Management reporting — a monthly pack you can act on

On this page

1. What belongs in the pack
2. Why the date matters more than the detail
3. What it changes for the reader
4. How this is delivered
5. Other fractional cfo or controller work
6. Common questions about management reporting

What belongs in the pack

The contents change by industry, but the spine is the same.

• Profit and loss against budget and against last year. A number on its own means nothing; a number against what you expected is information.
• Balance sheet with the working-capital lines highlighted. Receivables, payables, inventory and work in progress are where cash hides.
• Cash position and a forward view. What is in the bank, and what it does over the next thirteen weeks.
• Receivable and payable ageing. Not a list — the concentration. One customer at ninety days matters more than twenty at forty.
• The three or four operating measures that drive the business. Gross margin by job, revenue per employee, utilization, average ticket, whatever it actually is for you.
• A short written commentary. Two or three paragraphs saying what moved and why, written by the person who closed the month.

What does not belong in it is everything else. A pack that runs to forty pages is a pack nobody reads, and the discipline of keeping it short is most of the value.

What it changes for the reader

For an owner. Decisions stop being made on the bank balance. A tight month becomes visible in advance rather than on the day payroll clears. For a lender. Covenant reporting stops being a scramble. A lender who receives a consistent monthly pack asks fewer questions and treats the business as better run, which is not nothing when a renewal comes up. For a board or an investor. The conversation moves from “are these numbers right” to “what are we going to do”, which is the only reason to hold the meeting. For your year-end accountant. A file that has been closed monthly costs less to work with, and the adjusting entries stop being surprises.