How to Drive Action Through Financial Reporting

Many accountants email the balance sheet and income statement to their CEOs and think,   “Job done.”  But here’s the problem: Your CEO is not necessarily trained in reading financial statements. Even if they were, you've just given them an assignment to "figure it out" If your boss doesn’t understand the numbers, then you haven’t communicated. You’ve just forwarded a report.  🚨 A financial statement without context is just data.   📊 Your job is to turn that data into insights.  How to Present Financials the Right Way  📌 1️⃣ Give a One-Page Summary 🔹 Highlight key figures—Revenue, Profit, Cash Flow, and Key Ratios.   🔹 Include clear takeaways (e.g., “Revenue grew 10%, but margins dropped due to rising costs.”).   🔹 Avoid technical jargon—simplify complex metrics.  📌 2️⃣ Answer the Big Questions   Your CEO doesn’t want numbers—they want meaning. Help them understand:   🔹 What changed? (“Profit dropped 5% due to higher shipping costs.”)   🔹 Why did it happen? (“Fuel prices increased 20% this quarter.”)   🔹 What should we do next? (“We should renegotiate supplier contracts.”)  📌 3️⃣ Use Visuals   🔹 Graphs > Tables—a well-designed chart can explain in seconds.   🔹 Use color-coded trends (e.g., 🔴 Negative, 🟢 Positive).   🔹 Keep it clean—no clutter, no distractions. 📌 4️⃣ Speak the CEO’s Language   🔹 Skip the accounting terminology—focus on impact.   🔹 Tie financials to business goals:     - Sales grew 15% → “We’re expanding market share.”     - Cash flow dipped → “We need to tighten collections.” ✅ Financial statements don’t speak for themselves—you do.   ✅ Numbers are useless without insights.  If your CEO isn’t making better decisions because of your reports, then your job isn’t done.  💡 Don’t just report numbers—explain them. That's how you add value and impact.

CEO: Our margins are getting tighter. FP&A: Let’s cut costs. CEO: We’re missing revenue targets. FP&A: Let’s reforecast. CEO: Our cash flow is unpredictable. FP&A: Let’s track it closer. CEO: We’re losing market share. FP&A: Let’s adjust assumptions. This is how finance becomes a back-office function. And it’s why most FP&A teams get ignored in strategy meetings. Instead, try this: 1. Turn data into decisions, not just reports CEOs don’t need more charts. They need answers. If your reports don’t drive action, they’re just noise. FP&A teams that translate numbers into clear next steps get a seat at the table. 2. Make forecasting dynamic, not static Annual budgets are already outdated by Q2. Winning teams run rolling forecasts that adapt in real-time, using leading indicators to predict what’s next, before the business feels the impact. 3. Use capital as a competitive advantage The best companies don’t just cut costs, they allocate capital better. Instead of reacting to margin pressure with blanket cuts, double down on high-ROI opportunities and phase out low-value spending. 4. Speak the language of business Finance gets ignored when it talks in numbers, not outcomes. Saying, “Gross margin fell by 2%” misses the mark. Saying, “Optimizing pricing can recover $5M in profit next quarter” gets action. 5. Don’t wait for leadership to ask The best FP&A teams don’t wait. They anticipate challenges, model different scenarios, and push strategic moves before the company is forced to react. Influence happens when finance drives the conversation, not follows it. The FP&A teams winning in 2025 aren’t managing costs. They’re out-executing their competitors. FP&A sees what’s coming first. Follow Erik Lidman for FP&A insights.

I used to think the CFO role was about numbers. Then I delivered a financial review with flawless charts, metrics, and margin breakdowns only for my CEO to look confused and say, “Cameron, what do I do with this?” And that’s when it hit me: Data doesn’t drive decisions, context does. The best finance leaders translate reporting into business clarity. Here’s how: 1) Lead with the insight, not format. ❌ Here’s our revenue trend. ✅ Revenue is up 12%, but 80% of that growth came from one segment - concentration risk is rising. Start with the meaning. Start with why it matters. Start with the thing people will remember. When you give the takeaway first, the numbers finally have a reason to exist. 2) End with “So what?” and “What’s next?” A great review doesn’t show what happened. It clarifies what leaders should do about it. Before sharing any number, ask: - Is this a risk to mitigate? - An opportunity to accelerate? - A decision that needs to be made? Then close with a path forward: “Here are the options, here’s the impact of each, and here’s what I recommend.” Finance earns influence by offering judgment, not just information. 3) Turn variance analysis into a story about cause, not blame. ❌ We missed targets. ✅ We missed due to delayed hiring and slower onboarding. If we adjust sequencing and speed ramp time by 30 days, we recover trajectory. Great finance leaders replace emotion with: → Pattern recognition → Accountability → Clear next steps Because companies don’t need more reporting. They need clarity. ___ Once I shifted from presenting numbers to shaping decisions, everything changed: ⚡ Teams moved faster. 🎯 Leaders made sharper calls. 🚀 Execution tightened because priorities were obvious. Finance becomes strategic when the story sticks. P.S. After 15 years in the C-suite and four board seats, I now advise finance leaders on the skills that matter most: partnering with CEOs, communicating with boards, and leading at the executive level. If you’re sharpening those muscles, reach out.

