How to Make Finance Presentations [That are Interesting]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Jul 23, 2023
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 30
While we were building a finance presentation for our client Oliver, he asked us a question that made us pause for a second.
He said:
“How do you make a finance presentation not feel like a punishment?”
Our Creative Director, without missing a beat, replied:
“By not making it look or sound like an accounting textbook.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on many finance presentations throughout the year. And here’s something we’ve noticed consistently: most of them try too hard to impress with data, and forget the actual point is to communicate.
So, in this blog, we’re breaking down exactly how to make your finance presentation clear, interesting, and effective without making your audience feel like they’re being audited live.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Why Finance Presentations Are the Toughest Category of Slide Decks
Let’s be real. Most people don’t go into a finance presentation thinking, “This is going to be fun.” They expect to sit through a dense jungle of numbers, charts, and acronyms that feel more like
punishment than insight. And that’s the first problem. You’re working against low expectations from the start.
But there’s more to it.
First, finance slides are overloaded by default.
Whether it’s a budget breakdown, a revenue forecast, or a profitability analysis, the default instinct is to throw every number into the deck like it’s a spreadsheet costume party. This overwhelms your audience and drowns your core message in noise.
Second, the audience is usually diverse, and that complicates things.
You might have a CFO who wants precision and ratios, a CEO looking for growth signals, and department heads wondering how the numbers impact their budgets. One deck, multiple brains interpreting it differently. So you’re not just presenting information. You’re translating it.
Third, storytelling often takes a backseat.
Most finance decks are built as documentation, not communication. They report. They don’t explain. And they definitely don’t engage. Without a clear narrative, even good data feels disconnected and irrelevant.
Fourth, there’s fear involved.
People are afraid to simplify financial data because they think it will look like they’re dumbing it down. But clarity isn’t dumbing down. It’s intelligence that respects your audience’s time.
And finally, finance presentations have real consequences.
You’re not just showing progress. You’re defending strategy, asking for funding, justifying costs, or pitching for future growth. The stakes are high, and the margin for misinterpretation is slim.
So yes, finance decks are the toughest. But not because they involve numbers. It’s because they demand precision, clarity, structure, and engagement, all at once.
How to Make a Finance Presentation [From Scratch]
1. Don’t Start with Numbers. Start with the Point.
Most finance decks go wrong from slide one. People open Excel, grab the quarterly results, and start copy-pasting charts and tables into PowerPoint like they’re printing receipts. But finance presentations are not for documenting data. They’re for communicating decisions, priorities, and direction. That’s a completely different job.
So, here’s the first thing we do: we ask the client, "If your audience remembers only one thing from this presentation, what should it be?”
That question cuts through the noise. It forces clarity. Your point might be:
We exceeded our revenue target due to stronger repeat business
Margins dipped, but the product pipeline is expanding
We need to increase marketing spend to sustain growth next quarter
Great. That’s your headline. That’s your compass. Every chart, every slide, every number should point to that idea. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t belong.
You’re not there to prove you did a lot of work. You’re there to make sure people understand what’s important.
2. Write a Narrative Before You Design Anything
You don’t build a house by decorating it first. Same goes for finance decks. We sketch a rough narrative before opening any design tools. Think of it like writing a screenplay before shooting a film. What’s the setup? Where’s the tension? What’s the resolution?
A simple structure we use:
Context: Where are we and why does this matter now?
Main Message: What happened this quarter (or period)?
Supporting Evidence: Three to five key metrics or charts that back up your claim
Implications: What does this mean for the business?
Action: What are we recommending or planning next?
We’re not adding drama for the sake of it. We’re giving the audience a reason to care. Without context and consequence, data is just trivia.
3. Be Brutal About What Data You Include
One of the hardest parts of building a finance presentation is choosing what not to show.
Clients will often give us 60 slides of data and say, “It’s all important.” It’s not.
The more you show, the less people retain. So, we challenge every number with this question: Is this critical to understanding the main message?
If it’s not, it either goes in the appendix or gets cut entirely.
Here’s a method we’ve used with success:
Imagine your slide can only have one number. What is it?
Now ask: what explanation or context does someone need to understand that number?
Then build the slide around those two things.
That’s it. Simple. Focused. Digestible.
