more
advanced and attainable than in the past. That naturally
has led to more FP&A professionals looking at visualization as a more effective way to present analysis, he said.
While a good, old-fashioned table or chart is often the

18

standard way for FP&A professionals to measure and

report, more and more we are seeing a downward push
for visualization methodologies as a result of management being exposed to the concept of dashboards and
data visualization.
According to Liao, its harder for FP&A professionals
to do their own data discovery using graphics because
it assumes accessibility to those tools, which, in many
cases, are implemented in a business intelligence center
of excellence. No matter how much visualization
technology is out there, you still have to understand how
data is related to explain anomalies and how things are
showing up, she said. Visualization doesnt take away
from the fact that they need to understand their data
models. That doesnt go away.
For finance professionals, there are certainly more
tools available today that enable information visualization and make it more digestible. Still, although they
produce a shorter and more digestible version of data,
a lot of the graphics are static, using a couple of key
metrics for how the company is doing operationally,
financially and from a customer perspective, said Liao.
What our product does, and what other vendors are
trying to do, is to offer a closed loop discovery, validation and communication process through data story-telling, explained Saliter. For example, revenue may have
trended down this year, but there may be a valid reason,
which can be called out with an interactive data storytelling narrative. Furthermore, by clicking through the
visual, you can find the underlying drivers of why thats
happening. The BI and analytics industry analysts are
recognizing this as a key capability.
Qlik uses its own software extensively internally. Our
entire finance team actively uses Qlik softwarewe have
dozens of applications that help manage all aspects of
the business for users from our CFO all the way down to
junior analysts, Saliter said.
Saliter sees more companies use the visualization
software to deal with issues like big data. Companies like
MacAfee with 125 million users in 120 different coun-

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Software packages
Heres a partial list of some of the software packages available for
data visualization:
Adaptive Discovery by Adaptive Insights
Tidemark Storylines by Tidemark
Tableau Software
QlikView
TIBCO
Spotfire
IBM Cognos Insight (ex-TM1)
Microsoft Power View,
MicroStrategy Visual Insight
Oracle Exalytics appliance
SAS Visual Analytics
SAS for Big Data
SAP Visual Intelligence
Packages like Tableau, QlikView and Spotfire link directly to source data.
Some can also do calculations directly in the application to convert data
into useful information, according to Robertson. They are a poor mans data
warehouse, he said. Instead of having to rely on IT, the packages allow a user
to connect to disparate data directly and perform the necessary calculations.
For example, volume may be in one dataset and pricing in another.
While large systems like COGNOS, Adaptive Planning and Hyperion have
dashboard capabilities built in, its the interactivity of some of the standalone
packages that is where the real power is, Robertson said. My personal feeling is that the dedicated products outside these common architectures do
the best job.
The value add is that many of those packages offer predesigned graphs and
standard visualization tool options something that would take a very long
time to do in Excel. It would take me too long, said Robertson. The process
of creating board presentations, cutting and pasting from various sources can
dispensed with. Refreshing current data with everything formatted correctly
ensures data integrity. It gives you more time to think.

www.AFPonline.org

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

19

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

tries needs to sift through big data items that include

subscriptions, payments and renewals. The FP&A group
previously handled all data analysis with a small team
at headquarters. Before Qlik, McAfee estimated that
approximately 50 percent of the finance group spent 50
percent of their time gathering reports, which left very
little time to analyze the data and make the appropriate
business decisions. Using Qlik, they now estimate that
there has been a 30 percent reduction in employees
resources and time devoted to gathering reports, according to Saliter.
In addition, because Qlik is intuitive software, the
universe of people who can use it now numbers in the
thousands. Usability is the big paradigm today, Saliter
said. The shift in data visualization and data discovery
has moved from necessitating very specialized analytical
skills to a common activity that people can do without
much training.
There needs to be one common business language
for users to engage and interact with that information,
said SAPs Mukherjea. Depending on where you sit
within the FP&A organization, the type of content you
interact with may be different from basic visualization to how to show comparisons among regions.
Theres a lot going on to provide best practices on how
they can visualize that information.
From an FP&A perspective, five years ago, a lot of IT
software providers were expected to provide an end-toend solution. Not just the planning and modeling, but
the visualization too. Thats changing. People want to
do their own reporting using add-ons, often that means
PowerPoint and similar plug-ins. They want the ability
to create their own context for reporting and analysis,
Mukherjea said.

