A financial dashboard provides organisations with quick and clear insight into the company's financial health. It enables management and stakeholders to make well-informed decisions based on up-to-date data.    

Key benefits of a financial dashboard:

• Immediate Insight: The dashboard offers a clear overview of crucial financial data such as revenue, costs, profit, cash flow, and outstanding invoices at a glance.
• Faster Decision-Making: Access to real-time figures allows decisions to be made more efficiently and effectively. This may involve cost control, investment opportunities, or debtor management.
• Risk Identification: Potential financial risks, such as declining revenue or rising costs, are detected promptly. This enables proactive intervention to prevent more significant issues.
• Goal Monitoring: The dashboard facilitates continuous monitoring of financial objectives. Deviations from the plan become immediately visible, allowing for prompt adjustments.
• Efficiency: Collecting individual reports becomes unnecessary. All relevant information is centrally available, saving time and reducing the risk of errors.
• Motivation and Engagement: Regular insights into financial performance encourage teams to work towards improving results.
• Trend Analysis: Analysing historical data allows for identifying trends and patterns. This provides valuable insights for strategic planning and future growth opportunities.

This one-day training course teaches you how to construct and use such a dashboard.  It helps executives and users of company accounts to get behind the figures on the face of a balance sheet, profit and loss account and cash flow statement and assess more precisely how a business is performing compared with previous years, in comparison to previous forecasts and competitors.   

The topics covered are:

• What is and why use a financial dashboard? 
• A quick revision of the key financial statements, the balance sheet, income and cash flow statement 
• The nature of ratio analysis
• The profitability ratio
• The liquidity and solvency ratios
• The operating efficiency
• The investor ratios
• The overall performance review
• How to use a financial dashboard as a management steering tool. 

What you will learn

• You will learn to construct a financial dashboard and use several ratio-analysis instruments to assess financial performance so that the organisation can then design and implement initiatives for increased productivity and profitability.
• You will understand through practical examples how financial analysis assists in managing cash flow, liquidity and the financial structure. 
• You will develop the ability to forecast the future and gain an understanding of how all these pieces of the puzzle fit together.

• Finance managers and controllers who need clearer performance visibility and faster decisions.
• CFOs and senior leaders seeking real-time insight into financial health and trends.
• FP&A professionals building KPI dashboards for planning and performance management.
• Business owners and SME managers wanting practical control over revenue, cash flow, and margins.
• Department heads responsible for budgets, targets, and operational efficiency.
• Analysts who need to turn financial data into actionable management insights.
• Operations managers monitoring working capital, inventory, and productivity metrics.
• Investors, lenders, and advisors evaluating company performance quickly and effectively.
• Non-financial managers who use reports but want better understanding of the numbers.
• Professionals responsible for transforming data into clear dashboards and decisions.

09:00 – 10:15 | Financial dashboards and ratio analysis an introduction:

• Understanding the need for a financial dashboard 
• Which ratios and KPI are important to us?
• How to structure a financial dashboard 
• Where does the data come from?  
• How up-to-date does the dashboard need to be? 

10:15 – 11:00 | A revision of financial statements:

• The balance sheet
• The income statement
• The cash flow statement

11:00 – 11:15 | Morning Break

11:15 – 12:00 | Profitability:

• Profitability Ratio's introduction
• Return on sales (ROS)
• Asset utilisation ratio (AUR)
• Return on capital employed (ROCE)

12:00 – 13:00 | Liquidity and Solvency:

• Sources of Finance
• Liquidity Introduction
• Current Ratio
• Quick Ratio
• Working Capital
• Solvency
• Leverage and Gearing
• Capital employed

13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch Break

14:00 – 14:45 | Operating Efficiency:

• The Cycle of Production
• Creditor Days
• Stock days
• Trade receivable days

14:45 – 15:30 | Investor Ratio's:

• Return on Equity
• Pay-out ratio
• Interest Cover
• Earnings per share
• Residual Income

15:30 – 15:45 | Afternoon Break

15:45 – 16:15 | A Critical Review:

• Advantages and limitations of Ratio's

16:15 – 17:00 | Case: Company Assessment Workshop using a Financial Dashboard:

• Critical assessment of a company(s) performance through Ratio's
• Using the dashboard as a steering tool
• Establish a trend Analysis
• Establish a competitor analysis
• Make conclusions and recommendations. 

• Marie, CFO: "This course was a game-changer. I learned to build dashboards that clarify profitability and operating efficiency, perfect for boardroom discussions."
• Peter, Operations Head: "Really practical training! The construction tips and logic helped me create dashboards that management relies on for financial and investor insights."
• Klara, Analyst: "Loved this course – it tied dashboard concepts to real outcomes like profitability and structure. I feel ready to support CFOs with solid data."