Management packs, board reporting, dashboards, and the analysis behind them, refreshed from the same numbers as everything else. Reporting is the start, not the job.
The pack takes most of a week, and most of that week goes on copying numbers rather than looking at them.
A number gets questioned in the meeting, and someone goes off to rebuild the report.
Reports go out every month, and nobody’s quite sure who reads them.
What we do
The monthly pack, and everything that hangs off the same numbers.
Management packs
Refreshed from the system, with the same layout, the same definitions and the same colours for actual and budget every month. Finance’s time goes on the commentary, not the copying.
Board reporting
A shorter set of pages for the board, from the same numbers as the management pack, so the two can’t disagree – in the format the board wants.
Dashboards people actually use
The breakdowns people obviously need – by product, location, segment – on the page from the start, rather than behind a drill-down that only a few people will ever click.
Budgetholder reporting
Budgetholders see their own actuals against budget whenever they like, without asking finance for a spreadsheet.
Commentary
Written alongside the numbers as they come in, in the same place, so the explanation doesn’t get squeezed into the last afternoon before the pack goes out.
Visibility on what gets read
Every report weighed up: who reads it, what it’s for, and whether anyone would miss it. Reports tend to collect additions from people who’ve since moved on.
How it goes
Fixed fee. Agreed before anything starts, including rebuilding the reports you already rely on, so nothing you use today goes missing.
Weeks rather than quarters. Something live and usable quickly, then built on.
Reporting first. It’s usually the quickest win on a project – a timesink before, a few clicks after – so it’s often the first thing to go live.
Written down and handed over. Every report’s sources and definitions are written down, so none of it depends on one person remembering.
Out in the open. Everything runs through our project platform that you have access to, and calls are recorded and transcribed.
The Finance Check: Reporting is a few minutes of multiple choice questions about the monthly pack and the reports around it. You get a score, where the time is going, and three things to do without us.
At the end, if you’re based in the UK or Ireland, you can pick one area for a free hour of consulting time, such as a review of a report that’s giving you trouble. If you’re a charity, it’s two hours.
No call required. Nobody rings you afterwards unless you ask them to.
Yes, as a starting point. We rebuild the ones you rely on so they refresh by themselves, and it’s a good moment to ask which of the others anyone still reads.
What about self-service?
It’s useful, but only a small share of people ever run their own queries. You’ll usually get more from putting the obvious breakdowns on the page to start with – and when someone does drill down, asking what they were looking for.
Will the new reports match the old ones?
Where the old ones were right, yes. Where they weren’t, you’ll find out why, because every number can be traced back to the transactions behind it.
Who looks after the reports afterwards?
You, if you want to – every report’s sources and definitions are written down and handed over. If you’d rather not own the admin, we can keep it ticking over instead.
We can work with whatever tooling you use today. When a new platform is the right answer, we implement Vena – it lets you keep Excel, but lose the headaches. Why we chose Vena
No obligation, and no follow-up unless you want one
Start with a conversation that has a scope.
Thirty minutes, free, and you’ll know by the end whether there’s anything here for
you. Most of the organisations we speak with aren’t looking to buy anything right
now – we’re happy to educate and inform, for when the time is right.