We don’t just want people to read your slides. We want them to walk away knowing what to do with the information.
4. Design with Structure, Not Just Style
Finance decks are not pitch decks. You don’t need to impress with shiny animations or overly stylized visuals. But structure? Structure is everything.
We use design to guide attention. That means:
Clear headlines that summarize the insight, not just label the slide (“Revenue Breakdown” is lazy; “Revenue Rose 18% Driven by Europe Sales” is useful)
Visual hierarchy — one number or idea dominates each slide
Consistent formatting so your audience doesn’t waste energy figuring out how to read each slide
White space — don’t cram. Let slides breathe. Your content is important; give it space to land.
Remember, most people in your meeting are half-distracted. They’re checking emails, thinking about lunch, or preparing their own updates. You don’t win their attention with complexity. You win it with clarity.
5. Let the Charts Do the Talking (But Only the Talking That Matters)
A bad chart is worse than no chart at all. And yet finance decks are often full of visuals that confuse more than they clarify. Our approach? Treat every chart like a sentence in your story.
Bar charts are great for comparing categories
Line charts are perfect for showing trends
Pie charts are overused — we rarely touch them unless you’re showing a clear, binary split
Tables are only useful if the audience needs to reference specific values — not for broad communication
Before putting any chart in a slide, we ask: What’s the one thing this visual is meant to prove? If we can’t answer that in five seconds, we rework it or kill it.
We also annotate. A lot. We point out spikes. We highlight anomalies. We literally put arrows and short notes that say things like “Seasonal spike due to holiday sales” or “Drop linked to supplier delay.”
Don’t assume your audience will see what you see. Make it obvious.
6. Use Language That’s Actually Meant for Humans
Corporate finance language has this habit of turning everything into a buzzword salad. “Adjusted EBITDA margin YOY delta normalized for non-operating expenses” — we get it, but your audience shouldn’t have to decode it.
So we translate.
We write like people talk in meetings:
“Profit margins dipped slightly due to a spike in raw material costs.”
“Customer acquisition costs are up, mainly because of higher paid ad spend.”
“We saved $400K by streamlining two vendor contracts.”
Plain English isn’t unprofessional. It’s just useful.
7. Prepare for Pushback with a Smart Appendix
A finance deck doesn’t end when the slides do. There’s always a Q&A. And if you’re unprepared, it shows.
We usually build an appendix with slides that cover:
Deeper data cuts
Alternate scenarios
Market benchmarks
Supporting calculations
Risk factors and assumptions
These don’t go in the main flow, but they’re on standby. It signals that you’ve done your homework and you’re not just dressing up numbers. You’re standing behind them.
If the board asks, “What happens if marketing spend stays flat next quarter?” and you can flip to a slide that answers that, you’ve already won credibility.
8. Rehearse With a Non-Finance Person
This is our secret weapon. Before finalizing any finance deck, we run it past someone who’s not knee-deep in numbers — maybe someone from marketing or product.
Why?
Because if they can follow it, it’s clear. If they can’t, something’s off.
You don’t need everyone in the room to be a financial expert. But you do need them to care. And care comes from comprehension.
How to Make Your Existing Finance Presentation Interesting [And exciting]
If you’ve already got a finance presentation and it feels a bit lifeless, don’t worry. You don’t have to scrap it. You just have to reshape it.
Here’s how we breathe life into existing decks without starting from zero:
Rewrite Your Slide Titles to Tell a Story
“Revenue Breakdown” says nothing. Change it to “Europe Drove 60% of Revenue Growth.” That one shift forces every slide to communicate instead of just label.
Highlight What Matters Visually
Use color, bold text, or callouts to emphasize what changed, what matters, and what needs attention. Don’t let your audience dig for insights — surface them.
Break Slide Monotony
If every slide looks the same, attention drops fast. Use variation: drop in a single statement slide, a bold number, or a question to reset the room.
Cut the Noise, Focus the Message
One idea per slide. That’s it. Split dense content across multiple slides if needed. People will thank you for the clarity.
Add Context, Not Just Numbers
Numbers without meaning don’t stick. Even short explanations like “Drop due to April price hike” or “Growth driven by new onboarding” help connect the dots.
Making a finance presentation interesting isn’t about adding flair. It’s about stripping away friction so the real message can land.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.