Board Deck Financial Section
Financial section of board deck delivered 48h pre-meeting: headline metrics, revenue, costs, unit economics, forecast, risks, asks. Reviewed by CFO and CEO.
Before you start
- Board reporting cadence (typically quarterly)
- Standard financial slide template
- Closed monthly financials
- Quarterly P&L, balance sheet, cash flow
- KPIs by quarter (revenue, growth rate, burn, runway)
- Plan vs actual comparison
The steps
- Confirm financials are closed — Don't build board slides on unclosed numbers. Confirm month-end and quarter-end close completed, reconciliations done, accruals recorded. Numbers must be final.
- Build the headline metrics slide — 1 slide with: revenue (this Q vs last Q vs plan), growth rate, gross margin, burn, runway, cash position. Plan delta is critical — boards want to see plan vs actual.
- Build the revenue and pipeline slide — Show: revenue by month, broken by new vs expansion vs churn (if SaaS). Pipeline by stage. Sales motion health: lead-to-close ratio, average deal size. Trends over 4-6 quarters.
- Build the cost and burn slide — Show: opex by category (R&D, S&M, G&A), trend over time, cost per employee, hiring plan vs actual. Burn rate trend with explanation for any spikes.
- Build the unit economics slide — CAC, LTV, payback period, gross margin per customer (if SaaS). For non-SaaS: equivalent metrics. Show by cohort if possible — cohorts reveal the truth.
- Add forward-looking projection — Next quarter and full-year forecast. Be honest about confidence level. Boards prefer honest forecasts over rosy ones — they have to underwrite the plan.
- Highlight risks and asks — 1 slide on risks: concentration, churn signals, market shifts, hiring gaps. 1 slide on board asks: intros, hires, customer references. Boards want to help — give them concrete asks.
- CFO and CEO review before send — CFO confirms numbers. CEO confirms narrative. Send 48 hours before the meeting so board members can pre-read. Don't surprise the board with new data live.
If it goes wrong
Numbers change between deck send and board meeting
Lock numbers when deck sends. Any subsequent corrections go to the board as an addendum, not surprise updates in the meeting.
Board surprised by metric movements
Pre-read culture: deck distributed 48h ahead. If movements were predictable, they should have been in the prior board meeting's commentary.
Forecast accuracy is poor over time
Track forecast vs actual quarterly. If chronic over- or under-forecasting, recalibrate methodology with the CFO. Boards rely on forecast credibility.
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