Don't You Just Hate It: Part I - Amplify Advisors™

Don’t You Just Hate It When Your Finance Leader Provides Only Spreadsheets and Tables?

A discussion on the importance of visuals, dashboards, and knowing your audience.

Don’t get us wrong—we love a good spreadsheet. Rows of clean data and solid tables have their place. But if the only thing your Finance Leader brings to the table is a stack of Excel printouts, we have a problem.

Because here’s the thing: Data without delivery is just noise.

If we want finance to truly influence, it needs to be understood. And in a world where executive attention is short and decisions need to move fast, how you present financial information is just as important as what you present.

Spreadsheets are great for back-office analysis. But they were never meant to be the main communication tool with executive leaders, board members, or frontline managers.

Tables don’t:

Tell stories
Drive actions
Make insights obvious
Influence decisions

What does? Visuals. Dashboards. Context.

That means:

Graphs that highlight trends
Dashboards that track KPIs at a glance
Visual storytelling that brings the numbers to life
Narrative insights that connect dots and guide action

If you’re a Finance Leader, you need to understand who you’re talking to. Different stakeholders care about different metrics. They have different levels of financial fluency. Your presentation must reflect that.

The CEO wants to know where risk and opportunity lie.
The COO wants clarity on operations and resource allocation.
The Board needs to see performance in the context of strategy.

All of them need to see it quickly, clearly, and confidently.

So why are we still sending 12-tab spreadsheets with no visual cues and calling it a “report”?

Here’s the truth: If your reports can be skimmed by AI and spit back with the same bland observations, your value is at risk.

Finance Leaders must evolve. Communication is a core competency now.

You need to:

Present visually
Speak clearly
Connect dots for your audience
Drive insight and action

This isn’t fluff—it’s leadership.

Your financial reporting should:

Engage decision-makers
Identify patterns
Surface opportunities
Help the business move forward

And that won’t happen if the numbers sit lifeless in a spreadsheet.

In the next blog in our “Don’t You Just Hate It” series, we’ll explore what happens when Finance Leaders do the opposite—they bring all the fancy dashboards and visualizations, but no insight.

Because visuals alone aren’t enough either. (But more on that soon.)

Stay tuned. And in the meantime, let’s raise the bar on finance communication.

Join us in expecting more.