THE ALL-INCLUSIVE

MANAGEMENT
REPORTING
GUIDE
 WELCOME

THE ALL-INCLUSIVE
MANAGEMENT
REPORTING
GUIDE
This is our company’s policy and accountability guide for our own internal
monthly strategic reporting process.

You can use this document as a template for your own management
reporting guide, to ensure that your reporting process is stable and
successful. Below, we cover strategic planning, reporting process, policy,
timeline, accountability, and use of software as applicable.

Throughout this guide, you’ll find two kinds of callout boxes: Blue boxes that
will guide you through each section of the document and explain how you
can apply the information to your own reporting process guide, and orange
boxes that will guide you in how to use ClearPoint software.

They’ll look like this:

REPORTING USE
PROCESS CLEARPOINT?
TIP
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

If you’d like to skip to a particular section, use the table of contents below.

CONTENTS
THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS 4
OUR STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS 4
OUR STRATEGIC PLAN 5
HOW WE MANAGE OUR STRATEGY 6
SCORECARDS 7
HIGH-LEVEL SUMMARY REPORT 8
STRATEGIC ELEMENT DETAILS 10
ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, & RULES 12
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT ROLES 12
SETTING TARGETS 14
SETTING RAG STATUSES 16
REPORTING 18
OUR REPORTING CALENDAR 18
MEETING REPORTS 20
REVIEW MEETINGS 22
MEETING PREPARATION 26
UPDATING DATA 27
PREPARING REPORTS 28
REPORT MANAGEMENT 29
CHANGE MANAGEMENT 30
TYPES OF CHANGES 31
CONTACT INFORMATION 32
GLOSSARY 33

THERE’S A BETTER WAY 34

 THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

REPORTING
The goal of this section in your reporting guide
PROCESS
TIP is to introduce your strategic plan and explain
how you go about managing and executing that
plan. Take the time to explain why performance
management is important to your organization.
The process of performance management is
easier and will run more smoothly if employees
recognize how it helps them.

OUR STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

●● We began our formal strategic planning process in 20XX. We revised
the process in 20XX when we completed our second five-year plan
for 20XX–20XX.
●● During the course of the year, we have several different meetings and
create review documents for different constituencies. The reporting
calendar and meeting schedule is created and released for the full
year in December of the previous year.
●● We have the following key processes around our strategic plan:
☐☐ The five-year planning process takes place a year before the end
of the previous five-year plan.
☐☐ The annual planning process, top-down priority goals, and
bottom-up activity setting are based on defined budgets that
happen in the fall of each year.
☐☐ The quarterly reviews are held at the department level, and semi-
annual reviews are held at the top of the organization.
☐☐ STAT meetings are held monthly, with each month focusing on a
different business unit.
●● It is important that we plan strategically for the long term and the
short term. Since we began this strategic planning process, we have
seen improvements in all of our business units. We can now see how
the activities at each business unit affect the overall strategy of the
organization and contribute to its success.
 THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS

OUR STRATEGIC PLAN

●● Our strategic plan has four focus areas:

☐☐ Financial: “If we succeed, how will we look to our stakeholders?”
☐☐ Customer: “What do our customers expect from us?”
☐☐ Internal: “To satisfy our customers, at which business processes
must we excel?”
☐☐ Learning & Growth: “To be successful, how must our organization
learn and improve?”
●● Each of the focus areas are supported by several key goals. It is
important that our goals align to our focus areas, since these are the
areas of the organization we have determined are strategic to our
success. We measure our progress at the corporate strategy level, as
well as at each of our business-unit levels.
●● Measures and projects at each business unit are tied to the strategic
plan and roll up to the overall corporate strategic plan where
applicable. Our strategic planning process and strategic plan are
transparent so all members of the organization can recognize how
they contribute to our organization’s success.
 HOW WE MANAGE OUR STRATEGY

HOW WE MANAGE OUR STRATEGY

REPORTING
PROCESS In this section, explain the tools you use to
TIP
manage your strategy. If you use software,
include the capabilities and important areas
of the software here. If you use Excel and
PowerPoint, include information on where the
documents are stored and how to access them.

In our organization, we review our strategic plan on a quarterly basis. To do

this, we pull together a reporting document that covers all of our goal areas.
We evaluate using RAG status, measure charts, and qualitative analysis.
While all of this information is provided online ahead of time, we conduct
our reviews offline in the main conference room with our executive team.
The outcomes of these reviews are then put back into our software and the
action items are tracked.

USE
CLEARPOINT? You may want to include the following:

● A link to the login page.

● A link to the support center.
 HOW WE MANAGE OUR STRATEGY

SCORECARDS

REPORTING
PROCESS Use this section to explain how your strategy
TIP
is organized. Do you use scorecards for each
department or focus area? Also, provide
screenshots of your software account or
strategic documents so users can become
familiar with your terminology and how you
manage.

Each business unit in our organization has its own scorecard. These
departmental scorecards roll up into an organization-wide scorecard that is
based on our strategic goals and measures.

