TemplateMonthly CFO report outline: 11 sections
The structure of a monthly CFO pack that a business owner can read in ten minutes. This is the outline CFOPartner's report follows, with a cover and a contents page.
| # | Section | What it shows | The owner's question |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Summary | The month in a few lines: sales, profit, cash and the points that need the owner's attention. | How did we do? |
| 2 | Top issues and decisions | The few things the owner must decide or act on this month. | What do I need to do? |
| 3 | Books health review | Whether the books were ready: checklist confirmations and readiness flags (suspense, negative cash, party balances, stock, depreciation). | Can I trust these numbers? |
| 4 | Profit and loss | The month and year to date against last month and last year, with margins. | Are we making money? |
| 5 | Budget against actual | Each line against budget, with the reasons your team tagged for large differences. | Are we on plan? |
| 6 | Cash flow and forecast | Where cash came from and went, and a 3-month forecast that flags any month going negative. | Will we run short? |
| 7 | Working capital | Debtor, creditor and stock days; top overdue customers and supplier dues when the outstanding list is uploaded. | Where is our money stuck? |
| 8 | Finance health score and key ratios | Profit, growth, cash, collections and liquidity, 2 points each, out of 10, with the ratios behind each. | Is the business getting healthier? |
| 9 | Red flags and action tracker | Flags raised by the rules, and last month's actions with owner, date and status. | What is slipping? |
| 10 | Statutory filings | GST, TDS and PF / ESI returns due in the month with the date each was filed, as entered by your team. A status, not a compliance check. | Is anything overdue? |
| 11 | Coming month: due dates and tax updates | Due dates and relevant updates for next month. | What is coming up? |
Good practice
- Lead with decisions, not tablesThe owner reads page one. Put the three things to act on there.
- Say whether the books were readyA report on unreconciled books should say so.
- Every action has an owner and a dateAnd it shows up again next month until it is closed.
- Partner approves before it is sentKeep the approval with a date on the file.
- Send it on the same day every monthReliability is what clients renew for.
Run this every month without the spreadsheetsCFOPartner gives your team the books-close checklist, the monthly CFO pack in your firm's name and partner approval in one place. Start free with 2 clients for 60 days.
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