Answers
What goes in a quarterly client report? Three things, in this order.
What changed against the plan, what that means for next quarter, and what you need from the client. Everything else is supporting material. Most quarterly reports instead lead with what the advisor did during the quarter, which is the easiest thing to assemble and reads to a client like an invoice with charts attached.
- Set up with your plan
- Unlimited users
- 30-day pilot
Why the usual one does not land
An activity log is not a report.
A quarter of work is easy to list and hard to argue with, which is exactly why it gets sent. The trouble is that the client already knows you were busy. They are trying to work out something else.
Three habits worth dropping
Leading with hours and meetings
Time spent answers a question the client did not ask, and invites the one you least want, which is whether it was worth it. Put the time in an appendix if the engagement is billed that way.
Reporting every measure equally
Twenty charts of which three moved means the client has to find the three. That is your job, and doing it is most of the value of the report.
Ending without an ask
A report that closes on a summary leaves the client with nothing to do, so nothing happens, and next quarter has the same gaps. The ask is what makes it a working document.
The structure
Ordered by what the client wants to know.
How it works
One: what changed against the plan
Not what happened, what changed. Each objective with where it was, where it is and where it should be by now. Name the two or three that moved and the ones that did not, and say why for both. A measure that went backwards is more useful in a report than five that held steady.- Against the plan, not against last quarter
- Name the ones that did not move, with the reason
- Three or four, not twenty
Two: what that means for the next quarter
This is the part a client cannot write themselves and the reason they pay an advisor. If the revenue objective is behind at the halfway point, the question is whether the target moves, the plan changes or the resourcing does. Put a recommendation in writing, with the reasoning, so it can be disagreed with.- A recommendation, not a list of options
- The reasoning, so it can be argued with
- What you would do if it were your business
Three: what you need from them
Decisions you cannot make, information you have asked for twice, people whose time you need. Named, with a date. Most advisory engagements stall on something small that nobody wrote down, and this section is where it stops being invisible.- Named owner on their side
- A date, not "soon"
- Carried forward if it is not done
Practical
Questions that come up once you try it.
The structure survives contact with most engagements. These are the places it needs adjusting.
Adjusting it
How long should it be?
Short enough to be read before the meeting. If it needs a walkthrough to make sense it has become a presentation, which is a different thing.
Send it before, or present it?
Send it before. A meeting spent reading a document aloud is the most expensive way to deliver information, and it leaves no time for the decisions.
What about a quarter where little moved?
Say so plainly and spend the report on why. A quiet quarter examined honestly is worth more than a busy one summarised.
Does it change by client size?
The three sections do not. The depth does. A five-person client needs one page, a larger one needs the same shape with more supporting detail behind it.
Who writes it?
Whoever is accountable for the engagement. A report assembled by someone who was not in the meetings will read like one.
What if the client never reads it?
Then the report is not the problem. Ask what they do read, and whether the engagement has an owner on their side at all.
Questions
Questions about quarterly client reporting
What should a quarterly client report contain?
Three sections in order: what changed against the plan, what that means for the next quarter, and what you need from the client. Supporting detail goes behind those. Activity summaries belong in an appendix if they belong anywhere.
Should the report list the hours we spent?
Only if the engagement is billed on time, and then as an appendix rather than an opening. Leading with hours answers a question the client did not ask and invites the one you least want, which is whether the quarter was worth the fee.
How long should a quarterly client report be?
Short enough that the client reads it before the meeting rather than during it. If it needs you to walk through it for it to make sense, it has turned into a presentation and the meeting will be spent reading rather than deciding.
What do you put in a quarter where nothing moved?
Say that plainly in the first section and spend the rest of the report on why, and on what changes next quarter as a result. A quiet quarter examined honestly is worth more to a client than a busy one summarised.
Is a quarterly report the same as a QBR?
They overlap but are not the same. The report is the document and can be read alone; the review is the meeting. Sending the document first is what makes the meeting worth having, because the reading is done before anyone sits down.
Can this be produced from the plan rather than written each time?
The first section can, if your client plans live in a system that holds objectives, measures and progress. The second and third cannot and should not, because the recommendation and the ask are the parts the client is actually paying for.
Working out what to send this quarter? Ask ANI and get a straight answer.
Write the report from the plan, not from memory.
Start free for 30 days and see the first section build itself from where each client actually is.