Board Reporting
In this guide you will learn what board reporting is, and how to put together a board report
What is Board Reporting?
Board reporting is the process of reporting company information to the Board of Directors
Why is Board Reporting So Important?
It is important because the Board of Directors can make the ultimate decisions on what happens in the company
This is not a group of people you want to be on their bad side!
They also often times hold very high positions in operating the company, and funding the company
What does a Board Meeting Typically Look Like?
It often times starts with the board receiving a slide deck or “pre read” before the meeting takes place
This way the board has enough time to review the details, and ask any follow up questions during the live meeting
The Board meeting will then start with a call to approve the minutes, and discuss the various sections of the business
This can be in as little as 30 minutes, or as long as a few hours
What Should You Include in a Board Report?
What you include in a board report is very dependent on answering the following question…
What Should You Include in a Board Report?
What is the purpose of this board meeting?
You Board meeting can be about ANYTHING
Most often it’s to check in on how things are going, and how they can provide help
It can also be about:
An upcoming fundraise
A quarterly review
Planning for next year
A strategic initiative
Although the reason can vary, most board meetings include the following:
Summarized Dashboard
Budget vs Actuals
Summarized Financials
Updates to the other areas of the business
We’ll go over an example at the end…but first, let’s discuss HOW to put together a board report
How do you put together a board report?
There are many ways you can put together a board report
The most common is to use a combination of a slide deck, and an excel file
Slide Decks
For Slide Decks…you have a few tools you can use:
Microsoft Powerpoint
Google slides
Notion
Google Docs
Microsoft Word
The data from your slide deck can come from many places.
The most common sources are:
Your Accounting Software
Your Financial Model
Your CRM
Your HR Platform
Your Payment Gateway
What Financial Slides do you include in a board report?
An example Board Report
Here we will share an example board report
Note that we will be covering only the financial section of a board report
A true board report can have much much more content included!
The Dashboard
I like to start with a dashboard, showcasing the 6-8 most important things that happened in this period
It’s also OK to compare this to another period!
Budget vs Actuals
Now we shift our attention to one of the most important reports, the Budget vs Actuals
This report tells you:
what you THOUGHT would happen
what ACTUALLY happened
WHY it happened
what’s the ACTION is needed (if any)?
Profit & Loss
Now we get to the 3 financial statements, starting with your Profit & Loss
It’s common to show this (as well as all 3 statements) on a SUMMARIZED basis
Balance Sheet
You may not think a Balance Sheet is important
But it IS!
And investors LOVE reviewing Balance Sheets (for good reason)
Cash Flows
Now we get to another important financial statement
Your Cash Flows
Don’t forget that CASH = KING
If you can show both the past & the present, even better!
Thank you for reading!
If you liked this, you may also like my course on CFO Dashboard and Reporting