 You can remove the negative tone of your writing by using ‘**and**’ instead of ‘**but**’. When you write a sentence that uses ‘but’ to join its clauses try changing the ‘but’ to ‘and’ (or another conjunction). It’ll sound more positive.
Often the best way for numerical information to be communicated in a document or a presentation is in a chart. I’ve written before about the need to declutter tables so that the reader/audience can easily see what is important. The same principle of removing the clutter applies to
How to format a chart TIP: Remove the clutter from your charts. If you want your reader to get your message you need to make your message clear. Don’t just copy and paste a chart from Excel into a Word document or presentation. You need to format it first.
<img src="https://articulateaccountant.micro.blog/uploads/2024/bfc627cdfa.jpg" width="535" height="600" alt> People spend average of 26 seconds reading a piece of content. That means you’ve got about 120 words to get your message across and/or make
{{< summary >}}Everyday I get emails from Axios summarising news stories. The stories are mostly American and of little direct importance to me but I don’t mind. I like the newsletter as much for its craft as its content. {{< /summary >}}<!--more--> Axios has a
{{< summary >}} Having written a post about the [seven deadly sins of making a finance presentation](https://www.garybandy.co.uk/2023/07/24/the-deadly-sins.html), it is natural (predictable) that I would write a companion post about the seven virtues. {{< /summary >}} <!--more--> - **Chastity*
{{< summary >}} Using the standard list of the seven deadly sins as a guide, here are seven things to avoid when giving a finance presentation. {{< /summary >}} <!--more--> - **Pride**. It’s not about you. Your presentation is for your audience and what they want/need
You will notice over the next few months that the default font in your Microsoft apps will change from Calibri to Aptos. If you want to see what Aptos will look like it is already available in Microsoft Word under its original name of Bierstadt -- which means beer town.
 A hammer and chisel are tools. In the right hands they can be used to create wonderful works of art. In most hands they create rubble. A person has to learn how to use a tool and practise over and over
If you want the receivers of your finance reports to read them then you need to grab their attention at the top of your document. If you fail to do that they’ll skim your report (at best) or just do something else. Here are three ways you could start
 {{< summary >}} I think somewhere during the journey towards a professional accounting qualification we adopt accounting-speak. Some of the words we learn are very specific, technical terms and we have to use them. I’m thinking of words like depreciation
Doing some great analysis and having useful insights counts for little if you cannot communicate them and yet these skills are not a core part of accounting training. As a result many accountants and auditors are not as good at written communication as they need to be. Chris Argyris wrote