Waterfall chart

One of the best chart to explain reason for changes is the waterfall chart.

Type of analysis from one period to another to give some examples include

• Profitability explaining sales price and sales quantity variance, cost of sales variances, fixed costs components, etc.
• Sales revenue explaining quantity, prices, geographic, segmentation changes
• Fixed cost explaining main expenses components that contributed the most to the fluctuations
• Logistic cost explaining the quantity of shipments, cost per location, product types, etc.
• Variable manufacturing cost deliberating on specific consumption variance, material cost variance, efficiency variance, production volume variance, etc.
• Working capital movements highlighting accounts payable, accounts receivable and inventory movements with further insights into days outstanding.

Enhancing the data into possibilities of additional dimensions such as manufacturing sites, region, business area, profit centers, and functional areas will provide more insights of possible intervention for improvements.

Power BI tool can really support to make this level of analysis.