In this course, together we will build a new way to see and review Financial Statements, which we will call “Operational Financials.”  Operational Financials are not meant to replace Traditional Financials.  To define the difference, and why this course is important, I will quickly define both.

Traditional Financial Statements are critical to review the financial performance of a company.  Government Agencies, Accountants, Investors, Banks, etc. require these formats to review and audit not only for/on financial performance but business activities as well.  Simply put, they show businesses how they did, in the past.

Although Operational Financials, like Traditional Financials Statements, show how you did in the past, Operational Financials use both historical and current information to show you how you are doing now, present.  With Power BI we can add some Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help us predict how we will do, based on our past and current performance.

Extending our reports to look at not only hindsight, including both insight and foresight would be reason enough on its own to entice every business to incorporate Operational Financials.  However, there is another and perhaps even more powerful reason to use these operational reports.  That reason is the ability for your team to understand the story your financial data tells without having to learn how to “read” financial statements.  Not only are these reports easier to digest information, but they also provide for incredible drill down to detail.  This allows anyone with the need and security the ability to make informed business decisions, instead of guesses on hunches.

In this course, you will build 2 versions of the same report.  One version will be built using a non-calendar Fiscal Year and the other with a Calendar Year.  One will have beginning year balances and the other will create beginning balances from historical numbers.  The purpose of creating 2 reports is to allow users to experience data modeling and report designing as close to their environments as possible.  Each report will vary to continue the learning process rather than just repeating steps.

In this course we’ll be covering data modeling in the Query Editor, Query Relationships, DAX functions (columns, measures, and tables), Time Intelligence functions, Drill-down reports, Bookmarks, Root Cause Analysis, Insights, Q&A options, syncing slicers, and custom visuals.

The final goal is that you can create your own Operational Statements that help everyone in your business make informed decisions while improving your life and the success of your company.

Link to the agenda and sample videos from the course