The art of charts: Keeping your clients engaged month after month

Accountants know this scenario: You spend days closing the books and preparing a client’s financials. Maybe you send it to them only to learn it sits on a shelf, never to be read or discussed. Or perhaps you prepare a presentation, but it goes off track, with participants focused on obscure questions and details, rather than critical information.

In our first two articles, we explored the value of being good hosts of our information, and why our audience needs us to set the table for them so they can engage with our work. We learned tips on choosing a compelling data story and picking the right chart.

The next challenge we face is that we need to do this repeatedly.

How do we prepare our charts in a way that keeps our readers focused on what is important and engaged with our content on an ongoing basis? They need our help.

Keeping focus

Our clients, aka readers, are short on time and attention, yet too often, our visualizations get cluttered with unnecessary details that divert our readers’ focus. As good hosts, we need to do whatever we can to be singular in our story’s purpose so that we do not “bury the lead.”

How do you do this?

Remove irrelevant data. In your efforts to remain singular, be relentless about removing any data that does not focus your reader on your main story.

Here are two charts with the same headline. Which one is better?

In the first one, we have several sub-components of data, breaking down types of cost. But if our story is about overall costs, that subcomponent data is distracting, not helpful. Our story is better told with the second chart that has just one component.

Every mark on the page either helps tell your story or hinders it. We underestimate the mental load of visual clutter. Often, our charts have unnecessary elements that we would be better off eliminating: gridlines, labels, legends, and data points. It does not help that the standard setup for many charts includes these things.  Here is a side-by-side comparison that illustrates my point.

On the left, there are grid lines, labels and legends, 3D bars, and lots of color. These do not help tell the story. In fact, they distract the reader. On the right, we removed most of this and it tells the story so much more clearly. Our rule of thumb is to be a minimalist. Start with very little and then add in only what you need!

Keeping engagement over time

It is not good enough to make one amazing data storytelling graphic. We need to do this repeatedly in new and relevant ways. As I have found in my work at YPTC advising nonprofits, this is where our most important work happens. Let me share a story from my experience.

A client came to our firm needing help forecasting their cash. They used  much of their cash reserves to stay afloat during the pandemic. To get back on track, they planned an ambitious fundraising campaign alongside some earned revenue from paid projects.

In our month-end financial report, we represented this with a line chart showing the cash changes over time.

But as time went by, there were many hints that their original goals might not be met, so three months later, we updated our chart:

We added a new scenario as a line (in orange) to illustrate the impacts of an unsuccessful fundraising campaign. The orange color was used to alarm the reader. The labels on the chart helped explain pertinent details.

Fast forward six months. The fundraising and project goals appeared more unlikely. Our story and chart needed to change.

With this new information, the focus of our story became the organization’s future cash vulnerabilities. We needed to focus our client’s attention on this. To do this, we did several things to our graphic to help:

• We removed the prior months’ data because it no longer helped tell our story.
• We added an additional line to show three scenarios: best-case, working estimate, and worst-case scenario. This allowed the nonprofit to have a working estimate, but keep reaching for their adjusted goals (best-case), and be aware of the impact if all efforts fell through (worst-case).

Becoming Indispensable

Unfortunately, several months later, due to many circumstances, our client had to wind down operations and regroup for a season. But the testament to our partnership was that they kept YPTC as their financial advisor until the end. Our data storytelling helped them see their vulnerabilities, make critical decisions, and plan for the future.

This sort of work is what accounting is all about. It is where we become indispensable to our organizations.

As we shared in our first article, closing the books is just the first step. The next is to be a good host of that information so leaders can make meaningful business decisions with it.  This can only happen when we take the time to tune into the important stories and questions an organization is facing.

Like a good dinner host, we have important information to share. And if we set the table well with a compelling story chosen specifically for the occasion, displayed through the best chart with clear and uncluttered presentation, we invite others to engage with our work in ways that can transform an organization.