In the world of finance, one-size-fits-all solutions don’t work. While financial statements may be required by GAAP, they often fail to provide the actionable insights business owners need to navigate the ever-changing financial seas. As a financial advisor, it’s your job to help clients read the winds and trim their sails, no matter which way the wind blows.

Your clients are looking for more than just data; they want relevant and timely information that can help them make confident decisions. This requires financial reports that bring their financial statements to life and turn them into valuable, consumable information. While financial statements adhere to GAAP, they can be confusing for clients who need to make solid business decisions. This is where visual financial reports come into play.

To provide valuable insight to your clients, you need to understand their business and provide them with the right financial data that helps them predict and navigate rough waters. A good financial report should include sections such as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Inventory Reports, Cash Forecasting, KPIs, Gross Profit Margin, and Net Profit Margin, to name a few.

However, creating valuable financial reports is not enough. You must also ensure that your clients understand them. Without understanding, they will navigate their business blindly, which is disastrous for their business and your relationship with them. To enhance their understanding, provide reports that are accurate, timely, and consistent. You can also use technology to automate report building and shorten the time spent on the report. Data visualization is also an effective way to improve your client’s insight into their financial data.

Clients need to know where they stand in terms of historical data, progress, or problems. Providing them with cloud-based solutions that allow them to access their data from anywhere, and a dashboard that provides transparency to their management team, makes your deliverables vital to their business.

As the financial advisor, it’s essential to build trust and confidence with your clients. Provide them with accurate and timely financial reports that they can understand, and help them navigate the rough waters that lay ahead.