Operations - Do you conduct effective monthly financial meetings?

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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.

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

• Fix any data discrepancies between systems
• Review of invoicing

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.

::: grebox

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.

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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.