In my view, Power BI financial dashboards are growing increasingly popular. This surge in interest is understandable due to Power BI’s data transformation functions and its capacity to manage substantial data sets. Power BI presents numerous opportunities for financial analysis, and this article will delve into some of those possibilities. First, let's set the scene for the creation of these Power BI financial dashboards.
Previously, I worked as a financial analyst at Autodesk for over three years, where I developed numerous Power BI financial dashboards. These dashboards were aimed at financial directors and VPs of Finance. They served primarily for financial forecasting, monitoring sales performance against goals, and at times, managing sales teams. One of my standout accomplishments at Autodesk was developing a Power BI financial dashboard that reached the CEO and CFO.
In 2021, I transitioned to leading my Power BI consultancy, where my team and I crafted various financial Power BI dashboards. I had the privilege of providing financial analysis to well-known companies like Google, Teleperformance, and Heineken. Below, you will find examples of some of the dashboards we created.
Benefits of Power BI Financial Dashboards
When I joined Autodesk, the financial department was actively moving their dashboards from Excel to Power BI. They aimed to gain several advantages from this transition:
Automation - Maintaining financial dashboards can consume an immense amount of time! During peak periods, we often refreshed our Excel dashboards multiple times daily, leaving me to focus mostly on data extraction and transformation. In contrast, the Power BI financial dashboards we developed automated data extraction and transformation.
Improved user interface - This is not merely a luxury! Presenting insights in a more straightforward manner through a Power BI financial dashboard enables more informed business decisions. Enhanced communication allowed us to uncover additional insights for better financial management.
Easier file sharing - Picture sending 100MB Excel files to individuals with outdated laptops! This was our reality before we created Power BI dashboards. Many recipients struggled to open those files. Conversely, Power BI allows sharing dashboards via a web portal, eliminating the need for heavy file downloads to view reports.
Financial KPIs for Your Power BI Dashboards
The financial KPIs displayed on your dashboard will vary depending on your audience. Based on my experiences, here are some valuable financial KPIs that are frequently analyzed:
Profitability KPIs
Gross Income - This represents your revenue minus the cost of goods sold. Understanding your gross income allows for better overhead planning.
Net Income - This is your gross income minus overhead costs (e.g., profit before dividends and taxes). It is arguably the most essential financial metric as the primary aim of a business is to generate profit, not just revenue.
Net Customer Profit - Refers to customer lifetime value minus customer acquisition cost. Analyzing this metric by customer acquisition channel and type aids in planning your business development strategies.
Return on Investment (ROI) - This metric is calculated by dividing revenue by expenses, expressed as a percentage. ROI is crucial for evaluating initiatives or projects that link revenue and expenses.
Liquidity KPIs
Net Cash Flow - This is the cash inflow minus cash outflow, typically measured monthly as well as in total over specific periods.
Current Ratio - Calculated as current assets divided by current liabilities. A ratio above 1 indicates that a company possesses adequate current assets to cover short-term liabilities.
Accounts Receivable Aging - This reflects the total revenue tied up in unpaid invoices. It shows how much money is owed to the company. Finance departments often analyze amounts outstanding for various periods (1-30 days, 30-60 days, 60-90 days, and over 90 days) to minimize bad debts.
Sales KPIs
Revenue Growth Per Customer - This measures the annual revenue generated for each B2B client. This KPI gauges how effectively the sales team is growing each customer over time.
Revenue vs Budget - This KPI compares actual revenue with targeted revenue. It helps assess the forecasting accuracy and the team's ability to meet objectives.
Sales By Sales Rep - This highlights revenue generated by each sales representative. It assists management in identifying top performers and those who may be struggling to hit their targets.
Why Financial Professionals Prefer Power BI?
Power BI is often favored for financial reporting, and for good reasons!
To begin with, Power BI has evolved from Excel, offering finance and accounting departments the familiar functionalities they rely on. It essentially serves as a natural progression from basic Excel financial reports.
Moreover, Power BI boasts exceptional data visualization features that help financial analysts enhance the user interface. Many organizations that transitioned from Excel to Power BI have reported that the visual representation of data makes it easier to uncover actionable insights, leading to more data-driven decisions.
Finally, Power BI integrates seamlessly with numerous financial and accounting systems, such as QuickBooks, Xero, Anaplan, and several others. These integrations allow businesses to automate financial data extraction, saving valuable hours of work.
Now, let’s examine the most prevalent examples of Power BI financial dashboards!
11 Power BI Financial Dashboard Examples
1. P&L Dashboard
A Power BI profit & loss (P&L) dashboard showcases the key business profitability metrics, including revenue, cost of goods sold, gross profit, overheads, and net income. A good Power BI P&L dashboard is interactive, enabling users to apply filters and drill down into data.
