Blog · Board and management reporting
The ten questions a chief financial officer puts to the commercial team, does the sales number reconcile, how concentrated are we, what is the base worth, is the forecast believable, where is revenue leaking, what does it cost to serve the top accounts, are credits under control, is the pipeline real, what did the discounting cost, and what changed, each with the computed table that answers it, the identity that makes the answer trustworthy, and the answer a CFO should refuse.
A CFO asks the commercial team questions the commercial team answers from memory, and the CFO stops asking. Each question has a table, computed from exports the company already has, with an identity that makes it trustworthy. This guide is the ten questions, the tables, and the answers a CFO should refuse.
| # | The CFO asks | The table | The identity | Refuse |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Does the sales number reconcile? | Revenue by region and rep | Σ reps = Σ regions = ledger | Any sales figure not tied to the ledger |
| 2 | How concentrated are we? | Top-n share, count to half, trended, with contract detail | Customers sum to the ledger | A level with no trend |
| 3 | What is the base worth? | Share of wallet vs norm, value at norm across the base | Numerator equals revenue | A wallet estimate with no source column |
| 4 | Is the forecast believable? | Forecast bridge; roll-up beside historical conversion | Bridge lines sum, every deal on one line | An adjustment line with no deals |
| 5 | Where is revenue leaking? | The seven leakage joins, each with lines | Each join's identity | A leakage total with no lines |
| 6 | What do the top accounts cost to serve? | Contribution per account with components | Margins sum to ledger gross margin | Cost to serve from averages |
| 7 | Are credits under control? | Credits by reason, uncoded listed | Gross less credits equals net | Credits netted silently |
| 8 | Is the pipeline real? | Weighted pipeline by stage with slip counts | Snapshot equals control total | Face value as the pipeline |
| 9 | What did the discounting cost? | Price realisation vs agreements, unagreed discount | List less agreed less unagreed equals invoiced | Realisation with no agreement column |
| 10 | What changed? | The movements page | Every line cites a row | Narrative without citations |
One first; nothing else counts until it holds. Then two and three, the shape and value of the base. Then four and eight, the future. Then five, six, seven and nine, the leaks. Then ten, every month.
CFO: Does the sales number reconcile? Commercial: Table 1, revenue by rep, $12.0m, equals the ledger. Two accounts with two owners, excluded and listed. CFO: How concentrated? Commercial: Top ten 52 percent from 46, count to half 9 from 11, customer count flat. Customer 4471 rose fastest and has no contract. CFO: Is the base worth anything? Commercial: Value at norm $8.4m across 1,240 customers, 40 percent of it in 60 accounts; wallet source stated per line. CFO: Is the forecast believable? Commercial: Roll-up $4.6m; historical conversion $3.7m; the bridge names nine deals for the difference.
Four questions, four tables, four citations, no adjectives.
Answered from memory. The CFO stops asking.
Question one skipped. Everything after it is on a number that may not be the company's.
Definitions unversioned. Bookings up twelve percent, meaning something new.
Ten answered with a dashboard link. The dashboard has moved on.
Covirage produces the ten tables from the ledger, the CRM export and the price, contract and credit files, with the identities checked. The board reporting solution describes the setup, and the bookings, billings and revenue guide covers the bridge that most often ends the argument between the two teams.
Whether the sales number reconciles to the ledger. Every other answer rests on it. A revenue-by-rep table that sums to the ledger is the entry ticket to the conversation; one that does not is the conversation.
A number with no table, a table with no identity, and a definition that changed without a version. 'Bookings were up twelve percent' with bookings meaning something different from last quarter is the commonest one.
The ledger, the CRM export, the price and contract files, and the credit notes. Exports the company already produces, mapped once. The tables that answer the ten questions are computed from those four or five files monthly.