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

    • Webform & spam

      Hi, We set up 2 webform on our website, fowarding the content to Zoho CRM. Since it has been opened up, we are getting lot of spam message (for now about 20 a day). To lower the  amount of false new leads we added the captcha field and new enquieries are send to the Approval Leads list. However we still get some spam. Is there any "anti spam" mechanism built in Zoho CRM, or how is the best way to avoid these kind of spam ? Thanks

    • Dropbox to Workdrive

      Namaste, Trust you all are doing well. Wanted to check how this can be done with Zoho flow. I typically receive dropbox links from my clients. Is there a way where I can provide the link to Zoho flow and it downloads the files from dropbox link to a work

    • Deals by Stages Funnel not showing in correct order

      Using the Stage-Probability Mapping for the Deals module we have created a steps our deals will pass through, RFQ, Closed/Lost, Declined/No-Go, Pricing, Submitted, Negotiations, Won. However when I view the Deal By Stages Funnel it does not show in the

    • Turning off the new UI

      Tried the new 'enhanced' UI and actively dislike it. Anyone know how to revert back?

    • Confirmation prompt before a custom button action is triggered

      Have you ever created a custom button and just hoped that you/your users are prompted first to confirm the action? Well, Zoho knows this concept. For example, in blueprint, whenever we want to advance to the next state by clicking the transition, it is

    • How to create auto populate field based on custom module in Zoho CRM?

      Hello, i'm still new to Zoho CRM and work as administrator in my company. Currently, I'm configuring layout for Quotes Module. So, the idea is, I've created a read-only field in Quotes called "Spec". I want this field automatically filled with Specification

    • Rich Text For Notes in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, As you know, notes are essential for recording information and ensuring smooth communication across your records. With our latest update, you can now use Rich Text formatting to organize and structure your notes more efficiently. By using

    • Change Last Name to not required in Leads

      I would like to upload 500 target companies as leads but I don't yet have contact people for them. Can you enable the option for me to turn this requirement off to need a Second Name? Moderation update (10-Jun-23): As we explore potential solutions for

    • 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

    • Tables improvement ideas / features

      Heya, I've been using Zoho Tables for a few months now and wanted to post some features that I think will be greatly beneficial for the tool: 1. Ability to delete a record in automation or move a record in automation. - Usecase: I move a record from one

    • Deluge - Can't get phone number SalesIQ

      Hey folks, I’m building a custom plug for SalesIQ that’s supposed to register leads into Zoho CRM. The SalesIQ chat is being implemented on WhatsApp, and in my plug I’m using this line: mobile_clean = session.get("phone").get("value"); From what I understand,

    • how to differentiate if whatsapp comes from certain landing page?

      I create a Zobot in SalesIQ to create a Whatsapp bot to capture the lead. I have 2 landing pages, one is SEO optimized and the other want is optimized for leads comes from Google Ads. I want to know from which landing page this lead came through WhatsApp

    • Zoho Desk - Community

      As a regular user of Zoho Cares Community I would really love to see the publish date of articles. For example, when I look at Announcements, it would be very beneficial to see which ones were posted recently, over those which have just and a recent comment.

    • access to quartz for my customers

      Hi how can I have access to the application quartz you use for us to send you screen rocording, this feature would be immensely useful for our customers support https://quartz.zoho.com/

    • Issue with Inline Images in Email Reply via Zoho Desk API

      Hi, I am attempting to send inline images in an email reply using the Zoho Desk API, but the images are not being displayed inline for the recipient. I have followed this documentation: https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Uploads https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Threads#Threads_SendEmailReply

    • How to search a value stored in a subform?

      Hello, We store serial numbers in subforms but now we would like to be able to search the values to be able to easily find the record with the serial number. I saw that it's not possible to search such values through global search but is it possible to do it an other way? Thank you,

    • Field Dependency Not Working on Detail Page in Zoho Desk

      Hi Support Team, I’ve created field dependencies between two fields in Zoho Desk, and they are working correctly on the Create and Edit layouts. However, on the Detail page, the fields are not displaying according to the dependencies I’ve set — they appear

    • How do the keyword critera work?

      Hi, I'm working on automated assignment of tickets based on keywords. How does this feature work? Where does this criteria look for keywords - email address, subject, email body? Can you please clarify this as I want to avoid overlapping with criteria

    • Error: Unsupported content type: text/html;charset=UTF-8 after tryeing to get the token for n8n automation

      I am working on ZOHO Desk automation and need to get the ZOHO auth token for n8n I have created the app in ZOHO Desk API, got client id and client secret. Added all data required to get a token in n8n. After I sign in with my ZOHO credentials in ZOHO

    • Improving Collaboration Features in Zoho Portal

      Hello Zoho Community, I’ve recently started exploring Zoho services and I’m really impressed with the wide range of features. However, I feel there is still room for improvement in the collaboration area. For example, it would be really helpful if we

    • Automated Shopify Emails Not Being Delivered

      I have an ecommerce store with Shopify. I recently set up my email to be served through Zoho. Since doing this, customers are not receiving some of our automated emails from Shopify itself. Our initial email that confirms their purchase goes through but our Shipping Notification that is automatically sent out upon fulfillment is not going through. Sometimes we get a notice that it's been classified as spam, sometimes nothing. I can send/receive email via Outlook on my desktop and I can send/receive

    • I can't log in to my account on Thunderbird

      I've just had to rebuild my PC (calamitous mess from Microsoft with Win10/Win 11 'upgrade' - they confirmed I had to start with a new build). I have used Zoho mail for years via Mozilla Thunderbird, but now I've had to download the latest version of TBird,

    • Send a campaign to one recipient.

