Most financial dashboards get built for the people who build them. They show everything that was available in the data, organized in a way that makes sense to a data person, with enough filters that the user can theoretically find anything they need.
CFOs do not use these dashboards. Here is the process that builds ones they do.
Start with the decisions, not the data
Before looking at any data, ask the CFO: what are the five decisions you make on a monthly basis where you wish you had better information faster?
The answers will almost never be "I want to see revenue by region by product by channel." They will be specific: "I need to know by the third of the month whether we are going to hit our gross margin target for the quarter."
Build for those decisions.
Design for scanning, not reading
A CFO dashboard should communicate its key messages within five seconds of opening. Traffic light indicators, large trend lines, variance to target highlighted prominently. The user should be able to tell if something needs attention before they read a single number.
Detailed tables belong in drill-through views, not on the main screen.
Agree on the definitions before you build
Revenue, gross margin, EBITDA - every finance team has its own calculation methodology. Get written agreement on the calculation for each metric before building. The most valuable thing you can put on a dashboard is a number finance trusts, which means a number they agreed on before they saw it.
Build the commentary layer
Numbers without context mislead as often as they inform. A revenue variance from prior month means nothing without knowing what the prior month included. Build in a mechanism for brief written commentary - even a single line - that gives the numbers context.
We build financial dashboards that finance teams actually use. If you want to talk through what that looks like for your business, book a call.
Have a question about this topic? We work with businesses worldwide.
Get in Touch