Reporting templates can be created to standardize their appearance across the application

Description

The creation of standardized reporting templates in Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software allows for a unified appearance across the application. This feature enables consistency in the layout, style, and presentation of reports, regardless of the data or user generating them.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A large retail chain uses CPM software to generate budget to actual, P&L, and performance metric reports across multiple store locations. However, the reports created often vary in format and layout depending on who is generating them, causing confusion and misinterpretation of data.

Solution: The CPM software organization implements a feature to create standardized reporting templates. Now, every user creates reports following the same guidelines for layout, visual hierarchy, and format, leading to cleaner and more uniform reports. Any financial analyst, regardless of their location, can now easily comprehend these reports.

Considerations

Many products on the market have a consistent look and feel for their reports by default, adopting the visuals already present in the application. This will by default create almost a “template” look to the reports. We see this in web-based reporting solutions and consider this a major benefit to reporting tools that use web platforms as their primary UI.

However, if the reporting solution is an Excel or Google Sheets plug-in, you can expect them to be formatted in any number of ways depending on the users. Different colors, typography, layouts, and more will happen with the reports. This will make them difficult for users to digest, as there is no central “legend” to the reports. Because of this, some Excel-based vendors in the CPM space provide a method to create templates for their Excel files, maintaining consistency across the data entry forms, reports, charts, and so on.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Template Creation: Does your system support the creation of a template for reporting look and feel? If so, how do we create one?
• Template Edits: If we edit a template that is in use, will the edits apply to all the reports that use the template, or will we have to edit each report individually?
• Template Rigidity: If you offer templates, does the user have the option not to use it?
• Existing Reports: We have several reports in Excel already and have to keep the format. Can your system use our templates as they look now?