How to Create Financial Analytics Dashboards for Banks and Accounting Services

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A financial dashboard gives banks complete control over their daily operations. The dashboard provides real-time reports about the performance of the establishment against the specified KPIs. Let’s see how the dashboard is created and why it plays a prominent role in the financial industry. 

Banks and financial institutions face heavy customer traffic and are under immense pressure to deliver the best to each customer. Managing a multitude of transactions for deposits, withdrawals, loans, repayments, insurance, mutual funds, bonds, etc., gets stressful for the employees. The advancement in technology has made it easier to manage the huge volume of transactions in less time without compromising the quality of services. 

One of the latest tools adopted by the accounting industry is the financial analytics dashboard. The dashboard is built using business intelligence tools like Power BI. It provides valuable data to employees and empowers them to make decisions faster. The necessary information is presented in attractive and simplified reports. Banking professionals only need to use the dashboard to access any report in real-time. It takes just a few clicks to get a clearer picture of the issue. 

Creating the financial dashboard is the job of experts. Even though financial institutions have in-house IT departments, most of them hire the services of business intelligence consulting companies. The experts set up the dashboard, integrate it with the existing business systems, and streamline data flow. 

Power BI is a popular and preferred business intelligence tool used to create financial dashboards. Let’s read more about the software and how analytics can help financial companies manage their business and customers. 


How is Analytics Used in Banking?

Data analytics has become a part of various industries. The finance sector is no exception. Banks use analytics to identify leads, understand customer behavior, and trace market trends for financial products and services. It helps understand and identify which customer might need a loan, which customer is likely to obtain an insurance policy, and what kind of investment options are gaining popularity. Keeping up with current trends gives the bank an advantage over its competitors. There are more opportunities to grab and become successful. Banks and financial institutions have largely benefitted from using data analytics. 

How can Analytics Help Finance Companies
How can Analytics Help Finance Companies

So how can analytics help finance companies?

  • Big Data: Big data requires advanced analytics. Otherwise, the data collected by the bank lies waste in the silos and ends up increasing expenses. Analytics help process big data and use the insights to make better decisions. 
  • Sales and Marketing: Banks and financial institutions also need to focus on marketing their products/ services. The changing trends and customer demographics are hard to understand without analyzing customer data. 
  • Know Your Customer: The secret to success is to know what the customers want. Data analytics gives finance companies the necessary information about customers’ spending/ saving patterns. Understand customers’ priorities to provide enhanced service. 
  • Fraud Detection: Financial frauds cause losses in billions every year. Analytics is a way to detect the possibility of fraud and prevent it. Banks can save millions by identifying fraudsters in advance. 
  • Risk Management: Predictive analytics is used for risk management in banks and financial establishments. It helps reduce uncertainty caused by market volatility. 

What is a Financial Dashboard?      

A financial analytical dashboard is a data management tool used to collect, monitor, and maintain finance-related information of the establishment. A financial dashboard is further classified into different types. Each dashboard has a purpose and provides insights into the related objectives. 

Types of Financial Dashboards 

Cash Management 

Cash management is a vital part of the banking system. The cash dashboard provides the current ratio and quick ratio to determine the bank’s ability to pay off obligations and increase financial health. 

Profit & Loss 

The P&L dashboard summarizes the expenses, revenue, and costs incurred by the institution for the fiscal year. It provides the necessary information to help banks understand the reasons for the losses incurred or profits gained. 

Financial Performance 

The financial performance dashboard created using Power BI gives insights into top-level information about the bank’s financial status. Metrics such as return on equity, return on assets, debt-equity ratio, and the working capital ratio is featured in this dashboard. 

Accounts Payable & Receivable 

The income and expenses of the financial institution are monitored using this dashboard. Employees can add more data columns to include all expenses paid by the bank. 

CFO Scorecard 

The CFO scorecard dashboard is designed for the Chief Finance Officer to keep track of the bank’s assets, liabilities, cash flow, liquidity, and other aspects. This helps in making the right decisions to achieve the goals. 

Based on their objectives and requirements, banks can have all the above dashboards or combine two or more. Employees are given access to the dashboards as per their roles and responsibilities. 


How to Create Financial Analytics Dashboards?

Creating a financial dashboard for a bank or financial establishment requires planning, implementation, monitoring, and optimization to ensure that the dashboard serves its purpose. The aim is to automate repetitive tasks and generate reports in minutes instead of slogging over them for weeks and months.