Most variance analysis is wasted effort because it stops one step too early. Teams identify what changed. They explain why it happened. Then they submit the report. And leadership can't do anything with it. I've trained over 1,000 finance professionals at companies like Google, Merck, and Lowe's. The pattern is the same everywhere: Teams nail the What and the Why. But they skip the So What — the part that actually drives decisions. Here's how to fix it: 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 Identify and quantify the variance. Be specific. "Professional fees are unfavorable by $251K" — not "costs increased." 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗵𝘆 Find the root cause. Apply the 80/20 rule. If Deloitte is $267K over budget and the total variance is $251K, don't waste time tracking down the $16K offset. Focus on what matters. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 This is where most teams fail — and where real impact happens. Bad: "Professional fees are up because of Deloitte." Good: "Deloitte raised their prices (not more hours). We should compare to other audit firms and consider a tender process." Notice the difference? One describes. The other recommends action. To find the So What, I use the ARCTIC framework: • 𝗔ctions — What should we do next? • 𝗥isks/Opportunities — Does this expose a risk or upside? • 𝗖ause — What's the real root cause? • 𝗧iming — Is this a timing shift or a real hit? • 𝗜mpact — How does this affect the forecast? • 𝗖ontrol — Is this inside or outside our control? When you standardize this across your team, leaders don't have to re-learn how to read each report. They know exactly where to find the variance, the why, and the recommended action. That's how you turn backward-looking commentary into forward-looking decision support. I break down the full framework in my new YouTube video. 👉 Watch the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/dsbZChME -Christian Wattig Director, Wharton FP&A Program Corporate Trainer, Inside FP&A

Most finance teams think their job ends when the numbers tie out. But if all you’re doing is reporting what happened, you’re not a business partner—you’re a historian. Here’s the truth most operators won’t say out loud: they don’t care about your Excel wizardry. They care about what the numbers mean, and what to do next. Early in my career, I delivered a beautiful variance analysis. Every penny accounted for. Took me hours. The COO looked at it for 10 seconds and asked, “So… what should we change?” I had no answer. That moment changed how I work. Now when someone on my team flags a trend, they don’t stop there. They propose the implication. They prep talking points. They preempt objections. Like our analyst who spotted a CAC spike—then tied it to delayed onboarding in sales, showed the impact on cash, and recommended a tactical fix. That’s business partnership. Not noise. Not “analysis paralysis.” Actual insight, delivered in time to act. So we made it official. At any company: → If you tie insight to action, you move up → If you solve real business problems, you get comped accordingly → And if you're doing the job, you don’t wait for permission to have the title Finance is no longer a back office. But only if we stop acting like one. The best partners don’t just balance budgets—they shift the trajectory. Are you empowering your finance team to drive change—or just document it?

“Wait — why is Finance only telling me what already happened?” That was the question a founder asked me during a sprint to prep for their Series A. They were running a solid business. Revenue growing, team expanding, product-market fit in sight. But Finance? It wasn’t steering the business, it was narrating from the backseat. - Metrics were lagging. - Tradeoffs came too late. - No one knew what actually moved the needle. That’s when we flipped the model. Here’s what changes when finance owns outcomes, not just numbers: 1. OKRs got real. We tied goals to actual financial levers: → Reduce burn multiple → Extend payback → Improve gross margin by 2 pts Finance stopped reporting, it started operating. 2. Forecasts got smarter. We moved from static models to scenario tools: → What if we delay that GTM hire by 60 days? → What if we double product velocity this quarter? Suddenly, every “what if” became actionable. 3. Rhythm got tighter. Finance pulsed weekly with the business, not monthly in isolation. We tracked burn, CAC, GRR alongside OKRs. And when we saw retention was improving in specific cohorts? We doubled down… fast. This is a mindset shift: - Finance as translator, not gatekeeper. - Metrics that drive action, not admiration. - Budget as strategy, not just survival. Most founders think finance is about accuracy. But the real gain? Alignment. When finance leads outcomes, strategy moves faster and smarter. Is your finance team steering the business, or just reporting on it? PS: If you’re navigating a pivotal moment — scaling, pivoting, or tightening up — and want to move from reactive to strategic… Let’s chat ✉️

