Optimizing Performance

In the world of finance, numbers tell a story. However, that story is often buried beneath layers of spreadsheets and complex datasets. For financial professionals, the challenge is not just about understanding these numbers but also presenting them in a way that drives decision-making and inspires action. Enter data visualisation – the art of transforming data into clear, compelling visuals. Among the tools that have proven especially powerful are the line graph and the waterfall chart. These visuals help finance teams translate dry statistics into impactful narratives. In this article, we explore how these graphs can transform financial storytelling. The Importance of Data Visualisation in Finance Finance professionals are accustomed to handling vast amounts of data, from profit margins and revenue growth to expense tracking and risk assessments. Yet, presenting these figures effectively to stakeholders is a different ballgame. Visualisation simplifies this process, turning complex data sets into accessible insights. When done correctly, data visualisation: Enhances comprehension: Humans process visuals 60,000 times faster than text, making it easier for stakeholders to grasp key information quickly. Drives decision-making: Clear and compelling visuals help executives make informed decisions without wading through dense reports. Highlights trends and outliers: Visual tools can bring hidden trends and anomalies to light, prompting timely actions. Improves understanding and communication with business - Business doesn't always get what Finance is trying to communicate and good visualisations go a long way to bridging the gap. Better communication improves alignment to strategic financial goals. The line Graph: Unravelling Trends Over Time The line graph, also known as a stream graph or a stacked area graph, is a powerful tool for visualising changes in data over time. It is especially effective in showing how multiple categories contribute to an overall trend. In finance, line graphs can illustrate revenue streams, expense categories, or investment performance in a visually engaging manner. Use Case: Revenue Streams Analysis Imagine a financial report for a company with diverse revenue streams, such as product sales, services, and subscriptions. A line graph can display how each stream has evolved, highlighting peaks and troughs. The thickness of each ‘line’ represents the contribution of that revenue stream to the total, making it easy to spot which areas drive growth. Benefits of line Graphs: Trends Made Simple: Displays how multiple components evolve over time. Visual Impact: The fluid, organic design makes it easier to follow changes. Comparative Insight: Helps compare different categories intuitively. The Waterfall Chart: Bridging the Gap Between Figures Waterfall charts excel at breaking down the cumulative effect of sequential data points, making them ideal for financial analysis. They help bridge the gap between figures by showing how individual elements contribute to a total. Commonly used in profit and loss statements, budget analysis, and variance reports, these charts provide clarity in understanding how specific actions impact the bottom line. Use Case: Profit and Loss Analysis A financial analyst preparing a quarterly report might use a waterfall chart to demonstrate how various factors—like increased sales, higher marketing spend, and cost savings—impacted net profit. The chart’s structure, with its clear progression from starting figures to the final result, makes it easy for stakeholders to follow the financial narrative. Benefits of Waterfall Charts: Clarity: Simplifies complex financial data by showing individual contributions to total figures. Transparency: Clearly distinguishes between positive and negative impacts. Decision Support: Helps executives understand the key drivers of financial performance. Choosing the Right Visual for the Right Data Selecting the appropriate visual tool depends on the story you want to tell: Use line graphs for illustrating trends across multiple categories over time. Opt for waterfall charts when you need to detail the step-by-step impact of specific factors on an overall financial figure. By mastering these tools, finance professionals can enhance their storytelling, transforming raw data into insights that drive strategic decisions. Conclusion: From Data to Decisions The ability to visualise data effectively is a powerful advantage. The line graph and waterfall chart are more than just visual aids—they are essential tools for financial professionals looking to make data-driven decisions that resonate with stakeholders. By adopting these techniques, finance teams can turn numbers into narratives that not only inform but also inspire action. In the end, the power of finance lies not just in analysing data but in presenting it with impact.

