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CMA Intermediate · Financial Management and Business Data Analytics · Data Presentation: Visualisation and Graphical Presentation

A finance team wants to show a reader the exact quarterly revenue of five Indian subsidiaries for four quarters so that precise values can be looked up and compared. Which form of presentation is best suited?

A table with subsidiaries in rows and quarters in columns is best. Tabular presentation displays exact values systematically across two dimensions, letting readers look up and compare figures easily, whereas charts or prose either approximate the numbers or make precise comparison difficult.

  1. AA table with subsidiaries in rows and quarters in columnsCorrect
  2. BA pie chart for each quarter
  3. CA paragraph of text describing the trend
  4. DA scatter plot of revenue against time

Explanation

Tabular presentation arranges data in rows and columns so exact figures can be read and compared across two dimensions. A pie chart shows only proportions for one period, text buries the numbers, and a scatter plot is meant for relationships between two numeric variables, not for look-up of exact values.

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