Research shows that the human retina can transmit data to the brain about 60,000 times faster than it can transmit simple text! On top of processing visuals faster, people retain visual information at more than three times the rate of text alone.

According to Google's Chief Economist, Dr. Hal Varian, "The ability to take data—to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it— that’s going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades."

To paraphrase the concept of Occam's razor, simpler explanations are generally better than more complex explanations. In a sense, the answer is in the question, "How do we make the complex easier to understand?" Keep the explanations simple.

Finance staff should find Logos the easiest dimension to work with. As opposed to sales who may use only a small part of the whole facts to support their story.

Numbers may be the prime element within FP&A. FP&A is relied upon to provide numbers like operating income, net cash flows, and earnings per share. Do numbers like these and others mean anything?

Dashboards have become a powerful tool for FP&A to share insight and gain respect.  In this article, the author shares his top 3 recommendations for improving the quality of your dashboards.