In the ever-evolving financial landscape of 2025, CFOs are tasked with navigating complexities ranging from global economic shifts to technological advancements. The ability to track and analyse the right financial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is no longer a luxury but a necessity. These metrics not only provide insight into an organisation’s financial health but also support strategic decision-making. Here are the top financial KPIs every CFO should prioritise in 2025: 1. Revenue Growth Rate Revenue growth is a clear indicator of a company’s ability to generate sales over time. This KPI allows CFOs to evaluate the success of business strategies and identify trends in market demand. Formula: Revenue Growth Rate = [(Current Period Revenue - Previous Period Revenue) / Previous Period Revenue] x 100 Why It Matters: Monitoring revenue growth helps CFOs assess performance against strategic goals and anticipate future cash flow needs. 2. Gross Profit Margin Gross profit margin measures the profitability of core business operations, excluding indirect costs like administrative expenses. Formula: Gross Profit Margin = [(Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold) / Revenue] x 100 Why It Matters: It reveals the efficiency of production processes and pricing strategies, enabling CFOs to identify areas for improvement. 3. Net Profit Margin While gross profit focuses on operational profitability, net profit margin considers all expenses, including taxes and interest. Formula: Net Profit Margin = (Net Income / Revenue) x 100 Why It Matters: A high net profit margin indicates strong financial health and the ability to manage expenses effectively. 4. Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) The CCC measures how quickly a company can convert its investments in inventory and receivables into cash flow. Formula: CCC = Days Inventory Outstanding + Days Sales Outstanding - Days Payables Outstanding Why It Matters: In 2025, with supply chain disruptions and rising interest rates, efficient cash flow management is critical. The CCC helps CFOs identify bottlenecks and optimise working capital. 5. Operating Expense Ratio (OER) This KPI compares operating expenses to revenue, offering insights into cost management. Formula: OER = (Operating Expenses / Revenue) x 100 Why It Matters: Keeping operating expenses in check is vital for maintaining profitability, especially in uncertain economic climates. 6. Debt-to-Equity Ratio This KPI highlights the financial leverage of the company by comparing total liabilities to shareholder equity. Formula: Debt-to-Equity Ratio = Total Liabilities / Shareholder Equity Why It Matters: With interest rates fluctuating in 2025, maintaining a healthy balance between debt and equity is crucial to avoid over-leveraging. 7. Return on Equity (ROE) ROE measures the efficiency of a company in generating profits from shareholders' investments. Formula: ROE = (Net Income / Shareholder Equity) x 100 Why It Matters: A strong ROE signals to investors that the company is effectively using their capital, which is vital for securing future funding. 8. Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) EBITDA provides a clear picture of operational profitability without the influence of financing and accounting decisions. F ormula: EBITDA = Net Income + Interest + Taxes + Depreciation + Amortisation Why It Matters: CFOs use EBITDA to benchmark performance against competitors and industry standards, making it a key metric for strategic planning. 9. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) As businesses invest in growth strategies, understanding the cost of acquiring new customers becomes crucial. Formula: CAC = Total Sales and Marketing Expenses / Number of New Customers Acquired Why It Matters: Tracking CAC helps CFOs ensure marketing spend aligns with long-term profitability goals. 10. Economic Value Added (EVA) EVA measures the value a company generates beyond the required return of its shareholders. Formula: EVA = Net Operating Profit After Taxes (NOPAT) - (Capital Employed x Cost of Capital) Why It Matters: EVA provides a holistic view of financial performance, emphasising value creation over short-term profits. Final Thoughts In 2025, CFOs must adopt a forward-thinking approach, leveraging advanced analytics and real-time reporting tools to stay ahead. By focusing on these essential financial KPIs, CFOs can drive strategic growth, ensure resilience, and foster long-term success in an increasingly competitive landscape. Tracking these metrics isn’t just about numbers; it’s about enabling informed decisions that align with the company’s vision and goals.

In the rapidly evolving world of data analytics, understanding foundational techniques is only the beginning. To truly stand out, data professionals need to go beyond the basics and leverage advanced methods that transform raw data into actionable insights. Building on Roger Knocker’s top 10 tips, this article explores advanced strategies to take your data analysis skills to the next level.

In a recent webinar, Roger Knocker, CEO of KPI Management Solutions, shared invaluable insights on extracting meaningful analysis from any data set. These strategies, honed over years of practical experience, are universally applicable—whether you're working with financial data, fitness statistics, or sales figures. Supported by research and best practices, here’s a breakdown of the 10 tips Roger presented to enhance your data analysis skills :

9 Steps to Master Successful Strategy Execution with KPIs - This piece is a detailed step by step guide on how to master strategic execution. Unlock the secrets to successful strategy execution with KPIs. Learn 9 essential steps to master effective strategic execution and achieve your goals. through actionable objectives.

Wouldn’t you like to have all your KPIs from many sources in a single dashboard? QlikView consolidates relevant data from multiple sources into a single application. It presents that data in a rich user friendly way. The visualisation is provided with modern graphical view showing data in different types of charts, dashboards, maps and data […]

Video Transcription There are three methods to typically used for setting targets. #1 Top-down Allocations. In this method, targets are allocated down from the shareholders or partners and unfortunately are often non-negotiable. So how could this be allocated, perhaps on historical Performance in other words which Region did well in the past? Or market […]

This is a neat video showing how a scorecard is used to drive the strategy of an organisation to the desired state. It is different from a dashboard in that it tracks the KPIs that drive strategy, whereas a dashboard is more operational in nature.

