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Beyond the balance sheet

What to include in the preparation of monthly management accounts?

Joe Lennon 24/2/2022 3 minute read

Joe Lennon FCCA highlights the different reporting elements and benefits of management accounts.

Here's a potential surprise, management accounts aren't mandatory!

If you're serious about growing and scaling your business however, you'll find they're key to achieving this. Why? The reason being management accounts contain:

  • The analysis you need to ascertain where your business is at from a performance perspective
  • The numbers necessary to understand the financial health of your organisation to help inform budgeting and investment

Without them it would be almost impossible to gauge accurately how well you're doing. As a result you'd struggle to make informed decisions on key matters such as the funding requirements in your organisation.

You know your business better than anyone else. However, it's not always easy to narrow down on what to focus on in your accounts. So we've put together this infographic with some suggestions to help get you started.

Need help producing monthly management accounts? Get in touch >

What should management accounts include?

This depends on where in the lifecycle stage the business is at, the sector it's in, and the goals the owner/directors want to set for the business. Typically management accounts will include:

  • Key performance indicators
  • Profit & loss statement
  • The cash position
  • The balance sheet

How often are management accounts prepared?

Management accounts are usually prepared on a regular and consistent basis to ensure a business owner or management team are getting the most out of monitoring their efforts. There is no set rule for this but typically they're produced monthly, or quarterly.

Remember your reports will be most efficient when tailored to your business. That means covering what's most important to you as the owner manager. The below infographic is designed to inform and get you thinking, it's not a definitive format. 

Click on the image for a larger scale PDF version.

Wellers Infographic What to Include in Your Management Accounts

Be sure to work with an accountant to formulate what to report on in your management accounts, so as to inform and help drive future investment and strategic decision making. 

Monhtly managmeent accountsThis post was created on 19/06/2017 and updated on 24/02/2022.

Please be aware that information provided by this blog is subject to regular legal and regulatory change. We recommend that you do not take any information held within our website or guides (eBooks) as a definitive guide to the law on the relevant matter being discussed. We suggest your course of action should be to seek legal or professional advice where necessary rather than relying on the content supplied by the author(s) of this blog.

 

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