Board reporting: what to include, how often, and why it matters

Strong board reporting is an unglamorous yet powerful component of a growing business.

In a nutshell, it means evaluating your company and reporting the findings to the board.

As for “the board” itself, that truthfully means the directors. In practice, a board meeting may also include others who help run (or fund) the company but aren't directors.

Whoever you trust, they’ll need reliable information to contribute to the discussion.

Read on to get your head around board reporting fundamentals and how they’ll evolve with your company.

Defining board reporting

Board reporting is the practice of preparing a written summary of how the business is performing and presenting it to your directors or management at regular intervals. It typically covers financials, the commercial pipeline, risks, the plan, and key decisions ahead.

The report itself is often called a ‘board pack,’ meaning a curated collection of reports and data sent to company directors before a meeting.

If you use a board report to inform an official directors’ meeting, you’ll usually need to capture what happened in the meeting as board minutes. So the report feeds the meeting with relevant information. The minutes output a formal record for Companies House.

As for any decisions you make in a board meeting based on those reports, there may be formal procedures to follow under the Companies Act and your company’s articles. You must also report certain decisions and changes to Companies House.

Why most growing companies don't report well (and what it costs them)

Board reporting is a valuable opportunity to stay up to date with the operational mechanics of running your business. Not taking it seriously can contribute to a few risks:

• In your own decision-making: A consistent board report is a history of your own judgment that you can learn from. Formally reviewing and documenting performance, decisions, etc., is extremely useful for scaling up.

• At due diligence: Buyers and investors routinely request historic board materials (since board meetings should be documented). Any gaps, inconsistencies or a total absence of reporting might raise eyebrows.

• When onboarding new directors: Without a proper back catalogue of documented decisions, a new non-executive director (NED) or investor may have to reconstruct the company's decision-making processes from thin air.

• During disagreements: When directors or shareholders disagree, a written record helps resolve any issues. Without one, disputes become a matter of competing recollections and, in serious cases, a court may have to make the decision.

• Compliance: Directors have a legal duty under the Companies Act 2006 to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence, and they need the right info to do that. If a director claims they weren't given it, that's a governance failure with potential consequences.

Many founders struggle with the nitty-gritty of running a business, so mastering this helps you stand out. But the value ramps up as you approach a fundraise or exit.

Consistent reporting builds a track record you can show a buyer or investor. That can affect confidence, transaction speed and perceived risk, potentially even impacting your valuation.

Advisory group vs formal board: when to make the switch

If this is all beginning to sound intimidating, don’t panic. You can easily build reporting processes slowly over time.

Many smaller companies don't yet have a formal, independent board, and plenty don't necessarily need one for the time being.

Instead, they’ll have an informal advisory group that might include a co-founder, any executives or lead team members, an accountant, a mentor of some kind, or even an angel investor.

An investor won’t always want a seat as a director in your company. They can still hold voting rights as a shareholder, depending on the shares they own.

This is all a perfectly legitimate model. The IoD's governance guidance for unlisted companies describes advisory boards as an "interim step on the road to an effective board.”

However, over time, it becomes advantageous to build a more formal board reporting process for transparency. Also, directors’ responsibilities are numerous, and you’ll probably need help with them sooner or later.

When to formalise board reporting

There’s no magic moment when your board reporting suddenly needs to become formal. But a few milestones are a pretty clear sign it’s time to tighten things up:

• External investment: Investors will expect regular, structured reporting on performance, cash and progress.

• Appointing other directors: When a new director joins the board, consistent reporting becomes essential. Even non-executive directors (NEDs) have the same legal duties as executive directors, and they need the right information to discharge them.

• Expanding headcount and complexity: Proper reporting creates a reliable flow of information between your operations and the people making the decisions. For example, a finance lead might report their team to the CFO, who then contributes to the board pack.

• Preparing for due diligence: If a fundraising round, acquisition or exit is on the horizon, a strong track record of consistent board reporting is a gift that smooths out negotiations.

What to include in a board report (or board pack)

A board pack’s job is to give the board enough information to understand how the company is performing, reveal the pressure points, and identify decisions. The exact contents will change over time, but the fundamentals include:

• Financial summary: Revenue, costs, cash position, and how all three compare to the previous period and to your forecast or budget. If you don't have a formal budget, compare to the same period last year. The point is context; a number on its own tells you very little.

• Cash flow and runway: How much cash you have and how long it covers at the current rate of expenditure. Often more important than the P&L, because revenue can climb while cash declines.

• Sales and pipeline: New business won, lost and in progress. If you're tracking lead source attribution and sales cycle length (as covered in our customer acquisition guide), include those here.

• Key risks and issues: Anything that could materially affect the business: a major customer at risk, a key deadline, a staffing gap, or a supplier problem, etc.

• Decisions required: Any decision the board or advisory group is being asked to approve, discuss or note. This should also note who’s responsible for filling out any related paperwork.

As you grow: additional reporting areas

As your headcount increases and your operations become more complex, you'll want to add more depth:

• People and HR: Headcount, voluntary turnover, open roles, time to hire, and similar. If you're running a share scheme, include a summary of grants, vesting progress and any upcoming liquidity events (Vestd can help you keep track).

• Customer metrics: Retention rates, satisfaction scores, concentration ratio (your largest customers as a percentage of revenue).

• Operational KPIs: On-time delivery, cost per unit, quality measures, plus anything else operationally relevant to your company.

• Cap table and equity: Any share movements or filing requirements. This is especially important if you have external investors or are considering a funding round. A clean, up-to-date cap table is essential, and it's one of the first documents a due diligence team will request.

How often to report

Monthly reporting is the go-to. Some smaller businesses may find quarterly board meetings sufficient, as long as management reviews information more frequently in between.

With that said, not every decision can wait a month. It’s common to use the board reporting session to make decisions that need a board resolution. These processes run on their own timelines.

The IoD recommends distributing papers on an agreed date before each meeting. Several working days is a reasonable standard, so everyone can read up and come prepared with questions rather than processing the information for the first time in the room.

A simple, repeatable board pack template

Whether it’s a Google Doc or a shared Notion page, the key is building a replicable board report you can copy and repeat. Here's a structure you can replicate in your chosen software and format: