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Financial dashboards

Financial dashboard examples

Six financial dashboards running on sample data: financial reporting, budget vs actual, a financial KPI dashboard, accounts receivable, a cash collection forecast and spend.
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Financial Performance dashboard: Revenue, Gross Profit, Operating Income and Gross margin tiles, above Revenue over time.
Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

In short

What a financial dashboard is

A financial dashboard is a single screen tracking the money: what came in, what it cost, and what is still owed. Finance teams also call it a finance or accounting dashboard. The useful ones do one job, the P&L or the working capital, and point at the exception rather than stopping at the total.

The examples

Six financial dashboard examples

Real Mammoth templates on sample data. Every figure is illustrative.

  1. Example 01· Template: Financial Performance

    Financial reporting dashboard

    Where is the money coming from, and what survives the trip to operating income?

    Revenue, gross profit and operating income on one strip, then the same figures cut by business unit and by region. The second page follows the margin specifically, because 'revenue is up' and 'margin is up' are different sentences and finance meetings run aground on the difference.

    What is on it· 2 pages · Performance / Where the margin goes

    • Revenue over time
    • Revenue against operating income
    • Unit mix by region
    • Operating margin by region
    • Margin consistency by unit
    • Where gross profit comes from
    • Margin by unit and region

    Your data needsDashboard

    • a revenue or money column
    • a category (~4 values)

    Start with this template

    Financial Performance dashboard: Revenue, Gross Profit, Operating Income and Gross margin tiles, above Revenue over time, Revenue against operating income, Unit mix by region, Operating margin by region and Margin consistency by unit.
    Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

  2. Example 02· Template: Budget vs Actual

    Budget vs actual dashboard

    Where did the plan hold, and where did it not?

    Actual against plan by unit, region and quarter. The cut is the point: a variance figure without the breakdown that produced it starts an argument rather than settling one, and the quarter view shows whether a miss is a blip or a trend.

    What is on it· 2 pages · Against plan / What's driving it

    • Over and under plan
    • Actual against budget by quarter
    • Variance over time
    • Operating cost by region
    • Percentage off plan by region
    • Variance by unit and region

    Your data needsDashboard

    • a revenue or money column
    • a category (~4 values)

    Start with this template

    Budget vs Actual dashboard: Revenue, Budget Revenue and Variance To Plan tiles, above Over and under plan, Actual against budget by quarter, Variance over time, Operating cost by region, Percentage off plan by region and Variance by unit and region.
    Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

  3. Example 03· Template: Financial KPI Scorecard

    Financial KPI dashboard

    What are the four numbers this review opens with?

    The short list, each with its trend rather than a single value. Built for the meeting that starts with 'how are we doing': sparse on purpose, because a scorecard that lists everything is a report, and a report is a different artifact.

    What is on it

    • Operating income over time
    • Gross margin
    • Margin across units
    • Revenue by region
    • Where operating cost concentrates

    Your data needsDashboard

    • a revenue or money column
    • a category (~8 values)

    Start with this template

    Financial KPI Scorecard dashboard: Revenue, Gross margin, Operating margin and Operating Income tiles, above Operating income over time, Gross margin, Margin across units, Revenue by region and Where operating cost concentrates.
    Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

  4. Example 04· Template: Collections & AR Aging

    Accounts receivable dashboard

    Who owes us, how old is it, and who is chasing it?

    The open ledger by age bucket, with the accounts carrying the balance ranked underneath and each payment-terms band shown against how late it actually runs. Disputed and part-paid are separated from simply overdue, because those are three different phone calls.

    What is on it

    • What is owed, by age
    • Which accounts carry the debt
    • Ageing by segment
    • How late each terms band actually runs
    • Open, part paid and disputed
    • Collector against age

    Your data needsDashboard

    • a revenue or money column
    • a category (~5 values)

    Start with this template

    Collections & AR Aging dashboard: Open Balance, Days Overdue, Invoice Amount and Days To Pay tiles, above What is owed, by age, Which accounts carry the debt, Ageing by segment, How late each terms band actually runs and Open, part paid and disputed.
    Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

  5. Example 05· Template: Cash Collection Forecast

    Cash collection forecast

    When does the open ledger turn into cash?

    Expected receipts week by week, with billed set against collected and the forecast's concentration shown: one late payer on a top-heavy week is a different risk from the same amount spread thin. Inflows only: this forecasts collection, not a net cash position. It is the money-in half of a cash flow view, and the spend dashboard below is the money-out half.

