Reports People Actually Use

Who this book is for

Người làm tài chính trong doanh nghiệp Việt Nam, kế toán trưởng, phụ trách tài chính, người kiêm cả sổ sách lẫn dòng tiền ở công ty vài chục người. Người đọc là NGƯỜI LÀM NGHỀ: họ giữ con số và phải giải thích chúng, nhưng người quyết chi thường là người khác. Sách nói về tài chính DOANH NGHIỆP, không phải đầu tư hay tài chính cá nhân.

Sound familiar?

• Sends fifteen pages every month and nobody asks a question.
• Operators ask things the report already answers, because they can't find them.
• The report says what happened, not what to do next.
• Each department produces its own numbers, so meetings become arguments about data.

Each chapter answers one question

1. Chapter 1: If a report is for everyone, who reads it?

   What decision will the recipient of this report make with it?

   A report that serves everyone serves no one, because each person makes different decisions.

2. Chapter 2: Thirty-page report: how many pages get read?

   Which question does the first page of my report answer?

   The first page must answer three questions; the rest is only for those who want to check.

3. Chapter 3: Is knowing the variance enough?

   Where does this month's biggest variance come from?

   Saying how big a variance is is easy; saying why and who does what next is the finance person's real job.

4. Chapter 4: Why does every meeting become a fight over numbers?

   How many versions of the revenue report does my company have?

   When two departments hold two different numbers, the meeting becomes an argument about data, not about decisions.

5. Chapter 5: Who listens to a great analyst who presents poorly?

   In the last meeting, how many minutes did I spend on the most important number?

   Finance people lose influence in the presentation, not in the calculation.