A standard for the handback
What should a founder actually receive after month-end closes?
Seven things — and not one of them is a statement. What changed since last month, and why. Where cash genuinely stands once what is already spoken for is taken out. Who owes you, how late, and what was promised. What you owe and what you are committed to. What is at risk. What needs your decision this month. And beneath each of those, the figures that produced it, openable down to the evidence.
Statements are the evidence for a handback, not the handback itself. A pack of statements is not a handback. A handback tells you what changed, what it means, and what needs deciding — and the fair test of one is whether an owner could act on it without opening a single statement, then open any figure in it that they wanted to challenge.
Seven things that should land in a founder’s hands. Each one has to carry a decision.
The right way to judge a monthly handback is by the weight of decision it can carry. Every item below exists because an owner has to do something with it. Where an item cannot change what happens next, it is a record rather than a report — and a record is a much cheaper thing to buy.
| What lands | The question it settles | The version that is useless |
|---|---|---|
| What changed | What is different this month, and the reason it is different | A variance column with no cause attached to it |
| The cash position | What is held, what is already committed, and what is genuinely free to use | A single bank balance, presented as though it were available |
| Receivables | Who owes you, how old it is, what was promised, and what broke | One total labelled debtors, with no ageing and no next action |
| Obligations and commitments | What is owed, what falls due, what recurs, what renews | Only what has been invoiced so far — certain but unbilled commitments left out |
| Risks | What could go wrong from here, and roughly what it would cost | A standing caution that reappears unchanged every month |
| Decisions required | What genuinely needs the owner, with the options and the cost of doing nothing | Requests for information, dressed as decisions |
| The figures beneath | Where each number came from, down to the entries and their evidence | A number nobody can trace without sending an email |
A pack of statements is not a handback.
A profit and loss, a balance sheet and a cash-flow statement are the correct evidence base and the wrong deliverable. They are written in a conventional form, for a reader who already holds the shape of the business in their head and is willing to derive the story from the movement. That reader is an accountant. It is not the person deciding on Tuesday whether to take on a fourth contractor.
The failure here is not inaccuracy. The statements are usually right. The failure is that the analytical step — the step the owner is paying for — has been left undone and handed across with the raw material. Three tests separate the two:
- Does it state a verdict, or leave you to infer one from a table?
- Does it name what changed and why, in the language of the business rather than the language of the ledger?
- Would a competent outsider, reading it cold, know what has to happen next week?
What each of the seven reads like when it is done properly.
These are shapes, not screens, and they are deliberately provider-neutral — a business can ask any provider for a handback in this form and judge what comes back against it.
- What changed reads as a verdict with a cause attached: revenue fell against last month because two retainers ended and one engagement started mid-month, while the rate earned per delivered day did not move. A percentage on its own is not this.
- The cash position reads as three numbers, not one: what is held across the accounts, what is already committed inside the next period, and what remains after those commitments. The third number is the one an owner actually spends against.
- Receivables read as names and ages, not a total: which customers, how overdue, what each of them last promised, which promises held, and what the next action is on each of the ones that did not.
- Obligations and commitments read forward, not backward: payroll, taxes falling due, supplier terms, subscriptions that renew, and contractual commitments that have been entered into but not yet invoiced by anyone.
- Risks read as specifics with a size: one customer accounting for a large share of the receivables, a contract ending without a replacement, a cost that has moved for a reason nobody has explained yet.
- Decisions required read as a short list an owner can answer: each with the choice, the consequence of each option, and what happens if the month passes without an answer.
- The figures beneath read as depth rather than length: any figure in the handback can be opened to the entries that make it up, and each entry to the document behind it.
A practical marker: the summary should be readable in one sitting, and everything underneath it should be there for the two or three figures the reader decides to challenge.
Every figure in it should be openable.
The seventh item decides whether the first six can be trusted. A handback makes claims about the business; a claim that cannot be opened is an opinion with a number in it. Openable has a specific meaning, and it is worth being precise about:
- From a figure in the summary to the entries that compose it, without a request.
- From an entry to the source document that supports it — the invoice, the bill, the payroll report, the contract.
- From any restated figure to the reason it changed, dated, with the earlier version still visible rather than replaced.
- From a total to the basis of any estimate inside it, stated as an estimate.
The last two matter more than they sound. Corrections are normal in accounting and concealment is not: a corrected month should show that it was corrected and why. Records maintained this way are also straightforward to hand to an auditor, a lender or a prospective buyer — not because anyone can promise how those parties will respond, but because the questions they ask are the same questions, and the answers already exist.
A blunt test of the layer beneath: pick one figure at random and ask to see what it is made of. The response time tells you more about the provider than the pack does.
What a monthly handback should not pretend to be.
An overreaching handback is its own failure mode, and the exaggerations are predictable enough to list.
- It is not a forecast unless it is labelled as one. A projection carried in the same typeface as a settled figure will be read as a settled figure.
- It is not an audit. Management accounts are prepared for the owner. Audit is a separate engagement, delivered by a separate firm, under a different standard.
- It is not a decision. Options and consequences can be set out. Choosing among them belongs to the person who carries the outcome.
- It is not the statutory position. A tax figure inside a monthly pack is a working number until the return itself is prepared.
- It should not be more precise than the facts underneath it. A confident figure resting on one unanswered question is worse than an open question, because it does not look like one.
