Hiring guide
A monthly finance meeting agenda that ends with recorded decisions
By CFO Index · Published
A finance meeting has not achieved much if everyone understands the numbers but nobody knows what happens next. Use the monthly meeting to make a small set of decisions, assign the work and record what would reopen each decision. This suggested operating format is for a management team working with an internal or fractional CFO; it is not a substitute for formal board approvals or minutes.
Prepare decision requests, not another presentation
Before the meeting, circulate the dated reporting pack and a short list of questions that need a choice. For each question, name the proposal, alternatives, cash implications, evidence gaps, decision deadline and person authorised to decide. Put factual corrections into a separate list. If no decision or material exception needs discussion, shorten the meeting rather than filling time with a page-by-page reading of the pack.
Give a 45-minute meeting an explicit output
The timetable below is an original editorial template, not a required professional standard. Adjust the duration to the number and urgency of decisions. British Business Bank's business-planning guidance supports regular reviews involving key people; it does not prescribe this monthly cadence or this agenda. Urgent liquidity or approval issues should use an earlier escalation route, not wait for the next scheduled meeting.
| Time | Question | Output before moving on |
|---|---|---|
| 0–5 minutes | What happened to the previous actions? | Closed with evidence, overdue or escalated |
| 5–12 minutes | Which cash or commitment exception needs attention? | Amount, deadline and decision owner |
| 12–20 minutes | Which operating assumption changed materially? | Agreed cause or a named investigation |
| 20–35 minutes | Which one or two choices must we make? | Approve, reject, defer or escalate |
| 35–40 minutes | What changes in the forecast or operating plan? | Named updater and controlled version |
| 40–45 minutes | What exactly did we agree? | Read-back of decisions, owners and dates |
Use a decision register that separates approval from execution
Give each decision an ID and retain the original question, options, evidence version and approval authority. Then record the outcome, conditions, implementation owner, due date, completion evidence and next review trigger. Keep approval status separate from action status: an approved purchase is not yet an order placed, and an order placed is not proof that the intended benefit occurred. A fractional CFO may recommend or coordinate without having authority to commit the company. Confirm that authority explicitly.
Replace 'finance to check' with a bounded deferral
Hypothetical example: management is considering a €12,000 software implementation due for payment on 15 October. Before that extra payment, the latest forecast shows €27,000 available at that date. Paying immediately leaves €15,000, below this example company's internally chosen €20,000 minimum by €5,000. The threshold is illustrative, not a recommended reserve. The question is whether to proceed, change timing or decline—not merely whether the annual budget contains the expense.
Record a choice that someone can act on
For that example, a useful entry could read: 'D-014 — defer approval. Operations obtains a written revised payment schedule by 6 October; finance tests it against the same forecast by 7 October; the CEO decides by 8 October. No order is authorised by this meeting.' Keep the original €12,000 case alongside any revised terms. If the supplier refuses the change, the decision remains open; an optimistic forecast entry is not permission to spend. This is a fictional workflow illustration, not a commercial recommendation.
End with a read-back, then verify completion
Read each outcome aloud with its owner and deadline. Ask the owner to confirm the task and the evidence needed to close it: an approved document, corrected source report or signed supplier amendment, for example. Circulate the register promptly and log corrections without silently replacing the approved record. Start the next meeting with exceptions from this register. Record a missed deadline and a new decision rather than rolling the date forward indefinitely.
Review whether the meeting changed the work
After two cycles, inspect a few decisions from approval through implementation. Can an absent manager tell what was decided, why and whether it happened? Count overdue actions separately from decisions awaiting evidence; do not treat a high approval count as success. Remove recurring agenda items that only repeat the pre-read. Ask your CFO to repair the hand-off that failed, whether that was missing analysis, unclear authority or an owner who could not complete the action.