A monthly management pack has seven sections: executive summary, results at a glance, variance analysis, cash position and outlook, balance sheet notes, decisions and actions, and follow-up on last period. This page explains what belongs in each and gives you a fill-in template to use for your next client review.
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forecraft-management-pack-template.md has all seven sections with tables laid out and fields for client, period, preparer, and reviewer. Plain text, so it pastes into a document, a wiki, or an email without reformatting.
What a management pack is
A management pack is the monthly deliverable a finance professional sends to a client or a leadership team. The financial statements are an input to it. The pack explains what the statements mean and what should happen as a result.
The structural test is section 6. A management pack ends with named owners and due dates. A document that ends with analysis is a report.
The seven sections
| # | Section | What it contains | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Executive summary | Three sentences: what happened, why, and what it means. | Many readers will read this and nothing else. Write it last, once you know what the month actually was. |
| 2 | Results at a glance | Revenue, gross profit, gross margin percentage, operating expenses, net income, and closing cash, each shown as current, prior, variance, and variance percentage. | Six rows. This table orients the reader; the analysis comes in section 3. |
| 3 | Variance analysis | Only lines above your materiality threshold, each with a driver category and an explanation. | Name the driver: volume, price, timing, one-off, or correction. Without one, the line only restates the number. |
| 4 | Cash position and outlook | Closing cash, net movement, the 13-week outlook, its expected low point, and the assumptions behind it. | State the assumptions, so the client can test them and trust the outlook. |
| 5 | Balance sheet notes | Only what moved materially or what a reader would question, typically receivables, payables, and anything unusual. | Most months this is short. When nothing moved, write 'no material change' and keep the section. |
| 6 | Decisions and actions | Each recommendation with why now, a named owner, a due date, and a defined next step. | Cap it at three, so each one gets its owner's attention. Owners and due dates are what make the document a management pack. |
| 7 | Follow-up on last period | Last month's actions, their owners, and their current status. | The section most often missing. It shows the client whether last month's actions happened. |
The order is deliberate
The pack opens with the conclusion and follows it with the evidence. A reader who stops after section 1 has the answer. A reader who continues gets progressively more support for it. Building up to the conclusion instead (the way the underlying work is actually done) means the most important sentence arrives on page four, where a busy client will not reach it.
Section 7 goes last but is read first by anyone who was in last month’s meeting, because it tells them whether the previous conversation produced anything.
A management pack ends with named owners and due dates.
Keeping it consistent month to month
Keep every section, every month. When nothing moved, write “no material change”: a section that disappears makes the reader wonder what was left out. Keep the same six rows in section 2 as well, because month-to-month comparison is most of that table’s value.
Use one materiality threshold per client and write it down. A threshold that moves without notice changes what gets explained. Carry section 7 forward in full, so every action from last month appears, including the ones that slipped.
Producing this automatically
Forecraft generates all seven sections from an uploaded P&L and balance sheet: the summary, the variance table with drivers, the cash outlook, and decision memos carrying an owner and a due date that reappear in next month’s follow-up section.
Related notes
- How to write monthly financial commentary covers sections 1 and 3.
- Variance analysis examples and templates explains the arithmetic behind section 3.
- Monthly close checklist covers the work that happens before you fill this in.
- All journal notes