Investors and angels mostly want the same few numbers every month: how much cash is in the bank, how fast it's going out, how revenue is moving and what you're doing about it. If your books are in Xero, almost all of that comes straight out of three reports. Here's a simple monthly update structure, where each number comes from, and how to stop building it by hand.
What a good monthly update contains
- Headline: one or two sentences on the month. Good news, bad news, what changed.
- Cash and runway: cash in the bank at month end, net cash burn for the month, and how many months of runway that leaves.
- Revenue and margin: this month against the last two or three, so the trend is visible.
- Costs: anything that moved, such as a new hire or a big one-off.
- Asks and next steps: introductions you'd value, decisions coming up.
Short beats long. Most updates fit on one page of text, with the reports attached for anyone who wants the detail.
Where each number comes from in Xero
- Cash at month end: the closing bank balance in the Cash section of the Executive Summary.
- Cash in and out: the Bank Summary, which shows cash received and cash spent for each bank and credit card account. Invoice and bill payments only appear once they're reconciled, so reconcile first.
- Revenue, gross margin and net profit: the Profit and Loss for last month, with the previous months alongside using Compare with.
- Headline figures on one page: the Executive Summary, which brings cash, profitability, debtors and creditors and a few ratios such as gross and net margin together.
- Who owes you money: the Aged Receivables Summary, if late-paying customers affect your cash.
Working out burn and runway
Xero doesn't calculate runway for you, but it's simple arithmetic from the Bank Summary:
- Net burn for the month = total cash spent minus total cash received across your bank and credit card accounts, leaving out any new funding. Transfers between your own accounts appear on both sides, so they cancel out.
- Runway in months = cash at month end divided by average monthly net burn. An average of the last three months is steadier than a single month.
If cash received is higher than cash spent, you aren't burning cash and runway doesn't apply.
Be consistent about how you treat one-off items like a funding round or an annual software bill, and say so in the update.
Sending it every month without the busywork
The writing is the part only you can do. Pulling and attaching the reports isn't. With Reportpost you can set up one schedule for your investor list:
- Pick the Profit and Loss (with two or three comparison months), the Bank Summary and the Executive Summary.
- Set the period to last month and the send date to a few days after you usually reconcile and close the books.
- Add your investors as recipients. Replies come back to you.
- Put your headline and asks in the message field, or keep a short standard note and send a fuller update separately.
- Optionally add a cover page with your logo, and send yourself a test before the first real send.
Every month the figures come fresh from Xero as a tidy PDF, Excel or CSV. You can try the demo without connecting anything.
Related: sending monthly management accounts, the Xero P&L by month and a Xero month-end checklist.