Solution of the Week: Financial Reports with Impactful Visuals

Solution of the Week: Financial Reports with Impactful Visuals

Finance reporting is a critical part of understanding an organization’s financial health. With Zoho Analytics, you can easily create dynamic reports such as Balance Sheets, Budget Statements, and Profit and Loss Statements.

Now, with the release of Zoho Analytics 6.0, the platform offers even more advanced tools to optimize the financial report view. While Zoho Analytics has always enabled comprehensive financial reporting (through its integration connectors for Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Xero, Sage), the latest version enhances this with powerful visual features like Data Bars, which provide clearer insights into performance trends.

This document outlines how these reports can be generated using simple drag-and-drop functionality and customizable features in Zoho Analytics.

Creating a Balance Sheet Using Finance Data

Generating a Balance Sheet in pivot using Zoho Analytics allows you to visualize your organization’s financial position in a comprehensive and structured way.
  1. Drag and Drop the Data: Start by selecting the Balance sheet base type, Account group, Balance Sheet Account Type, and Balance Sheet Account Name from the Accounts table and drop them into the Rows shelf. Drag and drop the Credit Amount, Debit Amount, and Balance Sheet Total from the Accrual Transactions table into the Data shelf.


  2. Layout Adjustments:
    1. Navigate to Settings > Layout.


    2. Change the Layout to Compact.
    3. Check Increase Font Size for each higher group in Rows.
    4. Uncheck Show row numbers.
    5. Uncheck Show vertical lines between them.
    6. Set Column Width to Fit to Screen.


  3. After making layout adjustments, click Apply to finalize the formatting.

  4. Go to Visuals and select Data Bars With Data to improve the presentation of financial data, making it easier to interpret key insights visually.


By following these steps, you will generate a clear and structured Balance Sheet that highlights your organization's assets, liabilities, and equity.


Key Features of the Balance Sheet Report

  1. Increased Font Size for Key Categories:
    Emphasizes important financial categories like Assets, Equity, and Liabilities, improving readability and focus.
  2. Compact Layout:
    Ensures a clear, organized display of financial data, enabling efficient consumption of the report.
  3. Line Removal for Clean Aesthetics:
    Removal of vertical and horizontal lines results in a cleaner visual presentation, improving the user experience.
  4. Data Bars for Quick Insights:
    Visual data bars provide a quick snapshot of financial status, allowing users to identify key trends at a glance.
  5. Timeline Filter for Flexibility:
    Filters allow users to view financial data across different periods, making it easier to analyze financial trends over time.
In Zoho Analytics, utilizing the Timeline Filter allows users to transform static financial data into a time-based, dynamic report. The formulas used in creating this filter enable detailed insights into financial performance over a selected period. Below, we explain the key aggregate formulas and how they enable users to achieve greater flexibility and customization, going beyond the typical app potential.

  • Opening Balance Formula
    sum_if("Accrual Transactions"."Transaction Date" < ${system.timeline.date.from},if("Accounts"."Account Base Type" in ('Asset') OR ("Accounts"."Account Base Type" in ('Equity') and "Accounts"."Account Name" in ('Drawings')),"Accrual Transactions"."Debit - Credit","Accrual Transactions"."Credit - Debit"),0)
    This formula calculates the Opening Balance for a selected period by summing transactions that occurred before the specified date (timeline.date.from). 
    This approach allows users to view the Opening Balance as of a given date, making it highly flexible for periods that differ across user's datasets.



    if("Accounts"."Account Base Type" in ('Asset') OR ("Accounts"."Account Base Type" in ('Equity') and "Accounts"."Account Name" in ('Drawings')),"Accrual Transactions"."Debit - Credit","Accrual Transactions"."Credit - Debit")
    This part of the formula can be customized based on the unique financial structure you follow.

  • Period Balance Formula

    sum_if("Accrual Transactions"."Transaction Date" > ${system.timeline.date.from} and "Accrual Transactions"."Transaction Date" <= ${system.timeline.date.to},if("Accounts"."Account Base Type" in ('Asset') OR ("Accounts"."Account Base Type" in ('Equity') and "Accounts"."Account Name" in ('Drawings')),"Accrual Transactions"."Debit - Credit","Accrual Transactions"."Credit - Debit"),0)

    The Period Balance formula calculates the net balance of transactions within a specific time range, defined by the timeline filter. The formula sums transactions between the start date (timeline.date.from) and the end date (timeline.date.to). This provides users with a snapshot of their financial activity for any custom date range they select.



  • Closing Balance

    sum_if("Accrual Transactions"."Transaction Date" <= ${system.timeline.date.to},if("Accounts"."Account Base Type" in ('Asset') OR ("Accounts"."Account Base Type" in ('Equity') and "Accounts"."Account Name" in ('Drawings')),"Accrual Transactions"."Debit - Credit","Accrual Transactions"."Credit - Debit"),0)

    The Closing Balance formula calculates the final balance as of a selected date (timeline.date.to). It works by summing all transactions up until the specified date, following the same account type distinctions used in the previous formulas.
     

