How To Discuss Your Year-End Plan With Your Board

Alyssa Adams

Chief Financial Officer

December 28, 2021

Once you have your annual plan in place, it’s time to share it with your board. But what does this look like? How can you make this conversation productive and strategic and avoid getting lost in the weeds?

What to Share With Your Board

Your objectives going into your year-end meeting with your board should be to align business goals for the upcoming year, highlight areas of strengths and improvements, and determine any financing needs and options you may have.

It’s important to review your 2022 base plan, your scenario analyses, and overall cash implications to your business.

Go into this meeting understanding that your board will want to know what is going on. They have limited knowledge of your day-to-day operations and any challenges you may face. Present your plan with concise data, using clear KPIs for easy performance progress.

Be sure to highlight what you want them to know. Use this time to provide information to them and gain valuable advice.

A former colleague, Ramya Varma coined the heuristic the “4C’s of Board- Readiness” which is a simple and effective framework we continue to leverage.

The 4C’s include:

Context
Clarity
Consistency
Conciseness

How to Ensure a Successful Board Meeting

A good board meeting should tell a story about the what, where, why, and how of your business. Frame opportunities and challenges, but still provide potential solutions and ask for input.

A bad board meeting would leave the board feeling lost, full of questions, and provide little time for advice or action.

A helpful way to ensure you have a good meeting is to send out a pre-read for board members to digest on their own time, follow the four Cs of board readiness, and use your financials to tell a story. Also, make sure your financials are error-free. Nothing can derail a great strategic discussion like a glaring formula error.

Reach out today for more advice on year-end planning or any other finance and accounting needs.

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