Annotations and Commentary: Adding Thoughts to your Reports

You’ve plugged in your numbers and Spotlight Reporting has generated the charts. Now it’s your turn to shine.

Adding commentary to reports can help you tell a story, make sure all your stakeholders are following along, and breathe life into your financial data. 

That’s why Spotlight Reporting offers a range of ways to add your thoughts to your reports, including our brand new Text Panels feature. Let’s go through them one by one.

Make a Good First Impression with an Executive Summary

The executive summary is likely to be the first thing your clients or colleagues might read. And let’s be realistic - in some cases, it might be the only thing that certain stakeholders will read. 

Spotlight Reporting’s executive summaries allow you to summarise your reports very quickly and with great detail. You can add images and graphics, and use auto-text to quickly reference key metrics. 

If you need help getting started with the Executive Summary, watch this quick walk-through video from our Product Manager, Matt Kekena.

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Go In-Depth with our Brand New Text Panels

With our new Text Panels, you can insert an easily editable text panel alongside your row of charts. This gives you the freedom to put in several lines of commentary, conveniently close to the relevant charts. 

Text Panels come with a range of options to give you the most choice - including adding auto-text and custom tags, as well as formatting and colour options. To add a text panel, simply select ‘Text Panel’ on the ‘Add Chart’ screen. If you need help, check out this article. 

Highlight Information Easily with Chart Narration

If you want to add a bit of context to a chart, but don’t need to use a whole text panel, chart narration is perfect for you. You can add one or two lines of text to your chart to draw attention to a specific part or make a short observation. Adding a narration to a chart is done simply through the chart settings menu.

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Final Thoughts

Regardless of what method you're using, adding commentary to your reports is highly recommended - it's the extra seasoning that makes the report really sing. A strong executive summary, backed up with annotated charts and commentary throughout the report, will help create those 'I get it!' moments that lead to better business decisions.

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