Tableau for finance: How to analyze your financial data 

In this article, we will walk you through some of the key features of Tableau for Finance. Learn how to use Tableau for financial analysis, including how to create visualizations and dashboards to track and analyze your financial performance. Tableau is a powerful data visualization tool that can be used to analyze financial data. It allows you to explore your financial data in a more dynamic and interactive way, making it easier to identify trends, patterns, and insights that might not be immediately obvious.

Getting Started with Tableau for Finance

Before we dive into the specifics of analyzing financial data with Tableau, it’s important to understand some basic concepts.

Data source

The first step in any Tableau project is connecting to your data. This can be done using a variety of data sources, including spreadsheets, databases, and cloud-based services. For financial data, you’ll likely be using a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

Dimensions and measures

In Tableau, data is organized into two types of fields: dimensions and measures. Dimensions are categorical fields that define the characteristics of your data, such as dates, product categories, or regions. Measures are numerical fields that represent the values you want to analyze, such as revenue, profit, or expenses.

Visualizations

Tableau offers a wide range of visualization options to help you explore your data. Some common types of visualizations for financial data include line charts, bar charts, and scatter plots. These can be customized with different colors, labels, and formatting options to make them more effective and informative.

Dashboards and stories

Once you’ve created your visualizations, you can combine them into dashboards or stories. Dashboards are interactive collections of visualizations that allow you to explore your data in more detail, while stories are more narrative-driven presentations that tell a story with your data.

Analyzing financial data with Tableau

Now that you understand some of the basic concepts of Tableau, let’s dive into how to use them to analyze financial data.

Step 1: Determine your financial data sources

The first step in analyzing financial data in Tableau is to determine where your data is coming from. This may include sources such as accounting software, spreadsheets, or databases. It's important to ensure that your data is clean and accurate before importing it into Tableau, as any errors or inconsistencies can impact your analysis.

Let's say you work for a medium-sized retail company that sells clothing and accessories. Your company uses QuickBooks for accounting, so you'll need to export your financial data from QuickBooks and save it as a CSV file before you can import it into Tableau.

Step 2: Connect to your data

Once you have your financial data sources identified and accessible, you can connect to your data in Tableau. This can be done by selecting the appropriate data source and then entering any required login information.

In Tableau, click "Connect to Data" and then select "CSV" as your file type. You will then locate and select the CSV file you exported from QuickBooks.

Step 3:Explore and understand your data

Before you can begin analyzing your financial data in Tableau, it's important to explore and understand your data. This includes looking at the types of data you have (such as sales, expenses, profits, etc.) and how that data is structured.

In Tableau, you can click "Sheet 1" to open a new worksheet. From there, you can drag and drop columns from your data source to create a basic visualization. For example, you could create a bar chart that shows the total sales for each month over the past year.

Step 4: Create your visualizations

Once you have a basic understanding of your data, you can start creating visualizations in Tableau. The type of visualization you create will depend on the specific financial metrics you want to analyze.

Let's say you want to analyze your company's monthly sales and profits. You could create a line chart that shows the trend in sales and profits over time. To do this, you would drag the "Date" column to the Columns shelf, and then drag the "Sales" and "Profits" columns to the Rows shelf. Then, you could click the "Show Me" button and select "Line Chart" from the options.

Step 5: Analyze your visualizations

Analyze Your Visualizations Once you've created your visualizations, it's time to start analyzing your financial data. This involves looking for trends, patterns, and insights that can help you make better business decisions.

Example: Looking at your line chart, you might notice that your company's profits have been declining even as sales have increased. By exploring your data further, you might discover that your company's expenses have been increasing at a faster rate than sales, leading to a decline in profits.

Step 6: Create Dashboards and Share Your Findings

After you've analyzed your financial data, you can create a dashboard in Tableau that summarizes your findings and provides key insights. Dashboards can be shared with other members of your organization, helping to inform better decision-making.

Using Tableau, you could create a dashboard that includes your line chart of sales and profits over time, along with other visualizations that show expenses, profit margins, and other important financial metrics. You could then share this dashboard with your colleagues, who can use it to make informed business decisions.

Benefits of using Tableau for finance

Here are some benefits of using Tableau for finance:

FAQs: Frequently asked questions