Template

Monthly business review template

Once a month: the numbers against the plan, what explains the gaps, and the few decisions that change next month.

60 minutesFor Founders, general managers and department headsAgenda room
Change the agenda first

The agenda, with a time for each part

  1. The month in three numbers5 min
    • Are we ahead of or behind the plan, and by how much?
  2. Revenue and customers12 min
    • Where did new revenue come from, and where did we lose it?
  3. Costs and cash10 min
    • What did we spend that we did not plan to, and how many months of cash do we have?
  4. Each team's one number13 min
    • What moved, and why?
  5. What explains the gaps10 min
    • Is it one-off, or will next month look the same?
  6. Decisions for next month10 min
    • What do we change, and who owns it?

How the notes read afterwards

A made-up example, so you can see the shape. In a real call each line carries the words that were said and who said them.

Three numbers. Revenue $412k (plan $440k); 31 new customers; 4 left.

Gap. Two large renewals moved to December; not lost.

Cash. 19 months at this month's spending.

Decision. Pause the second sales hire until the December renewals sign. Maya owns it.

Running it well

Ways to change it

For a small businessThirty minutes: sales, costs, cash, and the one thing to change.
With the boardUse the same numbers each quarter, so the board sees the same shape the team sees each month.

When to skip it. Never skip the month-end close; you can skip the meeting if every number is within the range you agreed and nobody needs a decision.

Questions

What is a monthly business review?

A meeting once a month that compares the results with the plan, explains the differences and decides what to change next month.

What metrics belong in a monthly business review?

Revenue, customers won and lost, costs, cash and one leading number per team.

How long should a monthly business review be?

About an hour, if the numbers are sent beforehand.

What happens in the room

Everybody joins from the link, with no account. The agenda sits beside the call and each item fills in with what was said about it, under the name of the person who said it.

More templates

Weekly business reviewEvery week, the same handful of numbers in the same order, so the leadership team spots what moved early and asks why while there is still time to act.Operations reviewHow the work is actually getting done: volume, speed, quality and cost across the operation, the bottlenecks behind the numbers, and the fixes worth making.KPI reviewCheck each key performance indicator against its target, find the ones that are off, and decide what to do about them — or whether the indicator is still the right one.OKR check-inA short weekly or fortnightly look at the quarter's objectives and key results: how confident you are of hitting each, what is in the way, and what to change.Annual planning meetingOnce a year: look back honestly, agree the few things that matter most next year, the money and people behind them, and what you will stop doing to make room.Crisis meetingWhen something serious has gone wrong: get the facts straight, decide the first actions and who leads, and agree what to tell staff, customers and anyone else affected — fast.Tactical meetingA short, regular team meeting that clears the operational issues stopping work this week — one issue at a time, ending each with a next action and an owner.Governance meetingChange how the team is organised — its roles, who decides what, and its policies — through proposals that each get a fair hearing and a clear result.

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