    This formula is essential for determining the financial standing of an organization at the end of a reporting period, such as the end of a quarter or year.


Follow the below steps to create opening and closing balances with timeline filters:
  1. Drag and drop the created aggregate formulas into the data shelf.
  2. Select Data as row from the drop-down.


  3. Click on Show/Hide, then select Totals.


  4. Click on Columns drop-down, then set the Opening Balance as Top.

  5. Navigate to Settings > Layout and set Column Width as Equal. Provide Width value as required in px.


  6. Click Apply.
  7. Check Include Timeline Filter.


    The Timeline Filter is now enabled, and users can apply time-based filters to their data.


By utilizing these timeline-based formulas, Zoho Analytics allows users to move beyond static, historical reporting and into dynamic financial analysis. With the Timeline Filter, users can interact with their data in a more flexible way, selecting custom periods to analyze financial trends over time.

Click here to access the sample workspace.

Creating a Budget Statement

A Budget Statement helps compare actual financial performance against projected budgets, identifying variances and areas of concern. This visually enhanced report is designed to help businesses quickly assess deviations between expected and real expenditures, allowing for better budget management and financial decision-making.
  1. Drag and drop Account into the Row shelf, and Actuals and Budget into the Data shelf from the Budget vs Actual table.


  2. Add Report Formula:
    1. Click Add Report Formula to create custom calculations.


    2. Name the formula column appropriately (e.g., “Deviation”).
    3. Set Data Type as Decimal Number
    4. Create a formula to calculate the difference between actuals and budget as shown in the image.


    5. Click Save.
    6. By following the same steps mentioned above, create one more formula to calculate the percentage difference between actuals and budget as shown in the image.


    7. Click Save.
      The created formulas will appear in your data shelf and columns, reflecting in the report.


  3. Go to Visuals and choose Data Bars With Data for a more intuitive understanding of budget performance.
By following these steps, you will have a detailed Budget Statement that compares actual spending to the budget, highlighting deviations.


Report Structure and Visuals

  1. Account Breakdown
    The report is organized by account categories, such as Bank Fees, Cost of Goods Sold, and more, showing both Budgeted and Actual amounts for each category.
  2. Key Columns
    The report includes the following key columns:
    1. Total Budget - Displays the budget allocated for each account.
    2. Total Actuals - Shows the actual amount spent or earned for each account.
    3. Variance (Deviation) - Represents the difference between the budgeted amount and the actuals.
    4. Variance Percentage (Deviation %) - This column shows the percentage difference between the budgeted and actual amounts, highlighting under- or over-expenditure.
  3. Data Bars for Clarity
    1. Green Bars indicate favorable performance (within or under budget).
    2. Red Bars highlight overspending or budget deviations (e.g., Office Expenses or Rent).

Key Features of the Budget Statement Report

  1. Visual Representation of Deviations
    Data bars visually indicate how spending aligns or deviates from the budget, enabling quick identification of problem areas.
  2. Concise Overview of Financial Performance
    The report provides a clear overview of actual versus budgeted performance, allowing decision-makers to assess financial health efficiently.
  3. Enhanced Usability with Percent Deviations
    Percentage-based deviation columns allow users to understand the scale of over- or under-performance relative to the budget, making it easy to identify areas that are significantly off track.
Click here to access the sample workspace.

Creating Profit and Loss report

A Profit and Loss (P&L) report in Zoho Analytics helps businesses assess their revenue, expenses, and profitability over a specific period. By following these steps, you can create a detailed and visually engaging P&L report.
  1. Drag and drop Account base type, P&L Operating Profit Type, P&L Gross Type, Base type P&L, and Account Name into the Columns shelf from the Accounts table and Profit and Loss Balance into the Rows from Data shelf from the Accrual Transactions table.


  2. Layout Adjustments:
    1. Navigate to Settings > Layout.


    2. Change the layout to Compact.
    3. Set Indent Level to 3.
    4. Check Increase Font Size for each higher group in Rows to make key categories more visible.
    5. Uncheck Show row numbers for a cleaner report.
    6. Uncheck Show Vertical Line between Each Column to streamline the visual presentation.
    7. Set Column Width to Equal and specify the width as required in px.


  3. Once the layout adjustments are made, click Apply to lock in the formatting.
  4. Click Themes, and select the second theme. Set Row Spacing as 2.


  5. Navigate to Visuals and select Data Bars With Data to provide a quick and clear visual representation.


By following the above steps, you will create a Profit and Loss report which provides a concise and structured view of your business’s financial performance, making it easy to track profitability over time and identify key financial trends.



Click here to access the sample workspace.