20

Organizations regularly resort to presenting data in

summary tables and generating graphs and charts with
spreadsheet applications, said Cokins. As business data
gives way to big data, these approaches are increasingly
inadequate and fall short of producing useful, accessible
views of data, which hurts the quality of the conversation with management.
At the same time, an increasing number of users have
the desire, wherewithal, and need to engage in their own
exploratory data analysis projects. Further, the volume
and complexity of the data are becoming too overwhelming, and many organizations struggle to see the
forest for the trees i.e., to discern patterns or insights
from a mass of detail.
What was once the sole responsibility of statisticians
and data scientists has trickled down to a much broader
group of business users. Although these users may lack
statistical expertise, their deep understanding of the business itself can make access to the right analytical tools
invaluable, especially visualization tools, for improving
operational efficiencies and identifying new opportunities, said Cokins.
The exploration and visualization of data facilitates
the process of self-discovery, Robertson said. It allows
end users to be independent. They can discover the
trends and the information thats really important to
them. Theres a basic construct that IT and/or finance
produce charts and data views on a regular basis that
managers find useful. It is much more powerful to
provide users with the data in a structured environment
and invite them to explore and discover what they think
is important.
If you think of our senses, visualization is the primary
sense we use to understand the world, said Robertson.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Checklist: Best practices

Always have a full understanding of the
story that needs to be communicated and
who your audience is.
Tailor communication based on who the
audience is: e.g., high-level focus versus
more technical detail.
Before starting the design of graphs and
tables, carefully think about the objective
of the information to be presented, what
information would be relevant, how to best
organize and visualize this information, and
what medium to use.
Always think of the audience when deciding what information is relevant, necessary,
and how to best present it. What should the
takeaway be for this particular audience?
Sketch graphs on paper as you think about
how best to organize the data.
Are the graphs just nice to look at, or will
they provide a deeper understanding,
spark action, or create a demand for
more information.
A touch of subtle humor in the graphic
elements (clip art, etc.), when appropriate,
also assists in communicating the message.
To keep graphs relevant, connect your presentation with and try to relate it to what
people would do in those situations.
The right things are almost always about
the customer problems youre solving, why
those are important problems to solve for
your customers, how those problems
impact your customers businesses, and
how you solve those problems better than
your competitors.
Series data lends itself to visualizations
since trending can be easily depicted. The
same is true of geographical data you
can show geo-special trends through
mapping. Some of the best discoveries
are made by combining multiple disparate
sources into a single visualization.

www.AFPonline.org

Have governed data that can be trusted. This

is where IT has a big role in ensuring data is
coming from sanctioned sources, otherwise
you risk garbage in and garbage out.
There are a lot of little decisions about how
your graphs look that can have a big impact on their effectiveness. Be sure to make
those decisions yourself rather than letting
the software make all the decisions.
Less is more. Too much data introduces
complexity and potential confusion. If its
not relevant, dont put in on the page or
include in your message.
Anticipate questions in advance.
Be unique but stay clear and concise.
Tie related information together. Without
putting related data together, you create a
higher level of confusion.
Keep reports to one page.
Dont shrink font size to fit the page.
Put hard copy in the hands of the recipient;
dont send them to the server. Follow up
with an email attachment.
Attach a cover memo and table of contents
if its more than one report.
Put numbers in context. Dont make them
dig out the last report; provide all the necessary context in your report.
Revisit the design of your reporting frequently. Routine reporting can get stale quickly.
Highlighting only one thing can be overly
simplistic. There are ways to mark more than
one thing without confusing the audience.
While different audiences matter, most
people perceive things the same way. Thats
the science and reality of it.
If you have a very complex chart, think
about whether its really necessary to the
story. Reduce complexity and simplify the
image if you can.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

