Talking Tables

Financial tables in Web format offers several advantages over PDF, which is a more commonly used format today on business sites. H&H has developed a unique solution for producing and presenting interactive tables, specially designed for financial data. Trelleborg was the first company to chose this solution, and with great success!  

The need for accessible data

Our research shows that analysts, investors and journalists have a need for clear and accessible financial information. A company's website is the most obvious place to gather such information. Today, PDF is the most commonly used format mainly because of the minimal production needed. The disadvantage with this format is that it is not readily available, especially not when looking at financial trends over time. Financial assessments of a company are made to predict future profits, and studies of its history are the main tools for this. Offering interim reports in various PDF files forces the user to download many different documents and the big picture is lost.

In response to this need, H&H has developed a new solution that presents financial data in an interactive Web format, combined with Excel.

Interactivity creates an overview and transparency

H&H's financial tables are a quicker and more transparent solution for financial reports which contain comprehensive information, yet gives a good overview. The possibility of interactivity provides options for the user:

• Grouping of items, such as turnover by segment is hidden under ‘Sales’ and can be viewed by the user, if necessary
• Clickable text comments in the table cells are displayed as pop-ups, which allows for analysis and explanation in text format
• Bar graphs can be produced for any time series which alleviates the human eye to detect trends
• Switching between full-year figures, quarterly, interim (year-to-date) and rolling twelve months
• All pages are downloadable Excel format

In summary the interactive tables give the same content as the archive of PDF reports, but also extend the functionality and provide superior accessibility and overview.

Automatic convergence of existing material

The technical platform is designed for financial reporting and processes which occur in conjunction with the publication of a quarterly report.

The basic philosophy is that additional information is not needed; the tables in the report are copied and pasted into the Excel file which is the main source of the production platform. Key statements in the report are entered into the relevant table cell as ordinary Excel comments. The system does the rest, creating pop-up comments, the language handling, auto-graphs etc.

The table is initially published in a test environment and then published when the press release was been sent out.

Trelleborg’s tables

An example of H&H’s tables can be seen on Trelleborg's website where financial information is presented well organised and easy to read, with accompanying Excel files.

Trelleborg's tables

This example clearly shows that the reader gets a better overview of the results and can compare time intervals with a large amount of historical statistics in an intuitive way.

For more information on the financial tables, please contact Jonas Jonell at H&H.

Link to Trelleborg's tables