For Boards & Chairs
An independent view, for the people accountable for the decision
Management reporting is built to run the organisation week to week. It is not always built to answer the strategic questions a board faces. We give directors an independent assessment of performance, emerging risks and major decisions, built from the same numbers, with no stake in the answer.
Questions a board might bring
Are we seeing the full picture, or the picture management is comfortable with?
Is any part of the organisation being carried by the rest?
Are risks building that our reports do not show yet?
Does this business case hold up if the assumptions are wrong?
Is the dividend, reserve or investment plan affordable on what we actually generate?
What the board receives
A clear assessment of where the organisation stands. The evidence behind every finding. Recommendations in order of priority, each with the cost of doing nothing. A presentation of findings to the board, with time for questions and challenge. Questions that need fresh analysis are answered in writing afterwards.
The report is written for directors. A director can read the first page alone and know the organisation’s condition and the decision in front of them.
Working with management, not around it
An independent review works best when management and staff are part of it. They hold the context the numbers cannot show, and we workshop the initial findings with them before anything is final. The analysis stays independent: the board commissions the work, and the findings rest on the evidence, read in the light of that context.
For not-for-profit boards
For not-for-profits, the diagnostic is framed around sustainability and service delivery rather than profit, and the findings are written in the language your board and funders use. A surplus is not the goal and a deficit is not always a problem. What matters is whether the organisation can keep delivering its purpose.
For a not-for-profit, we look at:
Whether the operating result is sustainable, and what is driving it.
How dependent the organisation is on particular funders or grants.
Whether reserves are enough to absorb a funding shock, and the options for setting a reserve level.
Whether cash generation supports the services the organisation has committed to.
How restricted funds and the funding model change the picture.