Struggling to convey budget variances to non-financial team members?

Communication is efficiently completed when you convey a message and your point of view is effectively perceived by your target audience. Exactly in the same way, the management team or the other stakeholders, who are affected by the variance, must understand the nature of such differences and the reasons behind them. The more we remain in the financial terminology and do not understand what is needed by the user of this information, the less we can sell out our arguments. Therefore, first, come in to the shoes of your target listeners and use the common language which is easily understood by them. Get ready for hard questions and try to explain with examples.

Delivering finance information for non-finance people can be a challenge, especially regarding variances. We must use normal terms to simplify it for them, and make sure that the messages have been delivered. Make it an example. After specifying the goals and make sure that they understand them clearly, each variance will be explained better with graphics, charts. And if we can explain why and how the variances raised up will be much better

A picture is worth a thousand words. Visual aids like images, diagrams, objects, data graphs, charts such as pie charts, and moving images such as videos help to explain the point of view in the most effective and with less time and effort. An effective presentation with a combination of figures and pictures with verbal explanations is the most widely used method of communication at all levels. The key to success would be that either you prepare the presentation yourself, or fully understand the objective and the ideas behind your slides or other visual aids you are presenting to explain your point of view.

If you are comparing the variances in figures with those that are not already in the budget, this would mean that you are trying to compare apples and oranges. You need to stick to the objectives that you want to achieve and which are expected to differ from those that were targeted in the budget. The budget variance is the normal process and the deviation could be due to many reasons, such as changes in the conditions or wrong assumptions at the time of budget. The more you are transparent and refer to each change in the budgetary figures along with the reasons, you will easily win the support of the audience.

The music is nothing if the audience is deaf. If your audience are not understanding what you are trying to convey then you will achieve nothing. Like singers or comedians first try to grasp the attention of the audience, a good presenter should try that the audience is aligned with what he is trying to say. Therefore the interactive approach is the best to grasp the attention. A question asked while you are presenting sometimes disturbs your presentation, but that will also support winning the minds of the listeners and you will have not to go back once you have completed it. Encourage your listeners to ask the questions. That will help you to explain what you are trying to say.

Unless you and your team members are aligned to react to such budget variance positively, the impact will not be controlled or even it may increase. Usually, during the running period, it is not easy to cut costs in certain areas because the department heads may fear that it will impact their assigned targets. But if you can convince your colleagues that corrective actions are needed. And these will finally have a positive impact, the corrective actions will be easily adopted by the team. If such budgetary corrections are suggested by the relevant departments then these will be more easy to adopt.