Covenant schedule
Each covenant, the headroom this period, and the next test date. If a test is close we say how close, and what would breach it in the following quarter.
What you receive
Twelve pages you will actually read.
The monthly pack is short on purpose. Each page has a job. If a page cannot earn its place, we take it out rather than pad the file.
Page one
Cover memo
One page. What changed this month, why it changed, and what we would do about it. If the month was quiet the memo says so in a few sentences. If cash or margin moved, that movement is the first paragraph, not a footnote.
The memo is written after the schedules, never before. We do not start with a story and then hunt for numbers that will carry it.
Earnings
Profit and loss with commentary
Month, year to date, prior year, and the reasons for the variances that matter. We do not comment on every line. A line that moved because a supplier invoice landed a week early gets a short note. A line that moved because a price or a mix changed gets a longer one.
The schedule and the sentences sit together so you can read the page without flipping back to a dashboard.
By line
Margin by line of business
Revenue lines, the direct costs that belong to them, and the allocation method stated in a sentence. If rent, labour or delivery was spread by a rule, the rule is on the page. You should be able to argue with the allocation without writing to us first.
Where a line is too mixed to cut cleanly, we say so and give a range rather than a false precision.
Cash
Cash page
Opening cash, movement, closing cash, and the next thirteen weeks. Receipts and payments stay on separate lines. A facility draw or a large tax instalment is named, not folded into “other”.
If a gap is coming, the page says which week and which lever would close it. If the gap is already here, the page says that too.
Position
Balance-sheet watch list
Receivables ageing, inventory if you hold it, loans, and covenant room. We watch the items that turn into cash problems if they sit still. A full balance sheet is in the workbook. The pack only carries the lines that need a sentence this month.
Close
Decision page
Two or three questions we think need answering this month. They are written as questions you can take into a partners' meeting, with the figure that sits behind each one. We do not fill this page for the sake of having three items. Some months there is one.
Formats
You receive a PDF pack, the underlying workbook in Excel or Google Sheets, and a short Loom-style recording if you would rather watch the walkthrough than join the call. Every formula is visible. The workbook is yours. You can send it to your accountant without asking us first.
We do not lock sheets. If a cell should not be edited, we mark it in a note, and we still leave it unlocked.
For lenders and boards
Trailing-12 summary
One page. Revenue, margin, cash from operations, and debt, rolling twelve months. It is the page most credit files open first, so we keep it still and current.
Q&A appendix
The questions a credit adjudicator usually asks: concentration, related-party balances, one-off items, and the story behind a quiet month. Written before the meeting.
How reporting changes across a year
January to March is post-close clean-up and a pricing review. We finish anything the prior year left loose, and we look at whether last autumn's prices still hold once wages and supplier lists have moved.
April to June is capacity and hiring. If the spring run-rate will not carry the summer without another person or another shift, the pack says so while there is still time to hire.
July to September is working capital. Receivables, inventory and supplier terms get more of the page than they do in a quiet winter. Cash is usually tighter here than the profit and loss suggests.
October to December is the budget build. Assumptions get written down while the year is still in view. January then has something to be compared with, which is the whole point of a budget.
If you want to see a pack built on your books
A first read produces a shorter version of these pages, written on your last two years. It is the surest way to know whether a retainer would be useful.