Management accounts

A monthly pack your board can actually make decisions from

Management accounts fail in two ways: they arrive too late to influence anything, or they arrive on time and nobody trusts the figures. Both are fixable, and both are usually caused by how the underlying system is set up rather than by the person producing the pack.

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Produced from the ledger, not a workbook
Delivered to a fixed monthly date
Every figure ties back to the trial balance

The situation

Why the pack does not get used

It arrives too late

Three weeks after month-end, by which point the decisions it was meant to inform have already been taken on instinct.

The figures get questioned

A director recognises a number as wrong, the meeting becomes about the numbers rather than the business, and the pack loses authority.

It does not tie back

The pack was assembled outside the system and cannot be reconciled to the trial balance without a day of work.

It is a data dump

Forty pages of tables with no commentary, so the reader has to find the story themselves and mostly does not.

The analysis is not there

The board wants performance by division, site or product group, and the chart of accounts cannot produce it.

One person makes it

The pack depends on a workbook that one person maintains, and it does not get produced when they are away.

How we do it

Produced from the ledger, to a date, with the reasons attached

A management pack has three jobs: be right, be on time, and explain what changed. Most packs manage one.

The pack is produced from your ERP ledger rather than assembled in a spreadsheet, and every figure ties back to the trial balance. That is what makes it defensible in the meeting: when a number is questioned, the answer is a drill-down rather than an investigation. Where the ledger cannot currently produce the analysis the board wants — by division, site, product group or project — we will say so and set out what would need to change, because that is a structural problem no amount of report writing fixes.

Delivery is to an agreed date each month, and we hold to it. That means the reconciliations behind it are designed to be repeatable rather than heroic: control accounts, stock to ledger, bank and intercompany all evidenced as part of the cycle rather than chased at the end of it.

And the pack comes with commentary. Not a description of the numbers, which the reader can see, but what changed against last month and budget, why, and what is worth attention. That is the part that turns reporting into something a board uses rather than files.

What the pack always includes

A fixed delivery date each month
Every figure tied back to the trial balance
Commentary on movements, not a restatement
Reconciliations evidenced as part of the cycle

What is in it

What the monthly pack covers

Profit and loss

Month and year to date against comparatives and budget, analysed by the dimensions your board actually manages the business by.

Balance sheet

With supporting schedules for the balances that matter — debtors, creditors, stock, accruals and prepayments.

Margin analysis

Gross margin by product group, customer or channel, with the definitions agreed once and applied consistently.

Working capital

Aged debt and creditors, stock position and cash, with the movements that explain them.

Commentary

A short written explanation of what moved and why, and what is worth the board’s attention this month.

A fixed timetable

An agreed working day each month, with the reconciliation and review steps scheduled to make that date achievable.

How it works

The monthly cycle

Agree the pack

What the board needs to see, at what level of analysis, and by which working day. Defined once, at the start.

Pack contents agreed
Definitions written down
Delivery date fixed

Check the structure

Whether the ledger can produce that analysis. If it cannot, we say so and set out what would need to change before promising it.

Chart of accounts review
Dimension availability
Honest gap statement

Close and reconcile

The month closed with control accounts, stock, bank and intercompany reconciled and evidenced as part of the cycle.

Control accounts
Stock to ledger
Evidence retained

Produce and review

The pack generated from the system, reviewed against the prior month and budget, and the movements investigated before you see them.

Generated from ledger
Variance investigated
Internal review

Deliver and discuss

Delivered on the agreed date with written commentary, and a call to walk through it if that is useful.

On the agreed date
Written commentary
Discussion if wanted

What changes

What a pack people trust is worth

Decisions made on figures, not instinct

Reporting that arrives while it can still influence what happens next.

Meetings about the business

When the numbers tie back and hold up, the discussion stops being about whether they are right.

Analysis the board asked for

Performance by the dimensions you actually manage by, produced from the ledger rather than estimated.

A repeatable close

Reconciliations built into the cycle, so the timetable holds even in a difficult month.

Less key-person risk

The pack produced from documented reports rather than one person’s workbook.

How it works

The arrangement

Timetable

An agreed working day each month. We would rather commit to a realistic date and hold it than promise working day three and miss it.

Prerequisite

A ledger that is current and reconciled. Where it is not, we deal with that first — either as a backlog exercise or by taking on the bookkeeping.

Structural work

If the chart of accounts cannot produce the analysis you want, that is quoted separately as a change. We will not promise analysis the ledger cannot support.

Pricing

A monthly fee based on the pack contents, the number of entities and transaction volume, agreed in advance.

Boundary

Management reporting. Statutory accounts, audit and tax advice remain with your accountant.

Fit

Whether this suits you

A good fit if

Your pack arrives too late to influence decisions
The figures get questioned in the meeting
The board wants analysis your current reporting cannot produce
The pack depends on one person and one workbook
You are reporting to a board, investor or lender to a deadline

Probably not us if

You need statutory accounts or an audit
You want a pack produced without the ledger being reconciled first

Common questions

Questions we are asked before a project starts

How quickly after month-end can we have the pack?

It depends on how current and reconciled the ledger is, and on how much of the close is still manual. Rather than quote a working day before seeing your close, we agree a date we can actually hold and then work on shortening it by removing manual steps. A date that is met every month is worth more than an ambitious one that slips.

Can you report by division, site or product group?

If the ledger captures it, yes. If it does not, we will tell you that before agreeing to produce it, and set out what would need to change — usually cost centres, distribution rules or an additional dimension on transactions. Promising analysis the system cannot support is how packs end up being assembled in spreadsheets again.

Do you need to do our bookkeeping as well?

No, but the pack is only as good as the ledger behind it. If your own team keeps the ledger current and reconciled, we can produce reporting on top of it. Where the ledger is behind, we will either clear that first or suggest taking on the processing, because reporting from an unreconciled ledger is not worth having.

Will the numbers agree with our year-end accounts?

The pack ties back to the trial balance every month, which is what makes year-end straightforward. Your statutory accountant may make adjustments at year-end — that is normal and expected — and because the monthly position is reconciled, those adjustments are visible and explainable rather than a surprise.

Send us last month’s pack.

Show us what your board currently receives and when. We will tell you what could come straight out of the system, what would need to change structurally, and what date we think is realistic.