The 4-page monthly pack
Page 1 — Executive summary
- Three bullet points: what went well, what didn't, what we're doing about it
- Key numbers vs budget and prior year
- Cash position and runway
Page 2 — P&L
- Month and YTD vs budget and prior year
- Gross margin highlighted
- Variance commentary on lines over ±10% movement
Page 3 — Balance sheet & cash
- Top of the BS only (cash, debtors, creditors, stock, net assets)
- 13-week cash forecast chart
- DSO / DPO trends
Page 4 — KPIs and outlook
- Operational KPIs (see KPI reporting)
- Pipeline / sales trends
- Key risks and decisions needed
What to leave out
- Page after page of nominal-ledger detail
- Anything that hasn't changed since last month
- Charts without commentary
Cadence
- Monthly pack: by working day 10 of the next month
- Live review: 30 minutes, structured agenda, decisions logged
- Quarterly deep-dive: variances vs budget, re-forecast for the rest of the year
Tooling
- Fathom — clean templates, easy chart customisation
- Spotlight Reporting — strong scenario modelling
- Syft — visual dashboards
- Float — best-in-class for cash forecasts that integrate with Xero/QuickBooks
Ernest & Co Premium clients get a tailored monthly pack as part of their service.