WikiCFO defines a flash report as “a periodic snapshot of key financial and operational data.” It’s another name for a financial dashboard.  As a Contract CFO I teach my clients that  a flash report measuring the right metrics is essential to a successful business.

How to Create a Flash Report

Often business owners and CEOs agonize over what to include in the flash report.  It’s quite simple…the answers to the questions you ask over and over.  Those answers  are what determines what the correct key metrics are for you.

All flash reports should update you on:

• Liquidity:
  • How much cash you have on hand.
  • What you owe to vendors.
• Productiviy:
  • How many widgets your plant has produced.
  • How many hours your employees have worked that are billable.
• Profitability:
  • Which products are selling and the gross profit they earn.
  • Which employees are working efficiently (i.e. are they doing the work within budget hours or less) and at what billable rate.

All business owners have certain financial or operating data that is meaningful to them and them alone.  It’s fine to include these metrics.  Just make sure the overall flash report is useful to many.

Purpose & Frequency of Reviewing Flash Reports

Flash reports are the early warning indicators of a business.  They tell you what’s working, what’s going better than expected and what you need to look at pronto!  To be meaningful it is necessary to review several weeks in a row and look for developing trends.

It’s just as important to understand why operating performance is better than expected as to understand why it’s worse than expected.  You can’t repeat the positive if you don’t understand why it happened.

While I recommend weekly flash reports, if certain metrics are only meaningful monthly then make the report for the last week of the month an expanded version.

All the CEOs I have supported gave me the information I needed to assemble the appropriate flash report within a week of our working together.  Is your accounting staff listening to your questions?