The Automation of Narrated Reports – An (R)evolution in Financial Reporting

Have you ever wondered how many of your department heads or subsidiaries ever read the monthly reports you are sending them? Many managers are not trained in reading detailed financial statements, nor are they “excited” by all the rows and columns of numbers. As a matter of fact, most people are better wired for reading narrative stories than long lists of numbers (think phone book), and thus they are able to capture and process more information from this format.
Below you can see an example of the new Automated Narrative Reporting available within BI360. It will automatically generate the narrative based on algorithms as well as data available in the ERP system or in the data warehouse, and using the Publisher, the system can run and distribute an unlimited number of reports during the night.

Now, imagine being a non-financial manager, and receiving the typical financial statement below:

Which one do you think most non-financial managers will prefer? The best way to deliver auto-narrated reports are in conjunction with the detailed financial statements that the narrative is based upon. For example, with BI360, users can receive both the narrative and the associated financial statement(s) together, so if the interest is there, the user can dive into the detail behind the words. The end result should be more informed, more engaged managers across the organization.