The owner
What changes for you. From the first morning to every meeting.
Day 1
Something true about your business you didn’t have to ask for.
Week 1
An insight that surprises you and your team.
Month 1
You walk into every meeting knowing more than anyone in it.
Plants, regions, customers and companies show up as breakdowns wherever your data records them, so the brief can say which one moved.
01 · Founder and CEO
Where the business is heading, before the month closes
The whole business on one page at 06:00: whether the year’s goal is on track, what moved overnight, and the one question worth asking on Monday.
What the brief shows
- Net revenue tracking below the year’s target band
Found byAn actual outside the band stated before it arrived, or a goal slipping
- South fell, and West’s rise hid it in the total
Found byA flat total hiding moves that cancel out underneath
- The week a region’s baseline stepped down, and stayed down
Found byThe week a baseline moved, and stayed moved
02 · Finance
Receivables, margins, and books that agree
Overdue amounts building up, margins drifting, and two systems that should agree and don’t, found before the month-end review.
What the brief shows
- Two systems giving October revenue different values
Found byTwo systems giving the same number different values
- Invoice values piling up just under an approval limit
Found byValues piling up just under a limit or a round number
- Days sales outstanding outside its stated band
Found byAn actual outside the band stated before it arrived, or a goal slipping
03 · Sales and revenue
Accounts going quiet, and revenue resting on a few
Customers still marked active who stopped ordering, a few accounts carrying most of the revenue, a region hidden inside a total.
What the brief shows
- Customers still marked active who haven’t invoiced in months
Found byCustomers still marked active who went silent
- A few customers carry most of the order book, and their share is rising
Found byA few names carrying most of the value
- Enquiries moving weeks before orders do
Found byOne number that moves weeks before another
04 · Operations
Plants, dispatch and process, before the averages move
Spreads widening before the average does, a plant’s baseline stepping, costs that stopped tracking volume.
What the brief shows
- Dispatch time spread widening at one plant while the average held
Found byA spread widening before the average moves
- Freight cost stopped tracking metres dispatched
Found byTwo numbers that moved together, until they didn’t
- An average order size sitting between two very different groups
Found byAn average sitting between two very different groups