Everything in small articulate little digestible pieces. I received advice in the middle of my career whereas she told me that for every piece of financial information communicated, there must be a simple & concise explanation. Candidly that is a little difficult for me in that accountants know accounting, I am an accountant. Articulating accounting can require a lot of information to explain the data that is being presented.
Being concise is paramount. If you are emailing out financial statements, simply explain the net income/loss and revenue metrics. Or metrics that are typically measured by the company. In a previous post, we could close revenue a couple of days after month end for a real estate company that I was a CFO. The first line in the financial statement communication was the revenue number.
Articulate the net income/loss number and explain where it landed compared to the budget. What was the over-under, what is missing, what was discovered? Report on the months and measure on the quarters, how is the quarter tracking to the budget?
Explain the basics that anyone without an accounting degree could explain. Keep it simple and stupid with details only where needed.
- Bullet points are great.
- It draws the eyes to specific items.
- Think like an industrial engineer, where do you want the reader’s eyes to draw to? In my example, you want them to draw toward the revenue number. HIGHLIGHT the revenue number in the communication and on the report.
- Part of being a great accountant is painting a picture that can be explained.