Monthly board financial pack
What this is: A decision-support pack rather than an accounting printout, with every variance, total and ratio computed — and a count of variances beyond your threshold that carry no explanation.
It assumes: A bookkeeper or accountant who can produce the underlying statements.
Change before use: Your chart of accounts mapping and the indicators your board actually uses.
This document describes what each page is for. The pack is the accompanying spreadsheet — the summary page, budget against actual with a required explanation column, the statement of position with receivables aged, cash and runway, and award status. Every variance, total, and ratio is a formula.
The count of variances beyond your threshold with no explanation is computed. A variance without an explanation is a question the board will ask.
The test of a board pack
A director with twenty minutes should be able to answer, from the pack alone: are we within budget and if not why; can we make payroll for the next ninety days; is any funding source at risk; and is anything moving that the board should act on. A general-ledger printout answers none of these. The pack below answers them in six pages.
Page by page
Page 1 — The summary
- Five to seven lines, plain sentences: the month’s result, year-to-date against budget, cash on hand in months of average expense, anything unusual and its one-line explanation, and any decision the board is being asked to make.
- This page is written by the finance lead, not generated. If nothing needs saying, it says so.
Page 2 — Statement of activities, budget vs. actual
- Rows grouped as the board thinks — by program and by major revenue source — not the raw chart of accounts.
- Columns: month actual, month budget, YTD actual, YTD budget, YTD variance ($ and %), full-year budget, full-year forecast.
- Every variance beyond [10% / $X] carries a one-line explanation on the page. A variance without an explanation is a question the meeting will spend ten minutes on.
Page 3 — Statement of financial position
- Comparative to prior year-end. Receivables aged in three buckets, with anything over 90 days named.
- Board-designated and donor-restricted funds shown separately from unrestricted — the unrestricted line is the one that pays payroll.
Page 4 — Cash
- Thirteen-week cash view: opening cash, expected receipts by source and week (contract reimbursements at their actual historical lag, not their invoice date), payroll and fixed obligations, closing position.
- Months of operating reserve against the board’s reserve policy target.
Page 5 — Awards and contracts
- One row per award: funder, period, total, spent to date, % of budget vs. % of period elapsed, next report due, and a status word — on track / underspent / overspent / at risk — with a one-liner for anything not on track.
Page 6 — Indicators
- The few numbers the board has chosen to watch — typically: months of unrestricted reserve, receivables over 90 days, payroll as % of revenue, single-payer concentration, and one or two program volume indicators.
- Each shown against the same month last year and against any board-set target, with tabular figures, no gauges.
Operating rules
- Same structure every month. A board learns a stable pack; a changing one is re-learned monthly.
- The pack goes out with the board packet — at least [five] days before the meeting — and the meeting discusses it rather than receives it.
- The finance committee sees it first and marks what the board should spend time on.
- Once a quarter, the pack includes the allocation worksheet summary and the obligations calendar extract, so the board sees the machinery working, not just the outputs.
Free to adapt and use. No registration, no fee, no attribution required. This is a working template, not legal, tax, or accounting advice — the requirements that apply to your organization are confirmed by your own counsel, auditor, and licensing authority.