The two-page board pack

If the board pack is forty pages long, nobody reads page thirty. The pages that matter get the same attention as the appendix, and the meeting is spent finding numbers instead of deciding what to do about them.

Two pages are enough for most owner-run companies. The rest can sit behind them, for anyone who wants to check.

Page one: the numbers

A single table: sales, gross margin, overheads and profit for the month and the year to date, against budget and against last year. Below it, cash at the month end and the forecast for the next three months.

• Sales and gross margin, month and year to date.

• Overheads and profit, against budget and last year.

• Cash today and for the next three months.

• Money owed to you, and how old it is.

Page two: what it means

Short paragraphs, each one about a number that moved, why it moved, and whether anything needs a decision. If nothing needs a decision, say so. That sentence is worth more than another chart.

“A board pack is not a record of the month. It is the agenda for the meeting.”

Send it before the meeting

A pack that arrives on the morning of the meeting gets skimmed in the room. Send it two working days before, with the decisions listed at the top of page two.

Keep the format the same

Use the same layout every month. After three months the board reads the pack in minutes, because they know where to look, and the conversation moves from what happened to what comes next.

What moves to the appendix

Detailed ledgers, aged creditor lists, departmental breakdowns and every chart that shows the same trend twice. They are still available, in the same order every month, for any director who wants to check a number. They just do not sit between the board and the decisions.

The first two-page pack usually takes longer to write than the old forty pages, because it forces a view on what matters. By the third month it takes less time, and the meeting is shorter too.

Demo article: written to show the layout, not as advice for your company.