CLEARPOINT STR
ATEGY ·
R
EPORTING TEMPLATE
Board & Council
Report Template
A reusable structure for the report your
board or council
actually needs — overall status, the
objectives and KPIs behind it, the budget picture, risks, and the decisions you're asking
them to
make. Built so the numbers come from your li
ve pl
an, not a spreadsheet rebuilt the night before.
Organization
Board / Council / Committee
Reporting period
Meeting date
Prepared by
Date prepared / version
How to use this template. Fi
ll the six sections in or
der — Executive Summary firs
t (it's the only page some m
embers read), detai
l after. Every
status uses the same Red / Ambe
r / Green key on page 2
. Wherever a field would be re-type
d each cycle (KPI actuals, proj
ect %, budget
lines), that's a signal it should be pulled automatically fro
m your performan
ce platform — flag those ro
ws so reporting s
to
ps being manual.
Board & Council Report Template · clearpointstrategy.com
1 Executive summary
(one page — lead with the answe
r)
Overall status this period
Overall RAG
One-line summary
Change since last report
GREEN
on track
AMBER
at risk / watch
RED
off track — action needed · Use this same key ever
ywhe
re in the repor
t.
Key wins this period
1
.
2
.
3.
Key risks / issues
1
.
2
.
3.
Decisions requested of the board / council
Decision or
motion requested
Owner
By when
T
ip: if th
e
r
e a
r
e no d
e
c
i
s
i
o
n
s r
e
queste
d, s
ay so e
xplic
i
tl
y — it t
ell
s t
h
e b
o
a
r
d th
i
s is an info
rm
a
ti
o
n item, n
o
t an a
c
ti
o
n item.
THE REPORTING RULE MOST PACKS MISS
A board or council report is only as current as its least-maintained n um ber. If a KP I shows the same value three periods runnin g, treat it as stale until proven otherwise — the owner may have stopped updating i t. Mark any measure not refreshed this cycl e rather than presenting las t peri od's figure as current.
1 · Executive summary
2 Strategic obje
ctives — status
Objective
Owner
Status
Tren
d
Note / next step
▲
▬
▼
▲
▬
▼
▲
▬
▼
▲
▬
▼
▲ ▬ ▼
E
v
e
ry objectiv
e h
a
s e
x
a
c
tl
y one acco
un
t
ab
l
e o
wn
e
r
. An objec
tiv
e w
i
th no o
wn
e
r is th
e s
in
gl
e s
tr
onge
s
t p
r
e
dictor of a r
eport g
o
in
g s
t
al
e
.
3 Key performance measures
(KPIs)
Measure
Target
Actual
Status
Owner
Last updated
Auto?
Y
/
N
Y
/
N
Y
/
N
Y
/
N
Y / N
Y / N
"A
u
t
o
?" = is th
i
s v
alu
e p
ulle
d automati
c
al
l
y fr
o
m y
o
ur l
iv
e p
l
a
n, or re-keye
d by h
a
n
d e
a
c
h c
y
c
l
e
? E
v
e
ry "N" is tim
e y
o
u spend, a
n
d a place th
e r
eport c
a
n s
il
e
n
tl
y f
al
l o
u
t of
dat
e
.
2–3 · Objectives & KPIs
4 Init
iatives & projects — progress
Initiative
/ project
% complete
Status
Owner
Next milestone & date
5 Budget & financial summary
Budget line / program
Budgeted
Actual / spent
Variance
Status & note
FOR GOVERNMENT
COUNCILS
Financi al figures presented to a counci l feed the public record and your audit trail, and GASB Statement No. 103 (Financial Reporting Model Improvements) raises the bar on how con sistently that infor mation is presen te d. Keep the numbers in this section reco nciled to the same source your published dashboard and financial state ments draw from — one plan, o ne set of figures, eve rywhere.
4–5 · Projects & budget
6
Risks, issues & watch items
Risk / issue
Severity
Likelihood
Owner
Mitigation / ask
Before you send: a 6-point report-readiness check
Every objective and KPI has one named
owne
r. Ownerless i
tems are where reports go stale firs
t.
Every value was refreshed this cycle
— or is c
learly marked "not updated
." No last-period number is pas
sed off as current.
The executive summary answers "are
we on track?" in the first line
— before an
y detai
l.
Decisions requested are stated expli
citly (
or the report says there are none).
Figures reconcile to the same source as your
dashboa
rd / financ
ial statements — on
e set of numbers ev
erywhere.
Anything marked "Auto? = N" is a candidate to automate before next cycle, so this pack builds i
tself from liv
e dat
a.
FROM
TEMPLATE
TO AUTOMA
TIC
This template captures w h a t a good board or council report contains. The next step is making it build itself: when your objectives, KPIs, projects, and budget live in one performance platf orm, the pack — and the public dashboard beside it — generat e from the same live data, and the manual rebuild disappears. See it in practice → cle arpoi ntstrategy.com/blog/board-reporti ng-software
6 · Risks & readi
ness check