Zoho Analytics provides an intuitive and customizable platform for generating comprehensive Balance Sheets, Budget Statements, and Profit & Loss reports. With its drag-and-drop functionality and powerful visual tools, Zoho Analytics transforms finance reporting into a data-driven process that improves decision-making, forecasting, and resource management.
Start leveraging Zoho Analytics today to create reports that provide actionable insights, helping your organization thrive financially!

    • Recent Topics

    • Image Upload Field | Zoho Canvas

      I'm working on making a custom view for one of our team's modules. It's an image upload field (Placement Photo) that would allow our sales reps to upload a picture of the house their working on. However, I don't see that field as a opinion when building

    • Function #9: Copy attachments of Sales Order to Purchase Order on conversion

      This week, we have written a custom function that automatically copies the attachments uploaded for a sales order to the corresponding purchase order after you convert it. Here's how to configure it in your Zoho Books organization. Custom Function: Hit

    • RingCentral/Zoho CRM integration

      Hi I would like to know if our RingCentral/Zoho CRM integration will record incoming calls from clients to my mobile number. I have both Ringcenral and Zoho CRM apps on my iPhone. I know it records the outgoing calls I make and shows them in Zoho CRM

    • Zoho CRM button to download images from image upload field

      Hello, I am trying to create a button in Zoho CRM that I can place in my record details view for each record and use it to download all images in the image upload fields. I tried deluge, client scripts and even with a widget, but feel lost, could not

    • Free webinar: Security that works: Building resilience for the AI-powered workforce

      Hello there, Did you know that more than 51% of organizations worldwide have experienced one or more security breaches, each costing over $1 million in losses or incident response? In today’s threat landscape, simply playing defense is no longer enough.

    • Range names in Zoho Sheet are BROKEN!

      Hi - you've pushed an update that has broken range names. A previously working spreadsheet now returns errors because the range names are not updating the values correctly. I've shared a video with the support desk to illustrate the problem. This spreadsheet

    • The connected workflow is a great idea just needs Projects Integrations

      I just discovered the connected workflows in CRM and its a Great Idea i wish it was integrated with Zoho Projects I will explain our use case I am already trying to do something like connected workflow with zoho flow Our requirement was to Create a Task

    • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

      Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards

    • Enhancements in Portal User Group creation flow

      Hello everyone, Before introducing new Portal features, here are some changes to the UI of Portals page to improve the user experience. Some tabs and options have been repositioned so that users can better access the functionalities of the feature. From

    • Archiving Contacts

      How do I archive a list of contacts, or individual contacts?

    • Cant Save Gauge on Creator Page

      How to Save Gauge on Creator Page see movie https://vimeo.com/1116410860?share=copy#t=0

    • Update application by uploading an updated DS file

      Is it possible? I have been working with AI on my desktop improving my application, and I have to keep copy pasting stuff... Would it be possible to import the DS file on top of an existing application to update the app accordingly?

    • Granular Email Forwarding Controls in Zoho Mail (Admin Console and Zoho One)

      Hello Zoho Mail Team, How are you? At present, the Zoho Mail Admin Console allows administrators to configure email forwarding for an entire mailbox, forwarding all incoming emails to another address. This is helpful for delegation or backup purposes,

    • Change Currency symbol

      I would like to change the way our currency displays when printed on quotes, invoices and purchase orders. Currently, we have Australian Dollars AUD as our Home Currency. The only two symbol choices available for this currency are "AU $" or "AUD". I would

    • Auto Capitalize First Letter of Words

      Hi I am completely new to ZOHO and am trying to build a database. How can i make it when a address is entered into a form field like this: main st it automatically changes is to show: Main St Thank You

    • Follow-up emails via Workflow Automation not staying in the same thread

      Dear Zoho Support Team, I am currently using Workflow Automation in Zoho Campaigns to send follow-up emails. In my test case, I noticed the following behavior: All emails in the automation have the same subject line. If the follow-up email is sent within

    • Client Script refuses to set an initial value in Subform field

      I tried a very simple, 1 line client script to set a default value in a custom subform field when the "Add Row" button is clicked and the user is entering data. It does not work - can someone tell me why? ZDK documentation suggests this should be doable.

    • How do I filter contacts by account parameters?