The Problem with Sustainability The economic growth that is the cornerstone of the world’s capitalist societies is as essential to the welfare of their expanding populations as the profits required to sustain the businesses that provide for their needs. In new democracies, successful transformation is even more dependent upon increased productivity and consumerism. In addition […]

The Problem One of the greatest threats to the successful operation of any business is the failure to identify those factors that pose a significant risk which, in the absences of an effective strategy, could serve to compromise its performance. Such an oversight might, for instance, result in a loss of market share that, in […]

The Capability Scorecard is based on the traditional Performance Scorecard Performance Scorecard Figure 2 In order to understand the capability scorecards we first need to re-cap the elements of a good performance scorecard as many of the characteristics have been re-used for capability. Figure 2 shows the performance scorecard for Joe who is employed as […]

Selling new products or services to an existing customer is much easier and far more cost effective! We have mastered the art of building a cross selling solution using QlikView to find the opportunities, generate the cross-selling leads and monitor the results of the cross selling campaign or initiative. Step 1: Source the Data Sets […]

Prophix performance management software is used by companies for managing processes in their finance departments. Corporate performance management software has mostly been used by larger firms, but medium-sized companies have in recent years realised the value of corporate performance management and the measurement thereof. However, with it being rather new to their IT professionals, CPM […]

In this video you will find the 5 tips for getting customers to pay you much faster: 1. Make sure you understand & document your debtors process 2. Get your Master Data Correct 3. Make sure your documents are available and match up 4. Make it dead easy for someone to pay you 5. Be […]

Why are we still here? Find the balance between Business and IT What we’ve learned is that it is equally important to have a good relationship with Business as it is with IT. Our experience has been that continued business from existing projects comes from working closely with ‘Business’ while new business in other areas […]

Unprofitable business is the quickest way to kill your business which you will soon see on your bottom line. It’s therefore imperative to try and identify it quickly or look for opportunities exist to improve profitability is the sales before tampering with any other process. For starters, this dashboards ensures that the % Gross Margin […] Unprofitable business is the quickest way to kill your business which you will soon see on your bottom line. It’s therefore imperative to try and identify it quickly or look for opportunities exist to improve profitability is the sales before tampering with any other process. For starters, this dashboards ensures that the % Gross Margin […]

Business is great when Sales are great. A sales dashboard provides you with the visibility and control from the time a quotation is made until goods and services are delivered to the customer. Data for All the information for this module comes from the Sales Module within the ERP. We provide you with KPIs and […]

Companies in the competitive modern business environment cannot afford to use outdated performance management systems. We provide enterprises with cutting-edge solutions, such as the Prophix corporate performance management software solution, which enables enterprises to increase their management insight, improve on budgeting and analytical capabilities, and streamline planning and reporting processes. Prophix includes everything a business […]

Our solution ensures that processes become visible and actionable across all functional silos. We ensure that we map according to what delivers value to the customer (quality, efficiency, cost, predictability etc) and align the processes to the strategic direction of the business. We offer 3 levels of Process Management: Process Summaries Flowcharts and Swim-lanes Standard […]

Most of the cost in your business comes through the procurement gateway. This is a key area to save cash. We’ve seen how a customer saved up to 20% of the annual net profit just by picking on the right costs to focus on in the procurement process. Scope The Procurement dashboard deals with managing […]

Management of overheads and the reduction of non-essential costs are core elements that quickly translate to an improved ‘Bottom Line’. In the changing environment of business, simple cost reduction is not sufficient anymore. Costs must be managed strategically – especially in current trading conditions. Comanies need to make use of the existing information that sits […]

Many best in class companies can forecast with 97% accuracy. This isn’t because they have a simple businesses, smarter people or luck on their side. Their operational plans are aligned to the business strategy. Their success comes from forecasts built from the ground up by teams from all parts of the business – Marketing; Operations; […]

An ERP system is great for managing transactions and master data and ensuring integrity of business operations. It also summarises the data into a Financial view for the organisation so that they know if they’ve made a profit or loss for any given period. In planning we start with the business strategy of the business […]

Selecting the right KPI dashboard for your particular firm is essential, since the measurement of irrelevant KPIs is simply a waste of resources. Choosing the correct KPI solution can help your company gain a competitive edge within your specific industry. Review the important features below, which will give you an indication of what makes for […]

In order to understand how to best use budgeting and forecasting software in your organisation, it is important to understand the difference between budgeting and forecasting. Budgeting entails planning that is divided into departmental areas of responsibility in the organisation. More people are involved in the budgeting process, and it is therefore also a slower […]

Considering that many firms follow less than efficient approaches to budgeting because of factors such as information overload, tedious processes for collecting appropriate data, and the resultant time lapse between data collection and application, it is not surprising that many companies struggle to match their forecasting and budgeting with reality. However, with the right financial […]

This is a short video explaining that a business intelligence dashboard is a tool that pulls KPIs from various operational data sources for decision making in near real time.

