Commercial reporting and operating reviews

We put the group's sales, gross margin, channel mix and operating cost for each brand and entity side by side in one commercial report, then run the operating review that follows it. The review is where managers answer for the numbers and the board's questions become actions.

• A monthly commercial report: sales, margin and contribution by brand, entity and channel on one basis.
• A bridge page that explains the month's movement in margin, line by line.
• A standing operating review calendar with agenda, attendees and pre-read dates.
• Decision minutes with a numbered action list and owners, carried forward until closed.
• A quarterly commercial review paper for the board, comparing the quarter with plan.

• The chairman receives the report soon after month end, and the report states the days it took.
• Revenue reconciles between the commercial and finance records, and the share reconciled is reported each month.
• Every movement in margin is explained on the bridge page, and the explained share of the total movement is stated.
• Review actions close on their dates, and the board sees the share closed on time.
• Board questions are answered from the standing report, and the count answered is kept month by month.

Each function reports well on its own measures, but the pages do not add up. Sales shows growth, finance shows a thinner margin, operations shows a service problem, and nobody has the job of explaining how the three connect or what the group should do about them.

• The commercial team and finance quote different revenue for the same month.
• Margin by brand or channel is argued about, not read.
• Operating reviews are held but decisions are not written down.
• The board asks the same question two months running and gets a different answer.
• Reports are late because every function waits on another.

Chairmen and chief executives of multi-brand or multi-channel groups who receive sales reports from the commercial team, cost reports from finance and delivery reports from operations, and cannot read them together.

Qasim Abbas brought more than seven companies at Nexxo Pay and QPay International, and more than 20 across several countries in all, onto one set of numbers. Your chairman reads every brand and entity on that one basis.

We build the report from your ledger, point-of-sale or commerce platform and operating reports, including Xero, QuickBooks, Zoho Books, NetSuite or Oracle. See how fees work.

Who writes the commentary?

We do, with the managers who own each number. The commentary states what moved, why and what is proposed, and it is checked before it reaches the board.

Can the report cover several countries?

Yes. It shows each market in its own currency and on one group basis, with the exchange rate applied stated on the page.

What if the commercial team and finance disagree?

The disagreement is shown, with both figures and the reconciling items, until the definition is agreed.

Send last month's commercial, finance and operating reports to a private briefing. We return them read together as one report, with the bridge that explains where they differ.