Work Out What Your Monthly Report Should Actually Contain

Turn a bloated monthly reporting pack into a written specification: what each recipient decides, the smallest set of numbers that supports it, and a plain definition of what every figure means.

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SITUATION: I run or manage a [DESCRIBE THE BUSINESS, e.g. twelve-person engineering firm, accountancy practice, care provider] and we produce a management report every month.

Here is what happens now:

- What the report is called and roughly how long it is: [E.G. MONTHLY BOARD PACK, ABOUT SIX PAGES]
- Who builds it: [JOB TITLE]
- Roughly how long it takes them, start to finish: [E.G. THREE DAYS SPREAD OVER A WEEK]
- Who reviews it before it goes out: [JOB TITLES, OR WRITE NOBODY]
- Who receives it: [LIST THE JOB TITLES]
- The main things it contains: [LIST THE SECTIONS OR TABLES, e.g. sales against target, cash position, open projects, staff hours, margin by job]
- Where the numbers come from: [LIST THE SYSTEMS, e.g. accounting system, project management system, two spreadsheets, the quoting tool]
- Anything in it I already suspect nobody reads: [DESCRIBE IT, OR WRITE NOT SURE]
- Anything anyone has ever disagreed about: [E.G. WHAT COUNTS AS A LIVE PROJECT, OR WRITE NOTHING]

CHALLENGE: I want to end up with a written specification for this report that I could hand to somebody else. I do not want a template full of best practice I will never use. I want to know what to cut, what every number in it is actually defined to mean, and which parts of the work a system could take off us.

EVALUATE: Work through this in order.

1. QUESTIONS TO ASK EACH RECIPIENT. Before anything else, give me a short set of questions to put to each person who receives this report, aimed at finding out what decision they actually make with it. No more than six questions, written so I could ask them out loud in a ten-minute conversation rather than send them as a form. Include at least one question designed to surface whether they have quietly started getting the same information somewhere else.

2. WHAT LOOKS LIKE PADDING. Based on what I have described, tell me which parts of the pack are most likely to be there through habit rather than need, and say why you think so in one line each. Be direct. If something looks like it grew because somebody asked for it once and nobody ever removed it, say that. Mark anything you are guessing about as a guess.

3. DEFINITIONS. For each number or section I listed, write the plain-sentence definition it needs: what it counts, what it deliberately excludes, which system it comes from, and who should own keeping it current. Where a figure could reasonably be counted in more than one way, show me both readings and say which one you would use and why. Flag any definition that two departments in a business like mine would be likely to argue about.

4. WHERE THE TIME GOES. Using the systems I named, work out which parts of building this report are finding data, which are checking data is up to date, which are formatting, and which are genuine thinking. Give me a rough split as a percentage and say plainly which assumptions that split rests on.

5. WHAT A SYSTEM COULD TAKE. List the parts of the process that could be handed to an automated system, and separately the parts that must stay with a person. For each item in the first list, say what would have to be true before it could be automated safely, for example a figure having a single agreed source. Include the check for whether each source system has been updated since the last run, and say how a person would be told when one has not.

6. THE ONE-PAGE SPECIFICATION. Finally, write the specification itself, as something I could put in front of the person who builds the report: who it is for, what decisions it supports, what it contains, what every number means, where each comes from, when it is produced, and who signs it off. Keep it to one page.

Write it in plain English for somebody who runs a business and does not work in technology. Use pounds for any money. Where you are inferring something rather than working from what I told you, say so in the same sentence. If the honest answer is that the report is roughly the right shape already and the problem is only how long it takes to build, tell me that first and keep the rest short.