      Very often I speak to a customer and they say they didn't see my email (maybe it went in Junk, maybe they deleted it). Anyway, I just want to go into the Campaign and send it to one person. You already have a feature very close to this - when sending a Test. While developing a campaign, I can send tests to anyone. Why can't we have this AFTER  the campaign has been sent? I know, there's a caveat, and that's in the use of merge tags. Most of the time I only use FNAME, but maybe you could check if

    • Try FSM again for our business

      We already have our customers individual equipment in CRM with serial numbers, install dates, warranty length and importantly next service which is generally 2 years. a month before the service date is due we get get a report and send out service reminders.

    • Use Zoho Books to bill for work done in Zoho Desk??

      I'm trying to see if something is possible (and if yes, how). We use Zoho One to manage our business. We have a lot of clients that will put in a ticket (via portal) to have work done. Out techs will pick up the ticket, do the work, and then log the time

    • Get Cliq Meetings in my O365 calendar

      Hi, we are currently evaluating to replace the Teams Messaging and Meetings with Cliq. We currently still have all our email and calendars in O365. What i want to achieve is, to create a (ZOHO) meeting from Cliq and have this meeting added to my Outlook/O365

    • Issue with Zoho Help Portal – Tickets Missing or Not Answered

      Hi, How are you? I think there may be an issue with the Zoho Help Portal. I opened a few tickets directly in the help portal a some time ago but never received any response I also opened ticket 148356451 by email. I did receive a reply to it, but the

    • DUNS & Bradstreet and Credit risk monitoring integration with Zoho books

      Small businesses not being paid by bigger clients and clients of all sizes is a huge problem. It will be nice if Zoho develops integration with DUNS & Bradstreet(D&B) and Credit risk monitoring integration with Zoho books. That have small businesses can

    • Zoho Forms - Form Rules based on attachment fields

      Many businesses use forms to collect documents and images from customers. In many cases, you may want to trigger a notification or other automation based on whether or not an attachment was added. I've noticed that attachment fields do not appear in Rules

    • How to sync from Zoho Projects into an existing Sprint in Zoho Sprints?

      Hi I have managed to integrate Zoho Projects with Zoho Sprints and I can see that the integration works as a project was created in Zoho Sprints. But, what I would like to do is to sync into an existing Zoho Sprints project. Is there a way to make that

    • Add multiple users to a task

      When I´m assigning a task it is almost always related to more than one person. Practical situation: When a client request some improvement the related department opens the task with the situation and people related to it as the client itself, the salesman

    • Can't open draft email for editing

      Last night I started composing an email and I let it save in drafts. This morning I want to continue working on the email. It is in my Drafts folder but it will not open. The only option there is to delete it. This is not the first time it has happened. On previous occasions I have just deleted the draft and started afresh, but I really want this one back. Windows 10 with Pale Moon 28.10.0 browser.

    • Open filtered deals from campaign

      Do you think a feature like this would be feasible? Say you are seeing campaign "XYZ" in CRM. The campaign has a related list of deals. If you want to see the related deals in a deal view, you should navigate to the Deals module, open the campaign filter,

    • Change scheduling emails time

      When sending an individual email there is a great feature to schedule them to send later. I could only use the one time that is suggested. Is there a way to select another time? Regards, Glenn

    • Zoho CRM: how can I control which contacts to sync with Outlook?

      I was just playing around syncing contacts from Zoho to MS Outlook (MS365 account.) The problem is our firm has hundreds of thousands of contacts and I don't want to bury my contacts list in outlook. Any help with this is greatly appreciated.

    • How to overcome limitations in meetings

      As a company, one of our deliverables is a meeting between two other companies, where we act as facilitators. So, if we recorded this meeting  in Zoho CRM, it should be connected to 2 accounts, 2 contacts, and 1 campaign (a campaign, in our use, is the

    • Different MRP / Pricing for same product but different batches

      We often face the following situations where MRP of a particular product changes on every purchase and hence we have to charge the customer accordingly. This can't be solved by Batch tracking as of now so far as I understand Zoho. How do you manage it as of now? 

    • Add a 'Log a Call' link to three dot icon in Canvas

      Hi, There's a three dot element when creating a canvas called 'More'. I would like to modify this to add a link that says 'Log a Call' in order to quickly record the details of a cellphone call. I'd also like this to be a simple 'contact' selection and

    • Syncing Zoho Forms with Bigin - Embedding issue?

      Hello everyone, I created a Zoho Form for a page on my GoDaddy website to collect leads, which then transfers the data to Bigin. However, I'm facing an issue where it doesn't seem to work properly. I've integrated Zoho Forms with Bigin and tried embedding

    • Can not add fields to a Section

      I feel like I'm missing something obvious: I can add new Sections to my form but I can not add fields to the Sections. I've tried fields already on the form as well as dragging and dropping new fields into the Section but nothing will go into it. What

    • Next Page