The Reporting Trap
Agencies produce reports because they believe more information leads to better decisions. The opposite is true. Too many reports create noise, dilute attention, and bury the insights that matter.
In my 29 years of finance leadership across 56 entities, I have seen agencies produce 15-page monthly reports that nobody reads and dashboards with 40 KPIs that track nothing actionable.
The 7 Reports That Matter
1. Profit & Loss vs Budget (by client and service line). Not just the agency P&L. Client-level P&L. Service-line P&L. This tells you where profit is generated and where it is destroyed.
2. Cash Flow Forecast (rolling 13 weeks). Updated weekly. Shows exactly when cash will be tight. This is the single most important report for any agency CEO.
3. Debtor Days Report (by client). Which clients are paying late? By how much? What is the trend?
4. WIP and Unbilled Report. What work has been delivered but not invoiced? WIP above 20 days is a billing problem.
5. Utilisation Report (by team and individual). Billable hours as a percentage of available hours. Target: 75% for delivery teams.
6. Client Concentration Report. What percentage of revenue comes from the top 3 clients? If any single client exceeds 25%, you have a dependency risk.
7. Headcount and Cost Per Head. Total people cost as a percentage of revenue. Revenue per employee. Trend over 6 months.
The Bottom Line
Reporting should take less than 4 hours per month to produce and less than 60 minutes to review. If it takes longer, you are reporting on the wrong things.
*Satyabrata Das provides CFO intelligence with commercial edge to agencies and consultancies. Book a free discovery call →*