    What is on it

    • Cash expected in, week by week
    • Billed against collected
    • Where the cash sits, by terms
    • How concentrated the forecast is
    • How long each segment takes to pay
    • Size against lateness

    Your data needsDashboard

    • a revenue or money column
    • a category (~4 values)

    Start with this template

    Cash Collection Forecast dashboard: Open Balance, Invoice Amount, Paid Amount and Days To Pay tiles, above Cash expected in, week by week, Billed against collected, Where the cash sits, by terms and How concentrated the forecast is.
    Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

  6. Example 06· Template: Spend & Vendor Concentration

    Spend dashboard

    Where does the money go, and how few vendors does it go to?

    Spend by month and category against budget, with the concentration curve that says how much of the total rides on a handful of vendors. The last chart splits spend under contract from spend outside it, which is usually the number nobody has to hand.

    What is on it

    • Spend month by month
    • How few vendors the spend goes to
    • Where the money goes
    • Category by vendor tier
    • Budget against actual
    • Spend under contract and outside it

    Your data needsDashboard

    • a revenue or money column
    • a category column

    Start with this template

    Spend & Vendor Concentration dashboard: Invoice Amount, Budgeted Spend, Variance To Budget and Days To Pay tiles, above Spend month by month, How few vendors the spend goes to, Where the money goes, Category by vendor tier and Budget against actual.
    Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

The metrics

The metrics a financial dashboard is built from

Twelve numbers, split the same way the six dashboards are: six that follow the P&L and six that follow the working capital. The last column is where finance dashboards go wrong, and it is almost never the chart.

Financial dashboard metrics: what each one answers and what the data must carry.
Gross marginWhat is left after the cost of delivering the revenue?Revenue and cost of sales for the same period, from one agreed definition of which costs are direct. A margin that moves when nothing happened is usually a reclassification.
Operating incomeWhat does the business earn before financing and tax?Revenue, cost of sales and operating expenses mapped to one chart of accounts. Two ledgers with different account trees have to be reconciled before this computes.
Variance to planWhere did the month land against what was committed?Actuals and budget at the same granularity, matched on both period and account. Annual budgets read against monthly actuals are the most common reason this reads wrong.
Revenue growthIs the top line moving, and by how much?Revenue by period on a consistent period boundary, and a rule for restatements. A prior period that changed after close will move this without anything happening in the business.
Net profit marginHow much of each sale does the business keep once every cost is in?Revenue and every cost line, including interest, tax and one-off items, for the same period. A one-off left in makes a normal month read as a collapse or a record.
Operating expense ratioIs the cost of running the business growing faster than revenue?Operating expenses and revenue for the same periods, with people costs coded the same way every month. A cost moved between cost of sales and operating expense changes this ratio without any spending changing.
Days sales outstandingHow long does it take to turn an invoice into cash?Invoice dates, payment dates and open balances over one window, with credit notes handled explicitly rather than left as negative invoices.
Receivables ageingHow old is what is owed, and who owes it?Open balance per invoice with a due date, bucketed from the due date rather than the invoice date. Bucketing from the invoice date makes every customer on long payment terms look delinquent.
Expected collectionsWhen does the open ledger become cash?Open invoices with due dates, plus how each customer has actually paid before. A forecast on terms alone assumes everyone pays on the day, which nobody does.
Spend concentrationHow much of the outflow rides on a handful of vendors?Supplier spend over a window with vendor names normalised, and a flag for whether the spend sits under contract. The same vendor spelled three ways reads as three small suppliers.
Days payable outstandingHow long does the business take to pay its suppliers?Bill dates, payment dates and open payables over one window. Bills keyed in days after they arrived make payment look faster than it is.
Operating cash flowDoes the business turn its profit into cash?Operating income plus the movement in receivables, payables and stock over the same period. Profit with receivables growing faster than revenue is cash that has not arrived yet.

Other formats

The same numbers, three other ways

A dataset does not only become a dashboard. These three are built from the same 288-row P&L as the first three dashboards above, reshaped rather than rebuilt: a written month-end report, a quarterly summary, and a board presentation. The receivables and spend dashboards run on their own ledgers and have no written form in the catalogue.

  1. Monthly Financial Report: the opening summary, with Performance by Region and Revenue over time in the contents rail.
    Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

    Monthly Financial Report

    Can somebody read the month rather than interpret it?

    The month written up: revenue, margin, variance to plan and what moved.

    Finance · Document

  2. Executive Summary: the opening summary, with Performance by Region and Revenue over the period in the contents rail.
    Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

    Executive Summary

    What does the quarter say, in one read?

    The quarter in one read: what the numbers did, where, and against plan.

    Finance · Document

  3. Board Pack: the deck's title slide, with slide thumbnails in the rail and 288 sample records.
    Sample data: illustrative figures, not business results.