- It is not a place to make a bad month look better. The month a handback becomes reassuring rather than accurate is the month it stops being worth reading.
The request, if you want to hold somebody to this.
This is a specification rather than a set of questions, and it can be sent as it stands to whoever keeps the books today. A provider already working this way will recognise it; a provider that is not will tell you which parts are extra.
- From the next close onward, alongside the statements, please send a summary that states what changed and why.
- Show cash as held, committed and remaining, rather than as a bank balance.
- Show receivables by customer and age, with the last promise made and the next action.
- List obligations and commitments falling due, including those not yet invoiced.
- Name the risks you can see, with an indication of size.
- List the decisions you need from me, with the cost of not deciding.
- Confirm that any figure in it can be opened to its entries and their evidence on request.
A provider that cannot yet do all seven is not automatically the wrong provider. A provider that treats the request as unreasonable is telling you something worth hearing.
Where At Par fits — and the limits.
At Par delivers the month as a handback rather than a pack. The books are closed and reconciled on a date, the statements come with them as evidence, and the thing an owner reads first is the summary: what changed and why, where cash stands once commitments are taken out, who owes what and how late, what falls due, what is at risk, and what needs deciding. A qualified accountant (ACCA) is accountable for the work, every figure is evidence-backed, and corrections are recorded rather than overwritten.
The reporting side of this is set out in full at management accounts and CFO-level reporting. It rests on bookkeeping and month-end close, because a handback is only as good as the close underneath it, and on receivables followed up through the month rather than counted at the end of it. Where the books are months behind, catch-up work comes first. Where and how the underlying records are held is covered under security.
Two adjacent questions are answered separately: what a provider should deliver every month, and on what dates — the cadence rather than the contents of the handback — and which finance outcomes anyone should be accountable for in the first place.
Asked by owners who receive a pack every month and still feel behind.
What should a business owner receive after month-end close? +
Seven things: a statement of what changed and why, the cash position split into held, committed and remaining, receivables by customer and age with the promises made against them, obligations and commitments falling due including uninvoiced ones, the risks visible from here, the decisions that need the owner this month, and access to the figures beneath each of those down to the supporting documents. Financial statements accompany all of that as the evidence base.
What is the difference between a monthly reporting pack and a handback? +
A pack is a set of documents produced out of the books: statements, schedules and listings. A handback is what somebody does with those documents before sending them — stating what changed and why, what it means for cash, what is owed and committed, what is at risk, and what needs deciding. The pack is the evidence and the handback is the interpretation. The interpretation is the part that costs a provider real thought and saves an owner real time.
What is the difference between management accounts and statutory accounts? +
Management accounts are prepared for the people running the business, on whatever cadence and in whatever detail is useful, and they are not filed anywhere. Statutory accounts are prepared to a prescribed format, to a legal deadline, for filing and for external readers. The two are built from the same books but answer different questions, and monthly figures may be refined before a statutory position is finalised.
Should a monthly report include risks, and what counts as one? +
Yes, and a risk is only useful once it is specific and sized. One customer holding a large share of everything owed. A contract ending in eight weeks with nothing behind it. A cost that has moved for a reason nobody has explained. An amount falling due that current cash does not cover. A standing caution reappearing word for word every month is not a risk register, it is a disclaimer, and owners stop reading it somewhere around the third month.
How should a monthly report present the cash position? +
As three figures rather than one. What is held across all accounts on the closing date. What is already committed within the coming period — payroll, taxes falling due, supplier payments and known recurring costs. And what is left once those are taken out. A single bank balance overstates what can be spent, because the largest commitments of the month usually have not left the account yet.
Should a monthly report tell an owner what decisions to make? +
It should present the decisions, not make them. Each one should carry the choice, the realistic options, the consequence of each, and what happens if the month passes without an answer. Setting out consequences is the provider’s job. Choosing among them belongs to whoever carries the outcome — and any decision that changes what the business owes, is owed, or is committed to sits with the owner.
How can an owner tell whether the numbers in a monthly report are reliable? +
Test the layer underneath rather than the presentation. Pick a figure and ask what it is made of, then ask to see the document behind one of the entries inside it. Reliable reporting answers both quickly, because the evidence was attached when the entry was made. Ask also whether the period was reconciled and closed on a date, and what remained unresolved when it was.
What should a monthly report say about receivables? +
Names, ages and next actions rather than a single total. Which customers owe money, how far past terms each balance is, what each of them last promised and whether the promise held, and what happens next on the ones that did not. A total labelled debtors supports no decision at all, and it conceals the concentration risk that a list of names makes obvious immediately.
Do management accounts need to be audited? +
No. Management accounts are internal reporting prepared for the owner and are not audited, filed or assured. Audit is a separate engagement carried out by a separate firm under its own standards, and where it applies it is driven by law, ownership structure or a lender’s requirement rather than by monthly reporting. Well-kept management records make an audit less painful, but they are not a substitute for one.
Send us last month’s pack. We’ll show you what it never told you.
Whatever arrived after your last close — a set of statements, a spreadsheet, or nothing at all. We will read it against the seven things above and mark what is present, what is missing, and what a handback would have said instead.
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Reviewed by an ACCA on the At Par team · Last updated 29 July 2026 · This is a buyer-side standard for a monthly deliverable, not a description of a screen. See what we actually do.