How to Drive Action Through Financial Reporting

Master the art of Financial Storytelling 🧑🏫 Your numbers tell a story, but are you telling it right? 👇 Numbers without context are just digits on a page. The real power comes from transforming those numbers into insights that drive action. ➡️ COMMON MISTAKES IN FINANCIAL REPORTING Let's start with what NOT to do when presenting financials: 1️⃣ Dropping raw numbers without context Raw data overwhelms your audience. When you say "Revenue grew to $100K," what does that mean for the business? 2️⃣ Reading slide content word-for-word Your presentation should add value beyond what's written. Share insights that aren't visible in the numbers. 3️⃣ Rushing through without pausing for questions Financial data needs time to digest. Create moments for discussion and clarification. ➡️ BUILDING A COMPELLING FINANCIAL STORY Here's how to transform your financial presentations: 1️⃣ Start with the fundamentals Always begin by establishing context. What's normal? What's exceptional? What benchmarks matter? 2️⃣ Connect data points to strategy Show how financial results link to business decisions. If working capital improved, explain which specific actions drove that improvement. 3️⃣ Use comparisons effectively - Period over period changes - Budget vs actuals - Year over year trends - Industry benchmarks 4️⃣ Structure your narrative - What happened? - Why did it happen? - What does it mean for the future? - What actions should we take? ➡️ COMPONENTS OF GREAT FINANCIAL STORYTELLING 1️⃣ Clear Dashboards Start with a clean, focused view of KPIs that matter most. Don't overwhelm with data. 2️⃣ Strategic Context Show how financial results connect to company goals and market conditions. 3️⃣ Forward-Looking Analysis Use current data to paint a picture of future opportunities and challenges. 4️⃣ Action Items End every presentation with clear next steps and decision points. ➡️ PRACTICAL TIPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION 1️⃣ Know your audience CFO needs different details than the marketing team. Adjust your depth accordingly. 2️⃣ Use visual aids Graphs and charts can illustrate trends better than tables of numbers. 3️⃣ Practice active listening Watch for confusion or disengagement. Adjust your presentation based on real-time feedback. 4️⃣ Create discussion points Plan specific moments to pause and engage with your audience. === Remember: Financial storytelling isn't about making numbers sound good. It's about helping stakeholders make informed decisions. What techniques do you use to make financial data more engaging? Share your thoughts in the comments below 👇

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 ✉️

Advice to Accounting & CFO Firms: The clarity of the data is more important than the volume of the data. It's true that detailed reporting has its place. But what your customers really need is clarity. → A clear understanding of the key factors driving performance up or down and recommendations for action. Here are some tips: 1. Take time to understand your customer. What specific insights will help them with their strategic decision-making? Focus your analysis and presentation of the findings accordingly. 2. Resist the urge to showcase everything. Boil down your observations to the 3 most important metrics or factors that explain variances from the plan/prior year. 3. Use visualizations like charts and graphs. Pictures can often convey messages more accurately than lengthy written explanations and numeric tables. 4. Be solution-oriented. Provide clear advice for action, not just a breakdown of the problem. Highlight how to take the next step in a constructive way. 5. Consistently socialize your analysis. Meet with leadership to review performance and answer questions. Make sure these meetings provide value by having measurable objectives and outcomes for each session. See, the goal is simple: to use the right data to make the right move. P.S. I'm Martin Zych, co-founder of Jirav, an all-in-one forecasting, budgeting, reporting, and dashboarding solution tool for Accounting & CFO firms.