    Board Pack

    What goes in front of the board?

    The quarter for a board audience: revenue, margin, plan and what is next.

    Finance · Presentation

Proof

Finance and reporting teams already running on Mammoth

Published customer stories, linked rather than summarised. None of them is a dashboard from this page. They are about the half nobody photographs: many systems, reconciled once, on a schedule.

From example to live dashboard

Pretty is easy. Current and true is the hard part.

Any of these can be drawn in a slide. What makes one worth keeping is the five steps underneath it, and they are the same five whichever example you start from.

  1. 01

    Connect the source

    The dashboard reads the system, not an export somebody saved to their desktop. 100+ tested connectors, plus anything with a REST API.

  2. 02

    Prepare it once

    Cleaning, joining and reshaping are recorded as steps you can read, change and re-run, not a formula buried three sheets deep.

  3. 03

    Check it before anyone sees it

    Data checks run with the refresh and flag the rows that fail, so a broken upstream file shows up as an alert rather than as a wrong number in a meeting.

  4. 04

    Put it on a schedule

    Refresh on a schedule and the dashboard stays current on its own. Starter refreshes weekly, Team daily, and Pro every three hours.

  5. 05

    Publish it and send the link

    Public, password-protected or sign-in only. Every sharing mode is available on every plan, including the free one.

Sharing

Everyone can see it.
Nobody pays to look.

Most dashboard tools charge for every person who opens one, which is why so many dashboards end up as a screenshot pasted into a message. Mammoth charges for the people who build. Viewers are unlimited and free on every plan, including the free one.

  • You pay for

    The people who build

    Anyone connecting a source, preparing data or publishing a dashboard counts as a platform user.

  • You never pay for

    The people who look

    Viewers are unlimited and free on every plan, including the free one. A board, a client list or a whole company: the number does not change the bill.

Plans differ in how many builders and published dashboards a workspace gets. Drafts, viewers and every sharing mode are unlimited and free on all four. Full pricing.

Financial dashboard questions

What should a financial dashboard include?
One question's worth of metrics, plus the exceptions that need action. The six above are built that way rather than as one dashboard with six tabs: the financial reporting dashboard follows revenue down to operating income, budget vs actual follows the gap to plan, the financial KPI dashboard is the short list a review opens with, accounts receivable follows what is owed, the cash collection forecast follows when it arrives, and the spend dashboard follows what goes back out. None of them tries to be any of the others.
How do I create a financial dashboard?
Start from the decision, not the chart. Pick the review it serves, say the monthly margin meeting, and choose the four or five numbers that answer it: revenue, gross margin, operating income and variance to plan cover most of them. Then connect the ledger and the plan, agree one chart of accounts across entities, and check the totals tie back to the books before anyone reads it. Put that preparation on a schedule, so next month is a refresh rather than a rebuild.
Which financial dashboard should I start with?
The one that matches a meeting you already hold. For a P&L or revenue review, the financial reporting dashboard. For the budget meeting, budget vs actual. For cash flow, the cash collection forecast, which shows the cash expected in week by week, read beside the spend dashboard for what goes out. For accounts receivable, the accounts receivable dashboard. For a CFO's short list, the financial KPI dashboard. The spend dashboard is also the one for procurement and cost reviews.
What is the difference between a financial dashboard and a financial report?
A dashboard is opened when someone has a question, and it shows the numbers as of its last refresh. A report is a fixed account of one period, written to be read once and filed. Finance needs both, which is why the Monthly Financial Report below is built from the same P&L as the first three dashboards rather than retyped.
How is a CFO dashboard different from an executive dashboard?
A CFO dashboard stays inside finance and goes deep: margin, cash, receivables and the gap to plan, with the cut underneath each one. An executive dashboard goes wide: about four headline numbers from each function, finance, sales, people and projects, read side by side. The Financial KPI dashboard above is the finance row of an executive view. See the executive dashboard examples
Where does the data come from?
The ledger, the bank, the CRM and whatever spreadsheets are still load-bearing. Mammoth has 100+ tested connectors, plus anything with a REST API, so a source that is not on the list is still reachable.
How do I stop the numbers going stale?
Put the preparation on a schedule rather than redoing it. In Mammoth the steps that clean and join the data are recorded and re-run, so the dashboard reflects the source rather than the last time someone exported it. Refresh frequency is a plan matter: weekly on Starter, daily on Team, every three hours on Pro.
Can I share it with people who are not finance?
Yes, and it costs nothing. Dashboard viewers are unlimited and free on every Mammoth plan, including the free one. Only the people building count as platform users.

Last reviewed against the template catalogue.

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