Dashboard
- Deliverables
- Defined indicators, a source for each one and an update frequency.
- Decisions it supports
- Read results without multiplying files.
Iter Advisors · Managing performance
Management control and reporting
Understand your margins. Turn figures into actions.
Your accounts show what happened. Management control compares results with objectives and operational activity to identify variances and prepare decisions with the people responsible.
An initial conversation to understand your situation and next steps.
When should you bring in management control support?
External management control means entrusting all or part of budgeting, reporting and performance analysis to a dedicated professional. The work starts with accounting and operational data, then connects it to your business decisions.
- You know revenue, but not margins by activity or channel.
- Reporting takes extensive manual work and arrives after decisions.
- Budget variances are recorded without an explanation or an assigned owner.
Budgets, margins and reporting: the deliverables
Deliverables are agreed during scoping, according to your priorities and available data.
Margin analysis
- Deliverables
- A profit and loss statement by activity, product or channel, with allocation rules.
- Decisions it supports
- Identify contributions and costs to examine.
Budget and variances
- Deliverables
- A budget, comparable actuals and comments on significant variances.
- Decisions it supports
- Adjust actions and revise forecasts.
A documented engagement: Seasonly
P&L modelling by channel: direct to consumer, retail and marketplaces. Inventory management and structuring of working capital financing. Implementation of a weekly dashboard for management and shareholders.
Identify which channels were actually profitable and fund inventory without undermining cash flow.
Read the case and its scopeOngoing work with your financial controller
1. Choose useful questions
Define decisions, analysis dimensions and the indicators actually needed.
2. Make reporting reliable
Reconcile sources, explain calculation rules and document adjustments.
3. Lead the review
Explain variances with operational teams and follow decisions through to the next review.
Connecting accounting, operations and management
Accounting provides an essential foundation. Management control organises its economic interpretation, such as margins by channel or budgets by owner. The two functions coordinate their calendars and rules.
Automation is useful when sources and definitions are stable. An automatically updated dashboard still needs checks, an owner and comments on anomalies. Software does not replace analysis.
How this fits within a Fractional CFO engagementDefine the scope before the quote.
The proposal separates initial reporting setup from ongoing monitoring. The number of entities, sources, analytical dimensions and review frequency determine the scope. If the need also includes financing and leadership decisions, a part-time CFO engagement may be more suitable.
View CFO pricingFAQ: management control
Which indicators should we monitor?
Those that support your decisions: revenue, margin, costs, cash flow or operational indicators, depending on the activity. Definitions and sources need to be agreed before building a dashboard.
Can you work with our current tools?
Scoping examines exports, access and tool limitations. Migration is not automatic; it needs to be justified by needs, costs and the team’s ability to maintain the arrangement.
Do we need real-time reporting?
Frequency depends on the decision and data availability. Weekly cash monitoring or monthly margin reviews may be more relevant than a continuously displayed but incomplete picture.
How does this differ from a part-time CFO?
Management control focuses on budgets, costs, margins and reporting. The CFO also covers broader financial decisions, cash flow, financing and coordination of the finance function.
Useful resources
Which decision or deadline are you preparing for?
Describe your needs, current organisation and calendar. We will identify useful work together.
Describe my needs