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Management reporting where every measure in the board pack has 1 owner.
We build the board pack on the consolidated data model, so each figure traces to the ledger it came from. The price is fixed after we have read your definitions.
Management reporting is the monthly pack a group's board and executive read, cut by product, customer and region rather than by statutory line. Constancia, an EPM consultancy, builds that pack for multi-entity groups whose 2 versions of gross margin have to agree before a board date.
- Reads
- Every measure in the current pack, the definition each report uses and the workbook it is built in.
- Produces
- 1 definition, 1 owner and 1 source for each measure, written down and built into the model.
- Then
- The pack is rebuilt on the consolidation at a fixed price, set after the survey.
A management reporting build covers 6 objects, and the measure list comes first.
Awaiting image
- 01
The measure list
Every measure the board reads gets 1 written definition, and 2 reports that use the same word stop meaning 2 things.
- 02
The owner
A named person outside the reporting team stands behind each definition when a divisional director challenges it.
- 03
The source
Each figure loads from the consolidation rather than from a copy of it, so the pack and the statutory accounts agree.
- 04
The pack build
The pack builds itself from the model on a calendar, with the commentary drafted beside the figures it describes.
- 05
The drill to source
A reader clicks any figure in the pack and reaches the entity, the account and the journal that produced it.
- 06
The variance view
Actuals sit beside budget, forecast and prior year on the same entities and accounts, and the comparison needs no mapping.
2 reports disagree when the same word carries 2 definitions and neither has an owner.
Where your group runs 8 entities on 3 ERPs, the board pack probably began as 1 analyst's workbook pulling a trial balance from each ledger. The workbook now runs to 14 tabs, 3 of them named final, and the analyst who built it has moved to a divisional role.
Gross margin in the workbook excludes freight and the divisional report includes it, so the 2 figures differ every month. Constancia's consultants have completed 58 implementations over 35 years, and each management reporting survey starts with the pack the board reads today.
We read every measure in the current pack, list the definitions behind each and name the person who decides between them. The pack is then rebuilt on the consolidated model, and each figure in it carries the owner's name in the definition list.
We rebuild a board pack where 4 things describe the group that reads it.
- 01
2 reports that disagree
The divisional pack and the group pack show 2 gross margins, and each has a defensible definition.
- 02
A pack built in a workbook
1 analyst assembles the board pack from ledger exports, and the pack waits for that analyst.
- 03
A board date in the diary
A new CFO's first board meeting, an investor update or an audit committee is already scheduled.
- 04
A consolidation to build on
The group closes in OneStream (EPM software) or another consolidation, or has agreed to buy one.
A group that consolidates on the same platform builds the pack in OneStream (EPM software). A team whose consolidation is settled elsewhere builds it in Abacum (FP&A software).
A board pack behaves 3 ways depending on where its definitions live.
The middle column is the common case after a platform goes live: the software works, and the definitions inside it have no names against them.
| A spreadsheet | A platform nobody owns | A platform with named owners | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The measure definitions | Each tab defines gross margin its own way, and the definitions live in formulas nobody has read since the tab was built. | The platform holds 1 definition, and the divisional teams keep their own in workbooks beside it. | 1 definition per measure, with the owner's name against it, and the divisional report reads the same one. |
| The pack build | An analyst refreshes 14 tabs by hand over 3 days and pastes the results into slides. | The pack refreshes itself, and nobody can say who approved the version the board received. | The pack refreshes on a calendar, and a named controller signs the version that goes out. |
| The drill to source | A figure traces to a paste, and the paste traces to an export somebody ran last month. | A figure drills to a loaded balance, and the mapping behind the load changed without a record. | A figure drills to the entity, the account and the journal, and the mapping carries a change log. |
| The commentary | The commentary is retyped each month over last month's version and drifts from the figures. | The commentary is drafted beside the figures, and 2 people edit it in 2 places. | The commentary is drafted against the figures in the model and edited once, by the person who owns the measure. |
The pack, the narrative report and the statutory accounts read the same consolidated figures.
Narrative reporting
The annual report's text bound to the figures the pack shows the board.
Read about narrative reportingStatutory reporting
The accounts and the notes tied out to the consolidation the pack reads.
Read about statutory reportingOneStream
The EPM software a group uses when the pack and the close share 1 model.
Read about OneStream
Buyers of management reporting tools ask 3 questions before they shortlist.
What are examples of management reports?
The monthly board pack, the divisional profit and loss, the cash forecast, the headcount report and the pipeline review are the 5 most groups produce. Each one is cut by product, customer, region and cost centre rather than by statutory line.
What are some common reporting tools?
Excel remains the most common, and most groups also run a business intelligence tool such as Power BI or Tableau over their ledgers. An EPM platform such as OneStream (EPM software) or FP&A software such as Abacum sits underneath those and holds the consolidated figures the reports read.
What are the top 5 reporting tools?
Published lists change every year and usually rank business intelligence tools by their charts. A group choosing one gets further by asking whether the tool reads consolidated figures with 1 definition per measure or a spreadsheet export of them.
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