This document discusses making a slide comparing sales and expense trends over time more effective. The original slide showed yearly sales and expense numbers and percentage changes in a table but did not clearly show trends. An improved slide uses an index line graph to compare the growth trends, revealing that some expense categories increased more than sales. Labeling the lines directly and including light gridlines helps interpret the trends.

1. Slide Makeover #92:
Comparing growth in Sales and
Expense categories over time
Based on Dave Paradi’s ideas at
www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com

2. Summary:
Often we want to compare how different data
series have changed over time. If the starting
values are significantly different, graphing the
trends in each series may not make the
comparison better than a table of numbers. This
makeover shows how you can use an index line
graph to compare trends in different data series
using a common starting point.

3. Financial Comparison
Second Quarter
2015 2016 2017 2018
Electric Sales 92,105,900$ 95,958,000$ 98,292,000$ 99,227,800$
Percent Change 4.2% 2.4% 1.0%
2013-2016 Change 7.7%
Power Supply 74,142,500$ 72,215,000$ 71,168,200$ 71,469,100$
Percent Change -2.6% -1.4% 0.4%
G&A Expense 8,091,000$ 8,733,400$ 8,939,100$ 8,020,400$
Percent Change 7.9% 2.4% -10.3%
Other Operating Expenses 13,312,400$ 14,573,000$ 16,396,000$ 16,123,480$
Percent Change 9.5% 12.5% -1.7%
City Transfer*/PILOT/ED 4,692,620$ 4,743,900$ 5,583,382$ 5,814,010$
Percent Change 1.1% 17.7% 4.1%
Sales
COGS
Owner Transfers
Original Slide

4. Discussion of original slide:
• This slide shows the analysis of trends in sales and the major expense
categories over a four year time period. It is likely copied from the
spreadsheet used to do the calculations. It provides the year over year %
change in each item so the audience doesn’t have to do the math
themselves. All the numbers don’t really help the audience see if some
expense categories have been increasing more than others or more than
the sales.
• The audience would better be served by a graph that shows the growth over
time.

5. Other Expenses & Owner Transfers growth higher than
Sales growth
Sales
COGS
G&A Expense
Other Operating
Expenses
Owner Transfers
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
2015 2016 2017 2018
Revenue/ExpenseIndex
Makeover

6. Discussion of makeover slide:
• The headline of the slide summarizes the message about some expense
areas growing faster than sales. This is an important message because it
could lead to reduced margins.
• The data in the original table could be made visual by plotting it on a line
graph. A line graph is the correct graph to show trends, but the basic line
graph may not help much if the message is to compare the trends. Each line
would start at a different level on the left side of the graph and the audience
would have difficulty comparing the slopes of the different lines to
understand the message.
• A better option is to create an index line graph as shown in the slide above.
Indexing is a concept from economics and it allows trends in multiple data
series to be easily compared (even if the measurement units are different).
Indexing sets the initial value of each data series to 1 (or 100), and then
calculates the other index values in the data series based on the difference
of each data value to the initial value.

7. Discussion of makeover slide (cont.):
• Once the different data series are on the same basis, showing the trends in
a line graph easily allows the audience to see the trend in each series and to
compare any series against any other series. Since the message is about
the trend, the actual values in each data series are not as important.
• The Sales line is dashed to make it stand out visually from the other lines
that all represent expense categories.
• Instead of a legend, each line has been labelled directly with text that
matches the color of the line. This makes it easier for the audience to
connect the label with the line. The labels are data labels attached to the last
data point in the line so if the data changes, the label automatically moves to
the correct position. Building graphs with data driven labels can dramatically
reduce the time spent updating them later.

8. Discussion of makeover slide (cont.):
• The graph has light grey gridlines so that the audience can compare a trend
line to a known horizontal line. When slopes are very slight, this helps the
audience know whether the trend is increasing or decreasing. The light
gridlines also help when a line changes direction and the audience wants to
know whether it came back to the original value or not (like the G&A
Expense line in the slide above).

9. Lessons for Presenters
1. Comparing year over year changes for multiple years is
usually a message of the trend. Trends are best visualized
using a line graph.
2. When the message is to compare growth over time for
different data series, an index line graph is best to focus on
just the percentage changes over time.
3. Graphs that show growth often benefit from light gridlines so
the audience can compare a slight slope in a line to a known
horizontal line.

10. If you would like me to help
your team create presentations
that have a clear message with
focused content and effective
visuals, get in touch:
P: 905-510-4911
E: Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com
W: www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com