      Need to filter a contact view according to account parameter, eg account type. Without this filter users are overwhelmed with irrelevant contacts. Workaround is to create a custom 'Contact Type' field but this unbearable duplicity as the information already

    • Send / Send & Close keyboard shortcuts

      Hello! My team is so close to using Zoho Desk with just the keyboard. Keyboard shortcuts really help us to be more efficient -- saving a second or two over thousands of tickets adds up quickly. It seems like the keyboard shortcuts in Desk are only for

    • Zoho Social - Post Footer Templates

      As a content creator I often want to include some information at the end of most posts. It would be great if there was an option to add pre-written footers, similar to the Hashtag Groups at the end of posts. For example, if there is an offer I'm running

    • Zoho Expense - The ability to add detail to a Trip during booking

      As an admin, I would like the ability to add more detail to the approved Trips. At present a requestor can add flights, accommodation details and suggest their preferences. It would be great if the exact details of the trip could be added either by the

    • Simplified Call Logging

      Our organization would like to start logging calls in our CRM; however, with 13 fields that can't be removed, our team is finding it extremely cumbersome. For our use case, we only need to record that a call happened theirfor would only need the following

    • Week date range in pivot table

      Hello, I need to create a report that breakouts the data by week.  I am using the pivot table report, and breaking out the date by week, however the date is displayed as 'Week 1 2014' format.  Is there anyway to get the actual dates in there? ex. 1/6/2014-1/12/2014 Thanks,

    • Help Center IFrame Issue

      I have had a working Help Center on my website using an iframe for a while. But now for some reason the sign in page gets a refused to connect error. Can someone please help. If I go to the url manually it works correclty

    • Staff rules

      Hi! Do you people know what are the default staff rules when a new booking is created? We have two staff members in my team (me as the admin, and my employee). As we share the same services, I'm wondering how Zoho will pick the staff for new apointments.

    • Comment Templates

      Is it possible to add a template option for comments? We have some agents in the process who's responses require a pre-formatted layout. It would be incredibly handy to have a template for them where they can insert the template and then add their responses

    • [ZohoDesk] Improve Status View with a new editeble kanban view

      A kanban view with more information about the ticket and the contact who created the ticket would be valueble. I would like to edit the fields with the ones i like to see at one glance. Like in CRM where you can edit the canvas view, i would like to edit

    • Adding Markdown text using Zoho Desk API into the Knowledge Base

      Hi Zoho Community members, We currently maintain the documentation of out company in its website. This documentation is written in markdown text format and we would like to add it in Zoho Knowledge Base. Do you know if there is REST API functionality

    • An Exclusive Session for Zoho Desk Users: AI in Zoho Desk

      A Zoho Community Learning Initiative Hello everyone! This is an announcement for Zoho Desk users and anyone exploring Zoho Desk. With every nook and corner buzzing, "AI's here, AI's there," it's the right time for us to take a closer look at how the AI

    • Shared values: From classroom lessons to teaching moments in customer service

      While the world observes Teachers’ Day on October 5, in India, we celebrate a month earlier, on September 5, to mark the birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a great teacher, renowned scholar, educationist, and advocate for empowerment.

    • Export to excel stored amounts as text instead of numbers or accounting

      Good Afternoon, We have a quarterly billing report that we generate from our Requests. It exports to excel. However if we need to add a formula (something as simple as a sum of the column), it doesn't read the dollar amounts because the export stores

    • Create a list of customers who participated in specific Zoho Backstage events and send them an email via Zoho CRM

      How to create a list of customers who participated in specific Zoho Backstage events and send them an email via Zoho CRM? I was able to do a view in CRM based on customer that registered to an event, but I don't seems to be able to include the filter

    • Custom Button Disappearing in mobile view | Zoho CRM Canvas

      I'm working in Zoho CRM Canvas to create a custom view for our sales team. One of the features I'm adding is a custom button that opens the leads address in another tab. I've had no issue with this in the desktop view, but in the mobile view the button

    • Zoho Desk blank page

      1. Click Access zoho desk on https://www.zoho.com/desk/ 2. It redirects to https://desk.zoho.com/agent?action=CreatePortal and the page is blank. Edge browser Version 131.0.2903.112 (Official build) (arm64) on MacOS

    • Clearing Fields using MACROS?

      How would I go about clearing a follow-up field date from my deals? Currently I cannot set the new value as an empty box.

    • I hate the new user UI with the bar on the left

      How can I reverse this?

    • Constant color of a legend value

      It would be nice if we can set a constant color/pattern to a value when creating a chart. We would often use the same value in different graph options and I always have to copy the color that we've set to a certain value from a previous graph to make

    • Office 365 and CRM mail integration: permission required

      Has anyone run into this weird problem? My email server is Office 365. When I try to configure Zoho CRM to use this server, a Microsoft popup window opens requesting user and password. After entering that, I get a message in the Microsoft window saying

    • Field Not Updating in FSM Script - Service and Parts module.

      Dear Team, I am reaching out regarding a script I have implemented in Zoho FSM to automate the calculation of the End of Service date based on the End of Sale date in the Service and Parts module. Overview of the script: Fetches the End_of_Sale__C and

    • Question regarding import of previous deals...

      Good afternoon, I'm working on importing some older deal records from an external sheet into the CRM; however, when I manually click "Add New Deal" and enter the pertinent information, the deal isn't appearing when I look at the "Deals" bar on the account's

    • Next Page