Introduction
Managing financial records is imperative to ensuring that a company’s financial health informs managerial decisions at any time. It helps identify the business’s growth prospects, control performance, and create a sustainable financial future. However, presenting sales data, KPIs, and any other forms of financial information on the screen can be intimidating. That is where a financial dashboard comes in very handy! Create an effective CFO Dashboard Template with key financial metrics to enhance decision-making, streamline reporting, and improve financial management.
Importance of a CFO dashboard
A CFO dashboard is a financial tool that gives finance leaders an overview of their organizations’ economic status. It is an analytical tool with a single point of reference that offers current information and results of KPIs. The advantages derived from having a dashboard means that CFOs can monitor, analyze, and present figures relating to the company’s finances. It allows a leadership team to understand a company’s financial direction, ascertain areas where it is vulnerable to risk or needs enhancement, and form a company strategy to achieve its economic objectives.
Overview of key metrics
CFO KPIs are goals that enable the finance team to understand the kind of performance that an organization is producing and assist in making good decisions to ensure the health of that organization’s performance or to turn around an unhealthy performance. They are key performance indicators used to evaluate financial performance, thereby assessing the CFO’s performance.
CFO KPIs enable firms to evaluate their financial performance by revealing their productivity, revenue-generating capacity, and the management of risks. Some new vital KPIs related to sustainability could increase their significance based on what the regulator demands and how much the investor has to focus on environmental issues. These KPIs can be shared with other functions besides finance to alert the company of problems or successes and redirect business unit leaders’ attention.
Here is a list of the most commonly used KPIs, from which you can choose the one your organization should track.
Financial metrics
1) Revenue and revenue growth
It is the easiest one, and the first one that comes to our lips in any discussions – Are we a growing organization, or are we shrinking? Revenue growth=(current revenue-prior period revenue) /prior period revenue x 100
2) Net profit margin
It indicates how much additional income is created for each dollar of profit. Net income considers all business costs while showing the final net profit on the income statement, including the depreciation costs. Net profit margin = (net income /revenue)$ x 100
3) Cash flow
This determines the ability to generate cash from other daily business operations. This metric is usually accompanied by a large amount of data to track which CFO dashboard software exists. They have defined operating cash flow as equal to operating income plus depreciation, less taxes, and any working capital changes.
Operational metrics
4) Accounts receivable turnover
This measures the period that elapses when the customer acquires the goods or services you offer. The credit sales per debtor figure can also be low, meaning you may be able to enhance the efficiency of credit collections received for customers. At the same time, if the latter value is much greater than the former, the company can expand its sales by offering more significant credit limits to the clients. Accounts receivables turnover = (total sales credits) / ( average accounts receivables)
5) Operating expense ratio
The OER is an evaluation of how much it costs to run a particular piece of property based on the part of the income generated by that property.
The operating expense ratio (OER) is obtained by taking all operating expenses, excluding depreciation, and dividing them by operating income.
Investors also prefer a low OER because most expenses are reduced to a proportion that relates little to income.
Liquidity and solvency metrics
6) Current ratio
Important information, which includes the current ratio calculation, is given below: Your Current Ratio equals your Current Asset divided by your Current Liability. It refers to your company’s capacity to close the liabilities using the available assets in the short to midterm.
7) Quick ratio
Like the current ratio, the quick ratio is calculated using slightly different parameters, namely the most liquid ones. Instead, it is considered an acid test that indicates your business’s capacity to meet current obligations at short notice.
The formula for calculating your quick ratio is:
Quick ratio = (cash + marketable securities + accounts receivable) / current liabilities
Performance metrics
8) Return on Equity (ROE)
It indicates the extent to which funds of investors and business owners are utilized to generate profit. Return on equity = (net income) / (shareholder equity value)
9) Debt to equity ratio
This measures the proportion of the company’s liabilities against the shareholders’ fund. A higher figure denotes that the company is using debt more in its operations, and sometimes, this is considered risky. Thus, the debt-equity ratio = total liabilities / total shareholders’ equity.
Strategic metrics
10) Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA)
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization capture the idea of the company’s fundamentals’ profitability. EBITDA is like net income; however, it tries to remove certain specific financing and accounting choices, making different companies’ profitability compete directly. EBITDA = net income + interest + taxes + depreciation + amortization
11) Gross profit margin
This profitability measure evaluates the core profitability of the selling, offering a viewpoint of the price at which an organization can sell its products in relation to the total overall cost incurred in producing the product. It does not contain some marketing, sales, admin, and other expenses included in the operating margin. Gross profit margin = (revenue – cost of goods sold) / Revenue
Conclusion
As mentioned, the financial sector must track, monitor, and analyze a company’s performance frequently to maintain a healthy status and avert monetary hitches. That is why financials always hold a very strategic role in any company, and the squad responsible for the primary has to have plenty of tools to help generate, arrange, and analyze it correctly – this is the purpose of the dashboard reporting. Biz Infograph provides world-class design and professional dashboard templates in Excel and Google Sheets for diverse users around the world.
Final thoughts
When CFOs and other business management experts have the information that is useful in the necessary format, they can create and implement the essential strategies that will endow growth and profits to the business. Biz Infographics is software that allows your financial department to receive the information they need about the organization’s financial situation, enhance forecast accuracy, manage risks, and make the proper decisions. This alerts CFOs on the economic status of their organizations and the real-time performance and status of their organization’s operations from different sections of their organizations via dashboards. Biz Infographics is implemented in a business to get relevant analysis and business intelligence and automate various processes for leading global organizations across different sectors.
