Each individual manager selects the particular set of facts which he thinks will best show the trend of the business. The complexity of the business usually determines the number of reports.
Use of Graphs in the Presentation of Statistics
Chart Showing Comparison of Sales
with Cost of Advertising
Long experience or special aptitude may qualify a man to grasp readily the full significance of statistical compilations in a variety of forms without the use of charts or graphs. The quicker and surer method, however, in driving home the essential points of statistics is their graphic presentation. For the majority of business men the graphic method will accomplish what statistical tabulation fails to do. While facts are of prime importance, their method of presentation affects their usefulness and is therefore of greater importance. The great mass of figures that accountants and efficiency men only too often present in incomparable form, sometimes far in excess of requirements, is best classified by means of charts.
Advantages of the Use of Graphs
Chart Showing Comparison of Sales
with Gross Profits
The arguments in favor of the use of charts are that the importance of written words or figures is apt to be judged from the amount of space used, or the time spent in writing or compiling them; whereas the graphic method shows the vital facts in a way which compels attention. The statistics are easily compared and when figures are visualized in graphic form relations are seen at once. One week is readily compared with another, one year with the previous year, one man’s performance with another’s, and so on.
Graphic methods are not only in many cases better but also cheaper. This is especially true if a number of copies have to be made. It requires more work to copy a mass of figures than to draw a few lines or figures by means of blue-print tracings. If many copies are needed, the photographic method of reproduction may be used. Then again, in statistical tabulations it is necessary to rearrange the figures in various orders so as to make different tabulations comparable.