See what the numbers mean, not just what they are.
Begin with the question, not the chart.
Financial statements tell you what has been recorded. Analysis helps you understand what is changing, what is driving the change, and where leadership should focus next.
Relevant Strategies combines financial experience with hands-on data analytics to turn accounting, program, grant, and operational information into clear findings and useful decisions.
BEGIN WITH A QUESTION
A dashboard is useful only when it helps someone understand something that matters.
We begin by clarifying what leadership, the board, a funder, or a project team needs to understand. The chart comes later.
Which programs are operating above or below plan?
How many months of cash are available under different scenarios?
What costs are fixed, variable, or shared across programs?
Are service levels, staffing, and cost moving together?
Is a variance temporary, timing related, or structural?
How dependent is the organization on one funder or revenue source?
Which grants are approaching spending or reporting deadlines?
What should the board monitor each month or quarter?
The most useful analysis starts with the decision or understanding the organization needs, not with the chart someone happens to know how to build.
WHAT THE WORK MAY INCLUDE
Analysis designed around the question, the data, and the audience.
The categories below organize common areas of work. They are not preset packages, and the exact scope depends on what the organization needs to understand.
Performance & trends
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Trend and variance analysis
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Budget-to-actual analysis
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Cash flow and liquidity analysis
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Scenario and sensitivity analysis ​
Measures & communication
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KPI selection and definition
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Board and management dashboards
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Date visualization
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Presentation of findings to leadership, boards, or stakeholder groups
Programs & funding
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Program, fund, grant, or contract reporting
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Revenue and funding concentration analysis
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Cost and allocation analysis
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Evaluation of adding or ending a program or funding source
Data readiness
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Data cleanup, reconciliation, and validation
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Review of the data needed to answer the question
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Indentification of gaps, inconsistencies, and limitations
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Evaluate data sources and uses ​
A technically polished visualization cannot compensate for incomplete, inconsistent, or unreconciled data. When necessary, the work begins by making the information reliable enough to analyze.
CLEAR ENOUGH TO USE
The same analysis may need a different explanation for each audience.
A technically correct analysis can still fail when the audience cannot interpret it. We tailor the level of detail, language, and visual presentation to the people who need to use the result.
Management
May need operating detail, underlying drivers, and the ability to investigate the result.
Board
May need the pattern, the risk, and the decision without every transaction or calculation.
Funder or stakeholder
May need a clear explanation of how resources supported the work and what the information demonstrates.
Our goal is not to produce more information. It is to make the important information easier to see.
FROM DATA TO DECISION
A clear path from the question to the finding.
Frame
Clarify the question, audience, available information, and decision the analysis should support.
Prepare
Clean, reconcile, validate, and organize the information before relying on it.
The exact methods vary, but useful analytics generally require a defined question, reliable information, thoughtful analysis, and communication suited to the audience.
Analyze
Evaluate trends, variances, drivers, scenarios, concentrations, and relationships in the data.
Communicate
Present the finding in language and visuals the intended audience can understand and use.
HOW THE WORK MAY BE STRUCTURED
A defined project—or part of an ongoing advisory relationship.
We scope the work around the question, the available data, and the decision the analysis must support.
Focused work with a specific destination.
A project may address one question, one reporting need, or one set of decisions with a defined scope, timeline, and deliverable.
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Trend, variance, or concentration analysis
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Dashboard or reporting redesign
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Program, grant, or contract analysis
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Scenario or sensitivity model
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Presentation of findings to leadership or the board
Analytics connected to an ongoing financial relationship.
Some organizations incorporate agreed analysis and reporting into recurring accounting or Financial Planning & Decision Support work.
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Regular trend and variance review
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Defined board or management dashboards
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Periodic cash, funding, or program analysis
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Scheduled discussion of findings and questions
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Separate scoping when a new project or substantial model is needed.
The engagement is designed around what someone needs to understand and do—not around producing a chart for its own sake.