What Is an MIS Report and What Should Yours Contain?

Start from the decisions you make

Before listing numbers, ask what you actually decide each month. Which orders to chase, whether to hire, when to buy stock, whom to remind about payment, whether to spend on marketing. Each decision needs a number or two to support it.

Work backwards from those decisions. A number that supports no decision can be dropped, however interesting it looks. A report with a dozen well-chosen figures beats one with a hundred.

The core sections of a useful MIS

Most small businesses can cover the essentials in four blocks: sales, margin and costs, cash and receivables, and operations. Within each, show this month, last month and the same month a year ago where you have it, so that direction is visible.

• Sales: by product, customer group or branch, and order book or pipeline
• Margin and costs: gross margin, major cost lines against budget, contribution where available
• Cash and receivables: closing cash, money owed to you by age, amounts due to suppliers
• Operations: stock levels and slow items, delivery on time, rework or complaints, headcount

Add short commentary, not only tables

Numbers without explanation invite wrong conclusions. Ask the person who prepares the report to add three to five lines on the biggest movements: what changed, why and what is being done. For example, 'collections slipped because two large customers delayed approvals; both have given dates'.

Highlight exceptions with a simple colour code or a note. The reader's eye should land first on what needs attention.

Make the data trustworthy and timely

A report is only as good as the records behind it. Agree the definitions: what counts as a sale, when an invoice is considered overdue, how stock is valued. Write them on the last page. Disputes about definitions waste more meeting time than disputes about actions.

Timing matters too. Set a date, such as the fifth working day, by which the report goes out. A good report that arrives three weeks late describes a business that no longer exists. Where your systems allow, pull the data automatically instead of retyping it.

Use it in a regular meeting

Review the report in a monthly meeting with the heads of sales, operations and finance. Spend most of the time on exceptions and decisions, and end with actions that have owners and dates. Check last month's actions first.

After a few cycles, prune and refine. Remove figures nobody uses and add ones the team keeps asking for. The report should evolve with the business.