Blog · Board and management reporting
A template for a monthly sales report that a leadership team will actually read: a five-line summary, revenue against plan and the same month last year with the bridge between them, the existing customer base, new business and pipeline, the forecast with its track record, the named risks and opportunities, and the decisions requested. This page gives each section with the table that belongs in it, the reconciliation line that makes finance trust it, the common contents to leave out, and a copyable outline.
Most monthly sales reports are long, late and unread past page two. This template is short, ordered by what a leadership team needs to decide, and built so that finance will not dispute the numbers.
| Section | Answers | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Summary | What happened, and what do you need from us? | Five lines |
| 2. Revenue | How did we do against plan and last year, and why? | One page |
| 3. Customer base | Is the existing base healthy? | Half a page |
| 4. New business and pipeline | Is enough coming? | Half a page |
| 5. Forecast | Where will we land, and how good are our forecasts? | Half a page |
| 6. Risks and opportunities | Which named accounts matter this month? | Half a page |
| 7. Decisions requested | What needs deciding, by whom? | A few lines |
Five lines that can be read alone:
If a reader stops here, they should still know what matters.
| Month | vs plan | vs same month last year | Year to date | vs plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.20m | −6% | +3% | $31.8m | −2% |
| Gross margin | $1.05m | −8% | +1% | $8.1m | −3% |
Then the bridge from plan, or last year, to actual:
| Bridge item | Effect |
|---|---|
| Plan | $4.47m |
| Existing customers: volume | −$0.22m |
| Existing customers: price | −$0.13m |
| Customers lost or dormant | −$0.06m |
| New customers | +$0.14m |
| Actual | $4.20m |
And the reconciliation line: sales report revenue $4.20m; finance ledger $4.23m; difference $0.03m, being intercompany sales excluded here. One line, every month. It is what stops the meeting being about whose number is right; see why territory totals do not match finance.
Compare with the same month last year, not with last month, unless figures are seasonally adjusted; see seasonality in sales measures.
Four measures, each with last month and the same month last year:
| Measure | Now | Last month | Last year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value coverage at cadence | 79% | 84% | 81% |
| Dormant accounts, by prior-year value | 4.8% | 4.5% | 3.9% |
| Net revenue retention, trailing 12 months | 97% | 98% | 101% |
| Top-ten share; largest customer | 38%; 11% | 38%; 11% | 35%; 9% |
This section is missing from most sales reports, which cover new business at length and the existing base, where most of the revenue is, not at all.
| Measure | Now | Required or prior |
|---|---|---|
| New customers won, count and first-year value | 9; $0.61m | Plan: 12; $0.80m |
| Win rate from qualified, by value, trailing 4 quarters | 24% | Last year: 27% |
| In-period pipeline coverage, aged deals removed | 3.6x | Required at 24%: 4.2x |
| Pipeline created this month | $2.1m | Needed per month: $2.6m |
Not a list of deals. The pipeline coverage benchmark explains the required figure.
| This forecast | Last month's | Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quarter | $12.9m | $13.3m | $13.6m |
| Year | $52.0m | $52.8m | $54.0m |
And the track record beside it:
| Forecast made | For | Forecast | Actual | Error |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month 2 of Q1 | Q1 | $12.4m | $12.1m | +2% |
| Month 2 of Q2 | Q2 | $13.5m | $12.6m | +7% |
Two lines of history tell the reader how to weigh the top table. See what is a good forecast accuracy.
Named, valued, owned. Five of each at most.
| Account | Risk or opportunity | Value | Owner | Action and date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halden Group | No orders for five weeks; normally weekly | $610,000 a year | J.R. | Director call, this week |
| Pryce Fabrication | Contract ends in 90 days; usage down | $340,000 | M.O. | Review meeting booked |
| Northway Supply | Buys two of six categories; peers buy five | +$180,000 | S.P. | Category proposal by month end |
General risks, the market, the economy, do not belong here. If it cannot be named and owned, it is commentary.
Two or three lines: approve a hire, agree a price exception, settle an account ownership dispute. If nothing is needed, say so. A report with no ask is information; a report with one is management.
Activity counts. Calls and meetings by rep belong in a manager's one-to-one, if anywhere.
The full pipeline. Forty rows nobody reads. Exceptions only, and in the appendix.
Anything unchanged. A measure that did not move gets a number in a table, not a paragraph.
Charts without a question. Each visual should answer something a reader has asked. A pie chart of revenue by region, the same every month, does not.
Last month compared with this month, unadjusted. It mostly reports the calendar.
Sales report: [month]
Appendix: region and rep tables; exception deals; definitions of every measure.
Written the night before from screenshots. Numbers that do not tie to each other or to finance.
No definitions. Win rate means one thing in March and another in April.
All new business. The base that makes 85 percent of revenue gets no section.
No ask. Forty minutes of presentation, no decision.
Seven sections, four pages, every figure reconciled, every risk named, and one clear ask. The report is for deciding, so it is ordered by what needs deciding. For the quarterly version, see the quarterly business review from computed tables. Covirage computes the tables in sections 2 to 6 from the ledger and CRM exports each month, with definitions stated and the reconciliation shown, so the writing is the only part left to do.
Four pages plus appendices. The summary on half a page, one page for revenue, one for the customer base and pipeline, one for forecast, risks and decisions. Length is usually a sign that the author has not decided what matters. Supporting tables go in an appendix where people who want them can find them.
Because a forecast is only as useful as its history. Showing that the last six month-two forecasts landed between minus 4 and plus 9 percent of actual tells the reader how much weight to put on this one. It also makes the forecaster more careful. Most reports show the forecast and never mention how the last one turned out.
It explains the variance instead of stating it. Revenue was 6 percent under plan: of that, 4 points were one account pausing orders, 3 points were price, and new customers added 1 back. A variance with no bridge invites ten minutes of speculation; with one, the conversation starts at what to do.