Trended Balance Sheet Report

What is a Trended Balance Sheet Report?

Trended Balance Sheets are considered key month-end reports in many companies and are often used by the finance team to analyze monthly trends in assets, liabilities and equity. Key functionality in this type of report dynamically lists months in the columns, starting with January and going to the current period. Users can drill down on any figure to analyze the underlying transactions. You will find an example of this type of report below.

Purpose of Balance Sheet Trend Reports

Companies and organizations use Balance Sheet Trend Reports to quickly determine upward or downward patterns for any particular item on the statement. When used as part of good business practices in a Finance & Accounting Department, a company can improve its ability to quickly detect trends or exceptions, as well as, reduce the chance that issues are caught late in the process on important items like cash, receivables or payables.

Balance Sheet Trend Report Example

Here is an example of Trended Balance Sheet report with months across the columns.

Trended Balance Sheet Report Example

Trended Balance Sheet Report Example

You can find hundreds of additional examples here

Who Uses This Type of Report?

The typical users of this type of report are: Board Members, the Executive Team and Controllers.

Other Reports Often Used in Conjunction with Balance Sheet Trend Reports

Progressive Finance & Accounting Departments sometimes use several different Balance Sheet Trend Reports, along with trended profit & loss reports, cash flow statements and other management and control tools.

Where Does the Data for Analysis Originate From?

The Actual (historical transactions) data typically comes from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems like: Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) Finance, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (D365 BC), Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Sage Intacct, Sage 100, Sage 300, Sage 500, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SAP ByDesign, Acumatica, Netsuite and others.

In analyses where budgets or forecasts are used, the planning data most often originates from in-house Excel spreadsheet models or from professional corporate performance management (CPM/EPM) solutions.

What Tools are Typically used for Reporting, Planning and Dashboards?

Examples of business software used with the data and ERPs mentioned above are:

  • Native ERP report writers and query tools
  • Spreadsheets (for example Microsoft Excel)
  • Corporate Performance Management (CPM) tools (for example Solver)
  • Dashboards (for example Microsoft Power BI and Tableau)

Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Cloud Solutions and More Examples

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