Webinar: Reporting Essentials

Kurt Alexander

Reporting Essentials

Trainer

Kurt L. Alexander

Condamine Developments Pty Ltd

This webinar is from the title courses “Financial Reporting for Executive Assistants”

or “Data Analysis & Dashboard Reporting”

Course information may be obtained from

INFORMA

“Bringing Knowledge to Life!”

Housekeeping

• Slides will be available on our SlideShare page, link will be emailed to you

• Recording of the webinar will be available to download, link will be emailed

• Take the time to complete post-webinar survey that will pop up at the end

• You can type your questions throughout the session

• Time will be allocated in the end for the speaker to address your questions

About The Speaker

Kurt Alexander has over 21 years’ experience in general management, financial management,

administration management, and project management.

He has nine years of professional business consulting and analysis experience, coupled with three

years’ extensive finance training in Australasia and the Middle East.

Kurt is Director of Condamine Developments, an Australian Company focused on Business

performance and training, and a Senior Consultant, Business Analyst, Management, and Finance

Trainer.

Kurt has extensive experience in a wide array of consulting/training engagements within the

electrical, hospitality, tourism, resort, mining, development, construction, engineering, retail,

manufacturing and consumer industries within Australasia, India and the Middle East.

Points we will cover in this Webinar:

• Start at the Beginning

• Theory, Design & Implementation

• Presentation

© Condamine Developments Pty Ltd

Start at the Beginning

• Know the end user

• Know the material

• Develop the layout

• Plan the layout

• Discuss the layout

• Produce the report


Know the End User

Key to the success of the project

• Identify the END USER

• Identify the reason for the report

• Identify the desired layout

• Understand the end users comprehension and

interpretation of charts and graphs


Know the Material

• What Industry

• What form it is delivered in

• What information is included

• How does the material fit together

• What are the variances

• What is related to this information


Develop the Layout

• Is this a “Once Off” report?

– If so, do it as quickly AND accurately as possible

• Is this report to be repeated, or only have slight

variations each time?

– If so, do it as a dynamic report that has inputs and

dynamically linked workings to allow for new data and slight

variations


Plan the Layout

• What is the end product?

• Where is it to be presented at?

• Organize and clean the raw data

• Determine your variables and assumptions

• Determine the method of calculations

• Set report/dashboard to previous agreed layout


Discuss the layout

Critical steps before presentation

• With the team

• With the end user

– Show rough drafts to ensure you are on the right path

– Gain insight into how they think and perceive information


Produce the Report

• Final review

• Review on media to be used

• Train the presenter

– If it is you, make sure you have all our information compiled

and understand it all

– If it is not you – ensure the presenter is capable of

explaining and presenting the material for what the DATA

says, not the outcome they want.


Theory, Design & Implementation

• Why do we do reports?

• What are the reasons reports are not effective?

• Why can data be misinterpreted?

• What tools do we use?

• What is a dashboard report?

• How does it work?


Why do we do reports?

• Key Reasons for producing reports:

– Operational

– Strategic / Executive

– Analytical


The problem lay with the

interpretation of the data, not the quantity or quality

of data.

Information Overload People usually react to too much information

in one of two ways:

• Shut down because it is too overwhelming

• Keep open to the flow of information, and never

make a decision

The best course of action?

The middle road


Excel Tools for Data Analysis

What is a Dashboard Report?

A Dashboard is a high-

level report which shows

a glance, how the

company is doing - much

like the dashboard of

your car.

Source: www.exceluser.com


Key Definition of a Dashboard

• Easy to read

• Usually single page and real-time

• Showing a snapshot of current status and historical

trends

• Shows KPIs and metrics

• Enables instantaneous and informed decisions to be

made at a glance


How a dashboard works:

Uses business units as the driver

and

Information Technology as the enabler


Presentation

• Don’t be sloppy. Your report is your image/brand

• Bring focus and simplify

• Calibrate the data to be shown optimally

• Eliminate distractions, make data stand out

• Lines, bars, pies, speedometer… chose the best fit


• Consolidate data, be honest with your data

• Ditch the text, visualize the story

• Keep interpretation down to under 30 seconds

• It’s not the ink…. It’s the think!



Conclusion

• Thank you for your time and attention into this webinar, I greatly appreciate that you were concerned enough about your Reporting Skills to make the effort to get more training, thank you!

• Sometimes we think that “Self Based Training” is more important than “Focused, collective skills based training”.

• Are you ready to make changes?

• As a pro-active employee/manager you should always be ready to make changes!

• Once again, thank you for your attention and we will now open up the opportunity for you to ask questions.

Trainer

Kurt L. Alexander

Condamine Developments Pty Ltd

This webinar is from the title courses ““Financial Reporting for Executive Assistants”

and “Data Analysis & Dashboard Reporting”

Available as In-House or Public Training

Course information may be obtained from

INFORMA

“Bringing Knowledge to Life!”

Webinar: Reporting Essentials

Education

Transcript of Webinar: Reporting Essentials