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Monthly financial report template for bookkeepers
A good monthly report answers three client questions in under five minutes: How did we do? Why? Is the cash OK? This outline gives you a repeatable structure you can use every month, whatever software produces the numbers.
The five-part structure
| Page | What goes on it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Cover | Your firm name and logo, client name, reporting period, date prepared, basis (accrual or cash) and a short status note such as “Unaudited, prepared from the company's accounting records for management use”. | Sets expectations about what the numbers are and are not. |
| 2. Key figures | 6–9 headline numbers: revenue, gross margin, operating margin, net income, operating expenses, cash, current ratio, and runway if the business is losing money. Each with a comparison (prior month and/or same month last year). | Most owners read only this page. Make it count. |
| 3. Trends | 3–4 simple charts over the last 12–13 months: revenue vs. expenses, net income, margins, cash balance. | One month is noise; a trend shows direction. |
| 4. Commentary | 5–10 short sentences explaining the main movements, in plain English, with the dollar and percentage change. | Turns numbers into a conversation. |
| 5. Statements | Profit and Loss (current month, prior month, change, same month last year, year to date) and Balance Sheet (this month-end vs. last month-end). | The detail behind the summary, for owners and lenders who want it. |
Choosing comparison columns
Show the current month next to the prior month (what changed recently) and the same month last year (seasonality removed). Add year to date when the owner thinks in annual targets. Avoid more than five numeric columns on a page; the report becomes a spreadsheet.
In QuickBooks Online and Xero you get these comparisons most easily by exporting the Profit and Loss with monthly columns for the last 13 months. One export then contains the current month, the prior month and the same month last year. See how to export the reports.
Writing the commentary
Keep each sentence to one fact and one reason. A useful pattern is what happened → by how much → why (if known):
- “Revenue was $50,258, up 9.1% ($4,185) from August, mainly from catering income (+$3,651).”
- “Operating expenses rose 4.2%; the largest increase was advertising (+$1,513) for the September promotion.”
- “Cash ended the month at $58,798, up $4,181.”
Only state a reason you can support from the books or from the client. If one account explains most of a change, name it. If not, say the change was spread across several accounts. Avoid recommendations unless that is part of your engagement.
Pre-send checklist
- Bank and credit card accounts reconciled to month-end statements.
- Balance Sheet balances (total assets = total liabilities + equity) and the Net Income on the Balance Sheet agrees with the Profit and Loss year to date.
- No large balances left in Uncategorized Income/Expense, Ask My Accountant or Suspense accounts.
- Accruals and recurring journal entries (depreciation, prepaid expenses, payroll accruals) posted.
- The report period covers whole months, and the accounting basis is the one the client expects.
- Commentary re-read against the final numbers after any late adjustments.
Making it repeatable
Save the report settings in QuickBooks Online or Xero (custom report or saved report layout) so the export looks the same every month. Keep the order of pages, the KPIs and the chart types stable; clients learn where to look, and month-to-month changes stand out.
Turn a QuickBooks Online or Xero export into a client-ready PDF report in your browser.
Open the report builder Try it with sample data