In the world of financial strategy, planning is 5% of the work. Execution is the real game-changer, accounting for 95% of success. The most strategic finance teams I know don’t just inform teams of their targets - they drive execution across the entire organization. Here's Abacum's 6-step playbook to turn strategy into action: 1. Establish accountability If nobody is responsible, work isn’t just “going to happen.” Assign specific owners with clear deadlines to each objective, and stay flexible enough to reallocate as needed. 2. Focus on input metrics Look beyond the outcome. Focus on the vital actions that hit targets - sales calls, marketing campaigns, support tickets resolved. These input metrics are your leading indicators of success, and need to be within your strategic finance scope. 3. Measure the metrics, loudly Visibility drives accountability, so make progress visible and available to the team. Share input and output metrics in team meetings, dashboards, and internal comms. Celebrate wins and hold people accountable for misses. Addressing performance gaps keeps transparency and intensity high. 4. Personally track key indicators Develop a holistic understanding of how metrics connect. Your ability to quickly diagnose anomalies is a strategic superpower. 5. Align incentives to targets Make sure team incentives—like pay and other perks—match company goals. Example: reward sales for outbound activity, not just closed deals, to encourage long-term success. 6. Iterate quickly Execution is about progress, not perfection. Quickly pivot tactics that aren't delivering results. Be willing to change tactics as often as needed. The ability to pivot fast is more important than being meticulous about every single move. By following these 6 steps, you'll lead the “plan, action, iterate” cycle in your company. Ruthlessly monitor execution to ensure your company doesn’t just plan well but performs well. I dive deeper into each of these steps in the latest edition of our newsletter 'FP&A Stories from the Trenches.' If you're interested, check the link in the comments to subscribe and give it a read.

💡 Financial Intelligence for SMB Owners - Nugget #9 💡 "I look at my financials regularly, but... I am unsure how they connect to driving growth, getting funding, or the valuation of my business." Though often worded somewhat differently by each owner I speak with, the concern they are verbalizing is essentially the same. This gets to the crux of the value that Embedded Fractional CFOs from FocusCFO® bring to our clients. Call it the "3 A's" of strategic financial management: ✅ Align ✅ Allocate ✅ Anticipate ➡️ Align: Strategy, Numbers, and Outcomes Most owners have goals for their business. But goals aren’t strategy. And even if there is a broad strategy, if there isn't someone that is tying the strateg to the numbers to develop the financial roadmap to execute, then.... do you really have a strategy? With this financial roadmap🛣️ , the fractinal CFO: 💠 Turns your vision into measurable outcomes and supporting narrative that speak directly to lenders, investors & buyers; 💠 Links the strategic initiatives directly to capital needs and cash flow targets; 💠 Establishes metrics that directly lead to achieving those outcomes, not just easily measured 'activity'. ➡️ Allocate: Capital, Cash, and Resources The capital allocation plan for the busines is the growth plan!💡A strategic-minded CFO will: 💠 Use scenario analysis to lead decisions, not react to them; 💠 Focus on real free cash flow (not just EBITDA), which is the lifeblood of growth; 💠 Take a hard, skeptical look at expected returns to ensure limited funds are allocated to growth intiatives that have the highest likelihood of achieving desired outcomes; 💠 Balance strategic investment in growth while keeping your business lender- and investor- and buyer- ready. ➡️ Anticipate: Risk, Gaps, and What Comes Next Basic financial reporting reflects what has already happened. A "superpower" of our Embedded Fractional CFOs is knowing how to enable leadership with foresight: 💠 Spot red flags in liquidity, debt service coverage or solvency before they cause problems; 💠 Build a rolling forecast that’s actually useful to spot opportunities and manage risks; 💠 Facilitate informed conversations amongst the leadership team about how to smartly grow the business (and its value); 💠 Pressure test your plan like an investor or buyer would. Financial Leadership ⏩ Business Strategy

Most financial meetings are missing the point. They report on the past instead of planning for the future. If you want financial meetings that drive real action, you need a system. A structure that ensures you are not just rattling off numbers—but connecting them to decisions. In just 90 minutes and 5-steps, you can be in the top 1% of financial performers in your industry: 1️⃣ The Big Picture (5 min) – Start with a high-level overview: wins, challenges, and key updates. This sets the context. 2️⃣ Review Key Metrics (5-10 min) – Focus on essential metrics, not every number under the sun. What trends are emerging? 3️⃣ Financial Deep Dive (20-25 min) – Go beyond the P&L and Balance Sheet. What do the numbers actually mean? 4️⃣ Forecasting & “What’s Next” (20-25 min) – Shift from what happened to what will happen next and what adjustments are needed. 5️⃣ Action Planning & Accountability (10-15 min) – Every meeting should end with clear next steps: Who is doing what by when? When done right, this framework ensures your meetings lead to real decisions—not just another report collecting dust.