To complement a church financial report’s narrative, a variety of church finance visuals can help enhance a report’s readability and accessibility. I define the term “visuals” broadly, including any graphs, charts, pictures, tables, even art that displays data to accompany a concept, topic, or method. The Chinese proverb, a picture is worth a thousand words, speaks well for the impact visuals can have on virtually any report. Alternatively, I also like to say in fun, when you put together a visual and the picture is not worth at least 250 words, consider not including it!
Open up any word processing, spreadsheet, or presentation software and you will find an endless list of visuals that you can use. However, remember that beautiful colors, stylish charts or graphs may make a report look good, the question is whether the visual adds value to the information being conveyed? Another key question – what is the goal of including a particular visual?
Opportunities for Church Finance Visuals are Endless – Choose Well
Once the questions above are answered, there a variety of visuals you can choose. Without the time in this article to describe every visual available, over the next series of posts, I will discuss a few of the most common used in church financial reports.
As you can imagine, the choice of which visual to include for your particular situation will be subjective based on a variety of circumstances. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but there are some general parameters that you can use.
Pie Charts
Pie charts are useful when your goal is to present data on a category/topic as a percentage of the whole. Pie pieces can be easily arranged by color, shape, and highlighted to emphasize information.
Pie Chart Advantages
- The pie chart is easy to read, understand, and people are familiar with this visual.
- The pie chart is particularly useful to show relative proportions, or percentages of information.The use of colors and pie shapes display well any differentiation among categories.
- The use of colors and pie shapes display well any differentiation among categories.
Pie Chart Cautions
- Pie charts are often overused without regard to whether these charts are the best choice for displaying certain types of data. For example, a pie chart that offers no distinction between the data (unless this is a goal of your visual) does not add value to the report. If you have more than one data set, it can be difficult for people to look at multiple pie charts and make comparisons.
- The recommendation is to use a pie chart when you have between three and seven categories, otherwise, the pie chart may become messy and confusing.
- Avoid “miscellaneous” or “other” categories. These terms are confusing and can be misleading. If they are included, ensure that the definitions are clear.
Of course, pie charts are not your only choice. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of the infamous bar/column charts and line graphs!
