What is board and investor reporting?
The pack, on the same shape every period, with the numbers tied to the ledger.
In Australia, board and investor reporting runs on the same idea — a recurring package tied to the board's own meeting cadence, not the calendar month — but the accountability chain and the year run differently. The financial year runs to 30 June, board packs (the term used here) often align to quarter-ends within it, and the accountant who finalises the statements behind the pack carries the sign-off. A director or investor reading an AU board pack wants the same things — cash position against plan, burn against runway — read against Australian Accounting Standards rather than US GAAP.
The board pack splits the way any serious reporting does: a narrative section — what happened, what changed, what is being asked of the board — and a financial appendix carrying the comparative profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow statement the narrative draws from. A pack that blends the two either buries the numbers in commentary or turns the appendix into something nobody reads before the meeting. We hand over the two as separate, cross-referenced documents.
Why it matters
| Without a system | With CapEasy |
|---|---|
| Performance problems surface a quarter late | A pack that lands on the same day each month |
| Board and investor reporting becomes a scramble before each meeting | Variance against budget, explained in a written note |
| Cash runway is an estimate rather than a number | Board-ready reporting produced from the close you were already doing |
What we need from you
From the close
- Reconciled general ledger
- Trial balance
- AR and AP aging
- Inventory reports if applicable
For comparison
- Budget and forecast data
- Prior period statements
- Segment or entity structure
How it runs, step by step
- Monthly
- Profit & loss
- Balance sheet
- Cash flow statement
- Quarterly
- Consolidated statements
- Quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year comparison
- Cash flow trend analysis
- Year-end
- Year-end statement preparation
- Supporting schedules
- Fixed asset reconciliation
- Management reporting
- Break-even analysis
- Profitability by product or service
- Working capital analysis
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Board and investor reporting, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your registered BAS or tax agent | Everything that carries a licence in Australia — rendered exactly as written: work out what goes on your bas, or advise you on it — under tasa 2009 that requires registration we do not hold. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
Board and investor reporting in Australia
Section 293 — a 5% shareholder can force a formal financial report
Under s.293 of the Corporations Act 2001, members with at least 5% of the votes in a proprietary company can direct it to prepare a financial report, have it audited unless waived, and send it to members — even if the company would otherwise be exempt. It doesn't take a board seat, just enough of the cap table.
Section 45A thresholds — when a proprietary company becomes 'large'
A proprietary company crossing the revenue, gross-asset, or employee-count thresholds in s.45A becomes 'large,' which brings audited statements and ASIC lodgement under s.319 into play where they weren't required before. A board pack that has been consistent right along makes the resulting first audit a review of clean history, not a reconstruction.
AASB consistency, not just period accuracy
A board pack built on shifting recognition from cycle to cycle — revenue treated one way this quarter under AASB 15, differently the next — cannot be trended, and it complicates whatever your accountant finalises at year end. We hold one AASB-consistent basis every cycle so the periods a board sees actually compare.
Director duties under s.180 — care, diligence, and the numbers they are given
Section 180 requires directors to exercise care and diligence, which in practice depends on financial information accurate and timely enough to act on. A board routinely handed a late or inconsistent pack is deciding on a weaker information base than the duty assumes.
What your registered BAS or tax agent receives from us
- A comparative board pack — profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow statement — tied to the closed ledger, same template every cycle.
- A one-page cash and KPI summary: cash position, burn, and runway, calculated from the same source ledger as the statements.
- A variance strip against the prior period and the same period last financial year, with anything crossing a set threshold flagged for a one-line explanation.
- A financial appendix of supporting schedules — debtor and creditor ageing, headcount cost — kept separate from the narrative so it stays short and the appendix stays checkable.
- A narrative draft, grounded in the numbers above, for the founder or finance lead to review, edit, and present as their own.
- A fixed delivery lead time ahead of each board meeting date, set at engagement start and held every cycle.
