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February 28, 2006
Long, boring, unread financial reports
As a manager, you're faced with providing a financial report to the baod each and every month. And every month your copier goes into ovetime, blows through a toner cartridge and maxes out your postage (or filling up e-mail boxes) to provide a report that probably only one person seriously looks at, and some of the others don't even understand. Why do you continue to do that?
The Treasurer needs, and should have a complete financial report. But the rest would probably prefer an executive summary giving them the cash situation, a balance sheet, an exception report, maybe a bank reconciliation and a delinquency update. The Treasurer is supposed to fill them in on anything else during his or her report, so why waste a few trees every year for something that is going to filed, either in a cabinet or the circular one?
Have you ever considered asking your boards just what financial information they really want? Or need? Some management firms are cranking out 30 page encyclopedia's that the average board member doesn't have the time or ability to read. So why are you giving them something they won't use?
Just ask your boards what financial information would be both useful and more likely to be read before the board meeting. And change your contracts to offer both an executive summary for board members and a full report for the Treasurer. Let them know what that full report costs them in copy charges and they might actually opt to make your job a little easier.
Posted by joewest at February 28, 2006 12:03 AM