For instance, the dashboard allows users to toggle between accrual and cash accounting methods, filter by date, and drill down to specific transactions that comprise each account’s value.
Please note: our Xero Power BI template also features a page dedicated to Balance Sheet analysis.
Typical analyses you would perform on a P&L dashboard include:
Revenue and expenses are tracked monthly, quarterly, and yearly
Income categorized by channel
Overheads sorted by category
The largest sales and overhead transactions
The benefits of creating P&L dashboards in Power BI are significant:
Tabular P&L reports lack context - While a basic P&L statement is useful, it requires context to make sense. Power BI facilitates this by adding context to figures through trend charts, percentage columns, and more.
Financial reporting consolidation - Numerous companies have multiple QuickBooks Online accounts, particularly accountancies managing several clients or retail brands with multiple locations. Power BI enables the easy consolidation of data from various accounts into one view.
2. Balance Sheet Dashboard
A Power BI balance sheet dashboard displays asset, liability, and equity metrics, aiding in identifying risks within the asset and liabilities mix. This is particularly essential in industries like real estate or construction, where significant mortgages are common and asset value is as critical as revenue.
Please note: Our QuickBooks Online Power BI dashboard features pages for P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow analysis.
Common KPIs found on a balance sheet dashboard include:
Cash Position - This reveals the current cash balance and how long it can sustain operations.
Loan Amount - Indicates the total borrowed funds and identifies major creditors.
Retained Earnings - This shows how much money is carried forward from previous years, with high retained earnings suggesting financial stability and opportunities for reinvestment.
3. Cash Flow Dashboard
Companies often focus on their cash flow following the P&L. It’s commonly known that many businesses fail due to cash shortages rather than a lack of profit.
Power BI cash flow dashboards typically illustrate the difference between cash inflows and outflows. Depending on the data structure, it might be feasible to delve deeper into cash flow activities. For example, QuickBooks Online can provide cash flow data segmented by investing, operating, and financing activities.
Other data sources, like Zoho Books, primarily display line items contributing to cash flow variances.
Please note: Our Zoho Books Power BI dashboard features pages with P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, Accounts Receivable Aging, and Outstanding Invoices analysis.
Creating a Power BI financial dashboard allows companies like Will Dispute Lawyers NSW to efficiently monitor their cash reserves and ensure sufficient liquidity for ongoing operations. Consider the example below.
This Power BI financial dashboard indicates that the company possesses enough cash to sustain operations for the next four months. This highlights the necessity of collecting outstanding invoices to maintain operational continuity.
4. AR Aging Dashboard (Accounts Receivable)
Managing the collection of outstanding invoices can be streamlined with a Power BI financial dashboard. Look at the example above!
The horizontal bar chart shows the amounts owed by each client. The vertical bar chart illustrates how long the invoices have remained unpaid and their respective values.
Some accounts receivable dashboards also allow users to drill down to the invoice level, showing overdue invoices and the number of overdue days.
Please note: Our Zoho Books Power BI dashboard includes pages for P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, Accounts Receivable Aging, and Outstanding Invoices analysis.
5. Budget vs Actual Dashboard
A Power BI budget vs. actual dashboard typically contrasts actual sales and expense data with annual or quarterly targets. Budget figures are generally fixed and updated once a year, while forecast numbers can be revised weekly.
The specifics of the budget will mainly dictate the dashboard's design. Financial teams can establish budgets for every aspect of their P&L or balance sheet if desired. Less detailed budgets may be set for sales of specific products or groups.
Common visualizations in a Power BI budget vs. actual dashboard include:
A gauge chart to show progress
A bullet chart, which is a horizontal variation of a gauge chart
Line or bar charts with a dashed line representing the budget
Tables featuring three columns: actuals, budget, and actuals/budget
6. Sales Forecast Dashboard
Power BI sales forecast dashboards usually display forecast data and compare it with actual figures. The primary goal of a sales forecasting dashboard is to assist CFOs in predicting financial outcomes and strategizing for future funding needs.
One common method of sales forecasting involves calculating a weighted pipeline where each stage in the sales funnel is given a percentage probability of closing. The revenue from deals at each pipeline stage is multiplied by its respective probability score.
There are two methods for creating Power BI forecasting dashboards:
External Forecasting - Financial directors often create forecasts in Excel before visualizing them in Power BI.
Internal Forecasting in Power BI - Some developers utilize Power BI’s forecasting functions like AutoML and the Linest DAX function to model performance based on statistical trends.
For example, when developing the sales forecasting dashboard featured above, our client generated all forecasts using Excel. They predicted sales for a range of products across various countries for demand planning. They also compared their current forecast with the previous forecast (Forecast N-1) to evaluate accuracy.
