Author: Dave Paradi

Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don't overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.

How to Present a Balance Sheet

A balance sheet is one of the three most common financial statements required to be presented to executives, Boards, and investors. It is different from an income/profit & loss statement and a cash flow statement because it reports values at a single point in time, not over a time period. In most cases, financial professionals…

How to present an Income or Profit and Loss Statement

Often in my sessions for accountants or finance professionals I get asked how they can better present an income statement or profit & loss (P&L) statement. These statements show the income for the period and the different expenses, resulting in a bottom line net income. Financial presentations often include this statement as a spreadsheet or…

Create a data-driven Gantt chart

How to create a Gantt chart that is driven by data using a stacked bar chart (can be done in Excel as well using the basic techniques shown in the video). Right-click here and select “Save As” to download the video to your computer

CPABC Course: How to Present Financial Data Effectively Using PowerPoint (August 9, 2018; Vancouver, BC)

Overview Accountants often use PowerPoint to present financial data to peers, executives, suppliers, and others. It is critical that others understand the impact of the financial analysis so that decisions can be made and the bottom line positively impacted. Audiences want financial professionals to tell them the story behind the numbers, not overwhelm them with…

CPABC Course: Hands-on Tools and Techniques for Creating Effective Financial Visuals in Excel and PowerPoint (August 8, 2018; Vancouver, BC)

Description Prerequisite This is not a basic level Excel or PowerPoint course. You need to come already being familiar with the programs and have intermediate level skills. Special Note This is a hands-on seminar with demonstrations using Office 2016 for Windows. Please bring a laptop with Office 2013 or higher for Windows, or Office 2016…

Proportion visual using characters; Issue #395 August 8, 2017

Use ISOTYPE or group of items visuals to show proportion of the whole

Will replacing presentations with interactive visual dashboards help executives make decisions?

Recently I have seen more emphasis on creating interactive visual dashboards for executives in products such as Tableau and Power BI. These dashboards allow executives to visually play with graphs based on underlying data. They can apply filters for time periods, products, geographic regions, and many other dimensions. They can position their cursor on a…