Finance professionals often struggle to present performance data in an effective manner, resulting in presentations which contain multiple complex graphs and tables of numbers.

Start off your financial presentations right by considering their purpose and reviewing its goals; this will enable you to determine how much detail to include in slides and visuals.

Organize your data

Even though financial presentations often include large volumes of data, it’s important to choose your information wisely and present only what’s essential. Too much data may become overwhelming and compromise the audience’s comprehension of your message.

Before simply listing numbers and figures, think carefully about their role within a bigger story. For instance, when presenting your company’s profit and loss (P&L) statement to its board of directors, consider how these pieces connect together to tell one. Perhaps for example you could omit detail that details expenses that grew beyond control while emphasizing just one top-line number instead.

Utilize charts to visualize your data, keeping the design consistent across slides for easier audience comprehension. With Zebra BI add-ins, it’s also simple and effortless to collaborate on financial presentations with team members or external stakeholders.

Create a clear agenda

Financial data is integral to business success and provides a quantitative picture of an entity’s health and performance. Stakeholders rely on this data when making investment decisions, managing budgets or complying with regulatory requirements.

Make sure to develop an agenda for your presentation and present only information relevant to your target audience. By explaining data points in detail and giving context for visualizations, your presentation will ensure maximum engagement from its participants.

Avoid using the Grab & Hope method when creating presentations; rather, use a structure that gives you time to logically organize content while working towards dramatic reveals of important financial data.

Design a professional layout

Financial information is vitally important to businesses and presentations, yet can often be daunting and hard for people to digest. By making financials more digestible and explaining them in plain English, people will be better able to comprehend its implications on them and act accordingly.

Use charts and graphs to visually present numerical data in an engaging fashion. Use colors to emphasize key points — for instance, green when budgets increase while red when they decrease — when presenting sales trends or monthly profit and loss statements.

Select a color palette that reflects your brand’s aesthetic, and employ consistent formatting to keep your presentation seamless and polished. Make sure font sizes are large enough for reading, and that the presentation’s layout runs left-to-right for easier comprehension and follow up questions.

Include relevant visuals

Financial presentations often contain lots of data, which can become overwhelming for audiences. Visual aids like graphs and charts are an effective way to organize that data and make it more easily understood; using color can also send specific messages such as emphasizing months with increased growth or budget overs or unders in red.

Effective financial data presentation helps various stakeholders assess risks and opportunities as well as make informed decisions. It can assist with strategic planning and increase accountability within an organization; enhance compliance with regulations or requirements; build investor trust; or increase funding opportunities. However, it’s crucial to avoid creating presentations using “grab-and-hope” techniques – these should only ever be created after careful thought has gone into their creation.

Keep it simple

Financial presentations are an essential part of municipal operations, yet can often be tedious presentations. But don’t despair: by emphasizing key messages and using high-quality visuals you can make them much more captivating!

Maintaining simplicity involves not including too much data on each slide, making it easier for attendees to comprehend and retain your message. A clear agenda that sets expectations also assists.

If you need to include additional data, consider using either a table format or non-traditional graph such as a waterfall chart to demonstrate changes over time. By providing context for the data presented, attendees will gain better insight into its relation to your overall goals.