Companies often lose sight of their financial health due to disorganized processes or lack of regular oversight. This can lead to missed opportunities, unnecessary spending, or even financial instability.
Monthly financial meetings help mitigate these risks by providing clarity, accountability, and actionable insights into your business's performance.
In these meetings, key staff members should review the past month and look at forecasts for next month.
It is a good idea to split reporting responsibilities into two sections:
Sales Team - Responsible for preparing sales reports, utilization metrics, and billable leaderboards
Accounting Team - Responsible for generating financial reports, select KPIs, forecasting and trend analysis
Pre-meeting preparation steps
Proper preparation is crucial to avoid delays and ensure accurate data is available for discussion.
Note: SSW uses Fathom and Power BI to generate detailed financial and operational reports.
1. Reconciling
Reconcile transactions in the accounting systems
Balance Sheet reconciliation - emphasis on accruals, prepayments, loans
Allocation of costs to appropriate cost centers
2. Data validation
3. Generate reports
Executive page (summary KPIs)
Current cash position
Monthly Profit and Loss Report
Year-to-Date (YTD) Profit and Loss Report
Monthly Receipts Report
Sales and Invoicing Report
Utilization and Breakeven Analysis Report
Cash Flow Report
KPI selection
Expenses Breakdown and Revenue Breakdown by Office
Balance Sheet Summary Report
Meeting #1: Sales and operational performance (Sales Team)
This meeting focuses on operational and sales metrics to gauge the company's performance over the past month.
Agenda
Review sales reports - Identify trends and performance gaps
Analyze billable leaderboard - Highlight top-performing staff or projects
Discuss utilization rates - Evaluate efficiency and productivity metrics
Tip: Record a concise summary of Meeting #1 to share with participants in Meeting #2 for an executive overview.
Meeting #2: Financial review and strategic planning (Accounting Team)
This meeting focuses on financial health and longer-term trends. Use visuals like graphs to simplify complex data.
Agenda
Cash position - Review current and historical cash flow
Revenue by client - Identify high-performing and underperforming clients
Invoices and receipts - Assess monthly figures for accuracy
Profit and loss analysis
Monthly profit (with graph)
Monthly expenses
Year-on-year trends
Profit contribution % trends
Profit and Loss Return % trends
By adhering to this structure and leveraging the tips provided, your monthly financial meetings will deliver actionable insights and drive better decision-making for your company.