You may have realised that you have spreadsheet spaghetti and its becoming more difficult to manage your reporting. Reporting times take longer, there are too many errors slipping into the numbers and there is little flexibility in the way you report and plan. You have Spreadsheet Spaghetti when you are experiencing 3 or more of […]

If business forecasting seems like an attempt to accurately forecast the weather, it is, because: The wrong tools are used – spreadsheets were never meant to be complex and sophisticated forecasting tools, and yet businesses often rely on these outdated methods to forecast. Forecasts are made regarding behaviour that can change, and can thus not […]

Management of overheads and the reduction of non-essential costs are core elements that quickly translate to an improved ‘Bottom Line’. In the changing environment of business, simple cost reduction is not sufficient any more. Costs must be managed strategically. We help you focus on the true cost-drivers in your business and provide visibility to: Unprofitable […]

No doubt, any company trying to operate without proper budgeting will run into cash flow problems and will not be able to plan, forecast and make use of opportunities. Working with outdated budget planning tools, such as spreadsheets, leads to mistakes, time wasted and missed opportunities. With the sophisticated, yet easy-to-use budget planning tools from […]

The right product at the right time will improve customer satisfaction and will enhance your profitability and cash flow. Inventory sits at the heart of all supply chain issues. High inventory levels hide a host of management evils. Inappropriate inventory levels are the strongest internal indicator of a poorly informed or poorly managed supply chain. […]

Accounting, budgeting, forecasting, planning, reporting and consolidation are processes that take up many of the company’s resources. Using appropriate budgeting software enables the enterprise, regardless of its size, to streamline the functions and to bring the processes to just about every level in the organisation. User-friendly budgeting software makes it possible for line managers to […]

What should the objectives of a consolidation implementation look like? Many consolidations are performed in excel spreadsheets. There are however many benefits from an enterprise financial consolidation system. Typical objectives of a financial consolidation implementation To improve the Governance, Controls, and Speed (automation) of the Group consolidation for statutory and management purposes. To standardise the […]

Many small business owners, and even corporations, make the mistake of thinking that automating the budgeting and forecasting function with the right business software will help them to eliminate all budgeting mistakes. Although it is certainly true that automation helps to eliminate input mistakes, reduce time spent on budgeting, and achieve higher accuracy, following good […]

Understanding your workforce future cost and capacity is fundamental to predicting future performance & profitability. As an HR executive, you can join the strategic business conversation with a forward looking view of resource expenses and the related capacity requirements. This will elevate you from being administrative to a strategic and trusted business partner. Other than […]

How to Improve Budgeting & Forecasting Abilities with the Right Tools Budgeting and forecasting are essential activities for any sized business, but not surprisingly, many small and medium sized businesses still rely on outdated tools to budget and forecast. Spreadsheets were never meant to be used for complex business analytics. Indeed, the vast majority of […]

What a Sales Dashboard Should Include if You Want to Measure Business Performance Business is only as successful as its income and management of resources. Business performance is thus related to the above. Making use of software solutions to track sales, cross selling and performance is a good start to ensure that you keep close […]

Forecasting in our solution allows you to learn from the past and make forecasting and re-forecasting a regular part of the planning routine. Through inherent forecasting automation and user driven forecasting assumptions our solution can help effectively manage the forecasting process across the enterprise. Benefits of a Rolling Forecasts: Routine and scheduled re-forecasts One step […]

As budgeting is a critical part of every organisation, it is important that the maximum value is realised through budgets. The methodology KPI Management Solutions uses will help your organisation get the most out of your budget and free up resources to focus on other key aspects of running your business. Some of the key […]

Many small business owners, and even corporations, make the mistake of thinking that automating the budgeting and forecasting function with the right business software will help them to eliminate all budgeting mistakes. Although it is certainly true that automation helps to eliminate input mistakes, reduce time spent on budgeting, and achieve higher accuracy, following good […]

8 Common Strategic Planning Mistakes Which Can Be Avoided with the Right Software If you are still wondering why it is important to make use of the correct strategic planning software, then consider the findings that show that the majority of strategy plans are never successfully executed. What is even more frightening is the fact […]

How to Use the Correct Software to Overcome Common Forecasting Problems Business forecasting inaccuracies have over the years led to many business closures in South Africa. The most common mistake made is the use of the wrong forecasting tools. Spreadsheets were never meant to be accurate forecasting tools. Such models are known for errors. Working […]

A very good practice to implement and cascade the strategy is to entrench it through a holistic performance management system. Every company needs to formulate strategy and cascade it to all levels of the organisation. Most companies fail to do this and only a few privileged individuals have site of the strategy. One of the […]

Anyone who has been responsible for preparing a budget knows that it is hard work and requires political savvy, a clear head and attention to detail. Somehow, line management forgets to plan capacity to complete their budgets and each year the process takes them by surprise – even though it comes around every year, like […]