21

AFP GUIDE: Data Visualization: How to Tell Number Stories with Pictures

Checklist: Things to avoid

Dont try to entertain the audience while
losing sight of the message.
A lot of data transparency can be lost in
overcomplicated data graphing.
Trying for impressive graphing that is perceived as intimidating doesnt accomplish
the communication objective.
Avoid having too many variables on the
same chart, generally no more than three.
People should have their aha moment
in 10 seconds rather than having to spend
time figuring out all the axis.
Graphs can have a lot of unnecessary ink,
including grid lines, borders and shading,
which can distract from the data.
Theres also the potential to lie with the
data by changing the aspect ratio or scale,
such as not starting a bar graph at 0.
Graphs can also become a distraction if
theyre simply eye candy: if its not actionable, it shouldnt be there.
There are definitely drawbacks to using the
wrong charts for the wrong data. Never use
a line chart if the data does not incorporate
a time dimension for visualizing trends.
Similarly, dont use pie charts if you are not
comparing parts of a whole.
The drawback in visualization is that even the
best tools dont prevent you from building a
bad chart. Thats where best practices and
expertise are really important.
There are clearly opportunities to misuse
graphs, such as getting caught up in the
sizzle and forgetting about the data.
Dont let your visualization initiative
become an IT project, or sit within an
area that doesnt understand the key
business questions.
Dashboards that dont address the key
questions are irrelevant and even misleading.

22

Do not allow the design of visualizations to

compromise the integrity of the data. The
integrity of the data is vital. Its source must
be clearly stated, and it must be directionally correct.
Dont provide excessive detail and granularity, at least with the initial overview display
of the information.
Single charts can become a distraction.
Sometimes when the pictures are pretty and
complex, theres a tendency to get sucked
into the things that dont really matter.
Visualization can be used to manipulate
the truth or hide the real insights to fit
the presenters agenda. Data visualization
allows for data framing, as the presenter
picks and chooses what to share. This can
create misleading analysis. For example,
the range of an axis of a bar chart can
skew the perception of parts of a whole.
Stay away from 3D graphs that obscure
data and pie charts that are hard to read.
The graph needs to add value where it matters. Make sure its not all about entertaining
the audience. It should always communicate
a story or support a decision.

2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc. All Rights Reserved

www.AFPonline.org

About the Author

Nilly Essaides is Director of Practitioner Content Development at the Association for
Financial Professionals. Nilly has over 20 years of experience in research, writing and
meeting facilitation in the global treasury arena. She is a thought leader and the author
of multiple in-depth AFP Guides on treasury topics as well as monthly articles in AFP
Exchange, the AFPs flagship publication. Nilly was managing director at the NeuGroup
and co-led the companys successful peer group business. Nilly also co-authored a book
about knowledge management and how to transfer best practices with the American
Productivity and Quality Center (APQC).

About the Association for Financial Professionals

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP)
is the professional society that represents finance executives globally. AFP established and
administers the Certified Treasury ProfessionalTM and Certified Corporate FP&A ProfessionalTM
credentials, which set standards of excellence in finance. The quarterly AFP Corporate Cash
IndicatorsTM serve as a bellwether of economic growth. The AFP Annual Conference is the
largest networking event for corporate finance professionals in the world.
AFP, Association for Financial Professionals, Certified Treasury Professional, and Certified
Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis Professional are registered trademarks of the
Association for Financial Professionals. 2014 Association for Financial Professionals, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
General Inquiries
Web Site
Phone

[email protected]
www.AFPonline.org
301.907.2862

Complex reports are hard.

We make them easy.
Over 60% of Fortune 500 companies
use Wdesk and love our world-class
customer experience.

workiva.com | [email protected] | +1.888.275.3125