If your client doesn’t know what to do after reading your report, you didn’t do your job. Here’s how I translate financials into clarity that founders can use: 1. Strip the noise. No founder needs 30 metrics. They need 3–5 that actually move the business: • Margin • Cash • Burn • AR • Key inputs (like CAC, LTV, etc.) If the metric doesn’t lead to action, it’s optional. 2. Speak their language. “GP% down 2pts” doesn’t mean anything to most CEOs. But: “We’re losing $6,000 a month on delivery inefficiencies” does. Translate ratios into impact. Make it real. 3. Tie every number to a decision. Example: • “We have 9 weeks of runway left” • “If we push AR by 7 days, we gain 2 weeks of cash” • “If we cut X expense, we buy 30 days” The goal isn’t to report. It’s to direct. 4. Make it visual and consistent. Same layout, same rhythm, same day every month. Your job is to build trust. If they know what to expect, they’ll pay more attention. 5. Ask: What should we do with this? If your reporting doesn’t lead to a decision, it failed. Finance is only useful if it drives action. Founders don’t need more data. They need someone who can see the signal and say: “Here’s what we should do.” Be that person.

Reporting is NOT delivering insights. Unfortunately, many data & analytics professionals think it is. Reporting dashboards show WHAT's happening and enable basic slicing and dicing, but fail to deliver WHY. Example - "Performance is down 15% WoW" This is just stating the obvious. It's not a real insight. It's not actionable. This leaves many business leaders frustrated. When business stakeholders ask for more dashboards, what they are ultimately trying to achieve is "I need to know what's impacting my key business metrics and what I should do to improve it". Adding 15 more charts/views/slices won't help much to understand what's impacting the key business metrics and which actions should be taken. The key to REAL INSIGHTS that can move the needle? ROOT-CAUSE ANALYSIS to find the WHY (i.e., DIAGNOSTIC analytics) This is the most effective way to drive change with data & analytics. This can make the data & analytics team a TRUSTED ADVISOR and get a seat at the leadership and decision-making table. Insights need to be: 🟢SPEEDY: business stakeholders need quick insights into performance changes to make decisions before it's too late 🟢PROACTIVE: don't wait for business stakeholders to ask. Monitor key metrics and proactively share insights to become that trusted advisor 🟢IMPACT-ORIENTED: focus on the key drivers that drove most of the change and communicate accordingly 🟢EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATED to drive the right action #data #analytics #impact #diagnosticanalytics

🎯 Your reporting can make or break relationships with your investors. After helping dozens of tech scale-ups optimize their reporting, here's what actually moves the needle. The 5 Non-Negotiables of Stellar Investor Reporting: 1. Strategic Context: Raw numbers without context are just noise. Start with your north star metrics and how recent decisions/market changes have impacted them. We had a founder who turned around an investor relationship simply by reframing their reporting around strategic objectives rather than just MoM changes. 2. Forward-Looking Indicators: Your investors aren't just interested in what happened. They want to know what's coming. Include Lead KPIs (sales pipeline quality, customer acquisition costs trends, churn prediction models). One of our scale-ups spotted a potential cash flow issue 3 months early through careful leading indicator tracking. 3. Transparent Risk Assessment: Here's where many founders get it wrong. They try to sugarcoat challenges. In my experience, investors respect founders who proactively identify risks and present mitigation strategies. It shows maturity and builds trust. 4. Consistent Cadence & Format: Sounds basic, but you'd be surprised. Pick a format that works for your stage (we can help with templates), stick to a regular schedule, and make sure historical data is easily comparable. Your investors should never have to ask, "Where's the report?" 5. Action-Oriented Updates: End every report with clear next steps and specific areas where you need investor support. Make it easy for them to add value beyond the capital. 🔑 Pro Tip: Create a "living" reporting template that evolves with your business. What worked at Seed won't cut it at Series B. 💭 Founders: What's the most valuable piece of feedback you've received about your investor communications? 💭 Investors: What's the best investor update you've seen and why? #VentureCapital #ScaleUps #InvestorRelations #CFOInsights #FinanceLeadership