How to Create Financial Analytics Dashboards
How to Create Financial Analytics Dashboards

Following are the steps to create a financial dashboard in Power BI:

1. Start With Your Goals 

What are your business goals? What do you want to achieve this fiscal year? Are there any long-term plans? The dashboard is designed based on the metrics you want to measure and track. 

2. Finalize the Metrics 

It’s not surprising for a bank to have several metrics to monitor its growth and performance. However, adding all those to the dashboard will cause more confusion than providing any help. Shortlist the essential metrics to be directly displayed on the dashboard. The rest can be included in the filters and used whenever necessary. 

3. Monitor and Report Performance 

The aim of creating a Power BI finance dashboard is to monitor the establishment’s performance. From day-to-day activities to overall health, you need to consider creating visualizations for each of them. 

4. Create Data Visualization

The dashboard displays data visualizations in real-time. How do you want the reports to show up on the interface? Choose the layout, types of graphs, and their positions to provide you with the necessary information in just one glance. You should find what you want simply by looking at the dashboard. 

5. Setup the Frequency for Reports 

How often do you want to run analytics in your bank? Monthly, quarterly, or semi-annually? You can set up the frequency to automate the process using Power BI. The dashboard will directly provide you with the reports based on the parameters you defined. The frequency of reports is also decided based on your budget. 

6. Emphasize Customer Experience

The primary aim of using financial dashboards is to increase customer satisfaction and thereby generate more profit. Your metrics and filters should align with your ultimate goal of enhancing the customer experience. 

7. Don’t Clutter the Dashboard 

The Power BI dashboard is highly customizable and can be created as per your requirements. However, it’s not recommended to clutter the dashboard with too many reports at once.

So, what should be on a financial dashboard?

The following are the most important aspects to include in the financial analytics dashboard:

  • Gross Profit Margin
  • Net Profit 
  • Net Profit Margin
  • Account Receivables
  • Current Ratio

What is Power BI? 

Power BI is a Microsoft suite that provides business intelligence and data visualization services. Any enterprise can run data analytics and generate intuitive reports through the dashboard. Power BI is available as a cloud-based web service, desktop, and mobile application. It can be integrated with multiple data sources to collect data in real-time and store it in a centralized location. 

Employees use the dashboard to access the data, run queries, and create reports with the information they require. The interactive dashboard makes it easy to understand the reports. The charts, graphs, and diagrams provide a comprehensive picture of the situation. There’s no need to read pages of Excel reports or search through complex database systems. 

Know how Power BI can be used to create financial dashboards

The Power BI dashboard for finance companies can be customized to include the metrics and filters required to measure KPIs. It is secure, reliable, and easy to use. Before we learn how to create a financial dashboard for banks. Let’s see why analytics is necessary for financial institutions. 


Why Should You Use Power BI for Financial Reporting?

Why use Power BI for Financial Reporting
Why use Power BI for Financial Reporting

Should you use power BI for financial reporting? Is it really helpful for banks and financial establishments? What are the advantages of creating a financial analytical dashboard using Power BI? 

  • Power BI allows customization of dashboards to meet the exact demands of the financial company. 
  • It provides seamless integration with other apps and tools. From data sources to legacy systems, Power BI can be integrated with most software.
  • Data security is never an issue with Power BI. It offers great security and control over data. 
  • Power BI is easy to use. The drag and drop interface has been designed to assist employees with minimum technical knowledge. 
  • It offers quick querying services. You can run analytics and get reports in real-time. 
  • It provides data accessibility across the bank. Employees who need the data can directly access it without going through the long route of permissions. 
  • Power BI delivers advanced analytics to manage big data and derive actionable insights. 
  • Banks can use power BI as a cloud service without installing the tool in their in-house servers. 

Build a Power BI Financial Dashboard

It’s easier and cost-effective for banks and financial institutions to hire offshore solution providers to create the financial analytical dashboard. The consultants use Power BI to collect data, run analytics, and generate data visualizations in real-time. DataToBiz has highly experienced Power BI consultants who have worked with several banks, insurance companies, and finance establishments to revamp their systems and adopt the data-driven model. 

Connect with our Power BI Consultant and get answers to your queries

We offer end-to-end solutions to help finance companies gain a competitive edge in the market and increase returns. Our team understands the importance of enhancing customer experience to help achieve your goals. Talk to our experts to see a demo for a financial analytical dashboard in your establishment. 

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