Charity board packs from Xero: what trustees need monthly

Trustees and board members of a charity or not-for-profit usually want a short pack before each meeting: how income and spending are going, how much cash there is, how things compare with the budget and, for many organisations, how each fund or project is doing. If the books are in Xero, most of that comes straight from a few reports. This guide covers what to include and how to get it to the board without rebuilding it every month.

This is about internal management reporting for your board. Statutory annual accounts and any regulator returns have their own rules in each country, so follow your accountant's or regulator's guidance for those.

What a board pack usually contains

1. A short commentary: the headline for the period, anything unusual, decisions the board needs to make.
2. Income and expenditure: the period and the year to date, ideally with the previous periods alongside.
3. Budget against actual: where income or spending is running ahead or behind plan.
4. Cash and reserves: money in the bank and how it has moved.
5. Funds or projects: income and spending per fund, grant or project, especially where money is restricted to a purpose.
6. Who owes you: unpaid invoices, for organisations that invoice for services or memberships.

The Xero reports behind it

• Income and expenditure: the Profit and Loss report. Xero calls it Profit and Loss; many boards know the same figures as income and expenditure.
• Budget against actual: set up a budget in Budget Manager, then use the Budget Variance report in Xero. The Budget Summary shows the budget itself by period.
• Cash: the Bank Summary for money in and out of each account, and the Balance Sheet for the position at the period end.
• Funds or projects: a common approach is a tracking category such as "Fund" or "Project", then running the Profit and Loss with one column per fund or filtered to one. See Xero reports by tracking category.
• Debtors: the Aged Receivables Summary.

If you track funds this way, tag income and spending consistently, and decide how shared costs like rent or salaries are handled. Your accountant can advise on how restricted and unrestricted funds should be treated in your accounts.

Sending the pack before every meeting

The commentary needs a person. Pulling the reports doesn't. With Reportpost you can set up a schedule for your board or finance committee:

1. Pick the Profit and Loss (with comparison periods), the Balance Sheet, the Bank Summary and, if you use budgets, the Budget Summary.
2. Choose monthly or quarterly to match your meeting cycle, and a send date after your books are closed.
3. Add the trustees as recipients and put the meeting date or a note in the message. Replies come back to you.
4. For a funds view, add a second schedule with the Profit and Loss by your "Fund" tracking category, with every fund as a column or just one fund for a particular committee (comparison periods aren't shown in this view).
5. Optionally add a cover page with your logo, and send yourself a test first.

Reportpost sends the Budget Summary rather than Xero's Budget Variance report, so for a budget-against-actual view the board compares it with the Profit and Loss, or you add that comparison to your commentary. You can try the demo without connecting Xero.

Related: sending monthly management accounts, reporting on several branches or projects and the Xero year-end checklist.