7. Sales Financial Dashboard
Sales analysis was a significant focus for my Power BI financial dashboards during my tenure at Autodesk. Drawing on this experience, I crafted the dashboard you see above for the financial director of Tikkurila (data is randomized).
Power BI sales financial dashboards are frequently constructed using ERPs like Dynamics Nav, NetSuite, etc. These dashboards enable Financial Directors to pinpoint areas of business growth and decline, which in turn drives essential weekly forecasting decisions relevant to sales management and expense planning.
During my Autodesk experience, Financial Directors often collaborated with VPs of Sales by leveraging insights from these Power BI financial dashboards. If sales were sluggish, Financial Directors advised implementing measures such as discounts or accelerating deal processing.
8. Expense Dashboard
Power BI financial dashboards for operational expense management are quite common. At Autodesk, we had a dedicated role for OPEX management in our team, utilizing a Power BI financial dashboard to analyze procurement data sourced from SAP Hana.
OPEX Power BI financial dashboards typically compare actual expenditures against budgets and evaluate the remaining budget for spending.
Consequently, when reimbursement requests arise, the OPEX manager can verify if the requesting department still has budget left.
9. Sales Team Management Dashboard
In my time at Autodesk, each sales team was paired with a dedicated Finance Business Partner. Their role was to assist sales managers and directors with financial insights. The example above exemplifies a Power BI financial dashboard suitable for Finance Business Partners.
Finance Business Partners could access this dashboard and apply manager filters, enabling them to review each salesperson's performance under that manager.
Upon clicking on a salesperson's name in the table, they could assess quarterly performance trends.
These Power BI financial dashboards empower Finance Business Partners to recognize top performers and encourage knowledge-sharing. At the same time, salespeople experiencing downturns may require support through additional leads or training.
10. Account Growth Dashboard
Every sales organization aims to expand its business with each client over time. A Power BI financial dashboard can effectively spotlight customer growth priorities. Finance Business Partners would utilize this dashboard to assist their sales teams with insights.
The example above showcases a Power BI financial dashboard I developed to gauge the client portfolio growth for each sales manager. This dashboard enabled them to quickly pinpoint which accounts grew and which shrank over the past three years.
Several actionable insights arose from this dashboard:
Sales teams began targeting shrinking accounts to understand the reasons behind the decline and offer support.
Sales managers worked to identify patterns for accounts that grew, quickly recognizing that top-performing accounts often originated from the same industry. Consequently, salespeople adjusted their focus towards industries with high growth potential.
By employing this Power BI financial dashboard, organizations can specify their targets for account management, directly enhancing sales and revenue. I’ve personally observed significant revenue spikes when companies became more proactive regarding account management.
11. Investment Dashboard
I had the pleasure of collaborating with hedge funds and developing their Power BI financial dashboards. These dashboards are now integral to their daily analysis concerning the performance of their investment portfolios, encompassing both long (stocks they are buying) and short (stocks they are selling) positions.
As is evident, they have a consolidated view of all their trading positions, allowing trend analysis for stock prices by hovering over a line in the table.
Hedge fund managers can also select an open position and drill down to a different page showing detailed performance metrics for their trades, as displayed below.
How to Automate Finance Reporting with Power BI
You can automate financial reporting using Power BI in three straightforward steps:
Automate Data Extraction - Power BI features over 250 connectors for financial data sources like Anaplan, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and SAP Hana. These connectors enable direct data extraction from your source into Power BI, eliminating the need for manual pulls into Excel. Custom Power BI connectors can also be created if your data source is not available.
Automate Data Transformation - Power Query within Power BI allows you to automate repetitive data transformation tasks. You simply define your transformation steps in Power Query, and these are executed each time your data is refreshed.
Automate Data Refresh - Power BI permits scheduling automatic data refreshes up to eight times a day under a standard Power BI Pro license, with more frequent refresh options available through higher-tier Power BI licenses.
Is Developing a Power BI Financial Dashboard a Wise Choice?
As illustrated, Power BI is versatile for crafting a broad spectrum of financial dashboards. Building financial Power BI dashboards aids businesses in automating reporting, enhancing user experience, and circumventing the hassles of distributing large spreadsheets.
Versich can support finance departments in various capacities:
We provide our own Power BI connectors for sources like Xero, QuickBooks Online, and Zoho Books, streamlining data extraction automation.
Our free Power BI templates come pre-loaded with the necessary formulas to ensure your figures align with what is seen in QuickBooks Online or Zoho Books, accelerating your development process.
Our Power BI consultants specialize in creating tailored financial dashboards based on your specific requirements. We have successfully delivered over 1,000 dashboards for more than 600 clients and look forward to bringing our expertise to your project.
