Board Reporting Package: 5 Things to Settle First

Board Reporting Package: 5 Things to Settle First

A board reporting package is the set of financial pages a company sends to its board, investors or lender on a regular schedule. It fails in a predictable way. The first one is built in a hurry, the numbers arrive the night before the meeting, and no one agrees afterward on what a number meant.

The five items below are decisions to make before the first package goes out. They are a checklist, not a ranking.

System Six, a Seattle bookkeeping and fractional CFO firm, is the one firm written up here. System Six is a vetted Sam's List member and a paying member of our featured program; payment does not buy the language we use or its reviews. The full method is in how we picked this firm at the end.

1. Decide Who Reads the Board Reporting Package and What It Must Decide

Start with the reader. A board member who wants to approve a hire needs different pages from a lender who is watching a covenant. If you write for everyone, you write for no one.

For each page, write one sentence: this page helps the board decide X. If you cannot finish the sentence, the page probably belongs in an appendix or does not belong at all.

Ask the board what it wants to see before you build anything. Ask what it has felt it was missing in the past, and what it has ignored.

The limitation: boards change, and members want different things. Revisit the list after the first two meetings instead of treating it as settled.

2. Agree on One Definition for Each Metric

A number without a definition starts arguments. Revenue can mean billed, collected or recognized. Margin can include or exclude certain payroll. A customer can be active in different ways depending on who counts.

For monthly financial reporting, write the definition next to each metric on a single page and keep it unchanged from month to month. If a definition has to change, mark the change and show the old and new figure side by side for one period.

Choose few metrics. A package with six numbers that everyone trusts beats one with sixty that no one reads.

The limitation: a clear definition does not make a metric a good one. A well-defined number can still point the board in the wrong direction, so ask whether each one connects to a decision.

3. Fix the Close Calendar So the Board Reporting Package Arrives on Time

A package built from unfinished books is a draft. The fix is a calendar: books closed by a set business day, the package drafted by the next, reviewed by the owner, then sent a set number of days before the meeting.

Write down the dates and who owns each step. Ask what happens when a bank feed is late or an invoice is missing, and who has authority to say a number is final enough to send.

This is why a board reporting package depends on the close more than on the template. A better format cannot fix numbers that arrive late.

The limitation: a faster close can mean more estimates. Mark any figure that is estimated, and say when it will be replaced with an actual.

4. Put Cash Runway Reporting Before Profit

Profit tells a board how the business did. Cash tells it how long the business can keep doing it. For a small company, the second often matters more.

Cash runway reporting answers a simple question: at the current rate, how many months of cash are left? Show the starting balance, what came in, what went out and what is committed in the next few months, such as payroll, taxes and debt payments. Put it near the front of the board reporting package, not at the back.

Include a plain forecast with the assumptions written under it. A forecast without assumptions is a guess that looks like a fact.

The limitation: a forecast is only as good as its assumptions. Say what would change the picture, such as a late customer payment, and do not present a single number as certain.

5. Plan for a Wrong First Draft and Set the Fractional CFO Reporting Cadence

The first board reporting package will have errors, questions and pages no one reads. Plan for it. Send a draft to one trusted board member or advisor before the meeting, and ask what is unclear.

Decide how corrections will be handled. A short note listing what changed and why, sent promptly, builds more trust than a quiet fix. Settle the fractional CFO reporting cadence too: who prepares, who reviews and how often the package changes shape.

After three meetings, cut the pages the board did not use. A package should get shorter as it gets better.

The limitation: a reporting cadence has a cost in time. A monthly package for a small business takes real hours, so confirm the cadence is worth what it takes.

Where System Six Fits

System Six is a bookkeeping and fractional CFO firm based in Seattle. It was founded in 2009, has about 41 employees and serves clients nationwide. Its live profile lists Non-Profit Organizations, Professional Service Firms and Real Estate Investors as specialties, and says it serves small businesses generating between $1 million and $10 million of revenue. It also says the firm helps organizations modernizing a finance function after an acquisition.

System Six is early in building a review history on Sam's List, so we do not cite a review count and describe the firm by what its profile says instead.

The limitation, plainly: the profile lists a $1 million revenue minimum, so a smaller company may fall outside what the firm takes on. It does not describe board reporting by name, so ask what a typical package contains, how often it is delivered and who presents it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What goes in a board reporting package?

Usually a short summary, the income statement and balance sheet, a cash and runway view, a handful of defined metrics and notes on anything unusual. The right content depends on what your board needs to decide, so ask them before you build it.

How often should a board reporting package go out?

Many small companies send one monthly or quarterly. Pick the schedule your board and your close can support. A late monthly package is usually worse than an on-time quarterly one.

What is cash runway reporting?

It shows how many months of cash a company has at its current rate of spending. It starts from the cash balance, adds expected receipts and subtracts committed payments, with assumptions written down. Assumptions can change, so treat it as an estimate.

Who should prepare a board reporting package?

Someone who can see the books and understands the business, such as a controller, a bookkeeper working with the owner or a fractional CFO. Whoever prepares it should not be the only person who reviews it.

Before the next meeting, write down the three decisions you most want your board to make and check that your package supports each one. You can browse fractional CFOs on Sam's List, including System Six, and ask each one what a first package looks like.

How We Picked This Firm

You should be able to check our work, so here is how this post was built.

The pool. The pool is the vetted Sam's List members in our featured program with live public profiles that describe fractional CFO services. This is not a survey of every firm that prepares board reporting, and many Sam's List members and other firms not written up here could fit.

How it is organized. The five items are decisions to work through in order, not a ranking. System Six is the only firm written up, so there is no order of firms.

What review counts mean here. System Six has too few reviews on Sam's List for a count to mean much, so we do not cite one. A count shows how many clients wrote something down, not technical quality.

What payment does and does not buy. Listing on Sam's List is free, and so is being named in this article. The firm written up here is a paying member of our featured program, which is why it gets a write-up. What payment does not buy is the language we use about a firm, its review count, or a promise that it fits you.

---

About the author: Kimberly Green is the cofounder of Sam's List, where business owners and high earners find vetted CPAs, financial advisors, and fractional CFOs. She's met one-on-one with 400+ financial professionals and writes from the real data behind thousands of client-advisor matches. Ask her anything about finding an accountant - she's heard it all, including the questions people are afraid to ask.