Export financial reports

Generate the monthly financial reports for June: P&L, cash flow, and revenue by customer. Use transaction and invoice data to populate gross revenue, refunds, fees, and net revenue. Send drafts to the finance director, Maria Gonzalez, by Monday for review, and include a one-paragraph summary of any large variances versus May.

Before exporting the financial reports, make them straightforward for the CFO to approve. Surface net revenue and major variance drivers on the first page, include a reconciled line showing payment processor fees as a percentage of gross revenue, and flag any customers contributing more than 10% of revenue. Call out one suspected anomaly and what we’ll do to investigate.

I finished the June P&L and net revenue dropped by 7% month-over-month. I can’t tell if this is due to increased fees, timing of receipts, or more refunds. The CFO needs an answer tomorrow. What’s the quickest way to narrow the cause to one of those options, which data pulls should I run now, and what interim note should I put in the report while we investigate?

Every month the financial report brings surprises that force frantic reconciliations and questions from the exec team. We spend the week before close firefighting instead of validating assumptions earlier. What regular habit or checkpoint should I establish during the month to catch anomalies early and make month-end close calm and predictable?