USE
CLEARPOINT? Make sure you explain the structure of the
scorecards within your account. Tell users they
may not be able to see all of the scorecards,
as that is dependent on their user permission
settings.
 HOW WE MANAGE OUR STRATEGY

HIGH-LEVEL SUMMARY REPORT

REPORTING
PROCESS Use this section to explain to your users some
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of the ways you review information for your
strategic plan. It may be helpful to explain
specific summary reports you have created
in your software if they are used consistently
throughout your organization.

High-level summary reports allow us to compare data between different

goals, measures, and projects that are part of our strategic plan. We can
view data over time and see the status of each of the elements in our
strategic plan.

We use the “Red Alert” summary report for each scorecard to show
measures that are below plan for the selected period. It shows the measure
name and status, the owner, an analysis, and the time and date it was
last updated. This view allows us to quickly see where we need to make
improvements to our processes.

We use the “Matrix” summary report for each scorecard to show how each
of our measures and series are doing for each period. It shows a heat map
that colors each value according to its status for the period, allowing us to,
again, easily see where improvements should be made and look for trends.
 HOW WE MANAGE OUR STRATEGY

We use the “Alignment Matrix” summary report for the organizational

scorecard to show how the goals and measures from each business unit
align with organizational goals and measures. This view allows us to see
which business units are performing well and where most resources may
need to be spent. It also allows members of the organization to see which
organizational goals their individual projects and measures are affecting.

USE
CLEARPOINT? Explain all your important summary reports
in this section. Describe why each one is
important and what users can gain from it. You
can also provide instructions for where to find
the summary reports in your ClearPoint account.
Include screenshots so users can see the
reports you are describing.
 HOW WE MANAGE OUR STRATEGY

STRATEGIC ELEMENT DETAILS

REPORTING
PROCESS Use this section to explain what information
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you are tracking for each of your strategic
elements, including goals, measures, and
projects. These may be different for elements
at the organizational level and at the business-
unit level. You may want to provide a list of each
field and what it means.

Each element of our strategic plan is tracked over time with several different
types of information. It is important that this information is kept up-to-date so
our leadership teams can drill into specific elements and see how they are
performing and why.

We track the following information for each of our measures:

●● Owner: The owner is the person responsible for updating

the measure each period. They input any data, analysis, and
recommendations that are necessary to explain performance. It does
not change from one period to the next.
●● Charts: Charts can be customized to show the needed series in the
format that is most appropriate. They are updated as new data is
input.
●● Analysis: The owner should update this field each period with
qualitative analysis that helps explain the data for the period.
●● Recommendations: The owner should update this field each period
with suggestions related to the measure for upcoming periods.
 HOW WE MANAGE OUR STRATEGY

●● Attachments: The owner can add any additional or supplemental

documents in this field.
●● Projects: Any projects that are linked to this measure will show in this
field.
●● Action Items: Any action items that are linked to this measure will
show in this field.
●● Measure Data: This is the data table. All data related to this measure
should be input into the data table.

USE
CLEARPOINT? This is where you’ll describe detail pages to
your users. Make sure you include specifics for
each of your different element types including
objectives, measures, and initiatives. You can
also provide screenshots to make it easy for
users to visualize and understand.
 ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, & RULES

ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, & RULES

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT ROLES

REPORTING
PROCESS This section covers many of the reporting
TIP
roles and responsibilities in your organization.
Remember, you should customize this section to
the needs of your organization.

Accountability is paramount in performance management. It’s a lot easier to

ensure we get our staff in the habit of executing on our reporting process if
they understand what this means for them and why their role is important.
It is critical for everyone to understand where they fit into the reporting
process.

BASIC ROLES

●● Executive Team: This team is typically responsible for making

decisions in the organization. As individuals, they usually own some
component of the strategic plan, and as a group, they meet regularly
and assess progress. This team should be aware of information in
the reporting process, but they may not be responsible for providing
updates of data and analysis.
 ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, & RULES

●● Core Team: The core team is typically composed of members of

the organization just beneath the leadership team. This group has
analysts that gather data about measures and projects and often help
build the first draft of the management report that is then updated
with appropriate analysis for members of the executive team. The
core team includes individuals from across the organization.
●● Reporting Administrator: This is an individual (sometimes with
additional help) who is responsible for managing the reporting
process. The person manages this document and ensures the smooth
running of all the pieces described in this document.

USE
CLEARPOINT? Add a section here describing user permissions.
It’s important to let users know why they can
access some information but not all of it. They
should also know what they can expect to be
able to do within ClearPoint.
 ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, & RULES

SETTING TARGETS

REPORTING
PROCESS Use this section to explain why targets are
TIP
important and how you should go about setting
them. You can also define how far in advance
targets must be set and what the process is for
changing targets.

There are two ways to reach a target: Improve your results or reduce your
target. We want to improve our results.

SETTING INITIAL TARGETS

Targets allow us to recognize if we‘re improving our performance at the

desired rate. They should be achievable, yet challenging. For measures,
targets are a value that we want our performance to reach. Keep in mind
that some measures may have targets below the current value if you are
trying to decrease the value. Projects also have targets. These targets are
the dates you want to have the project completed by, any budgets you have
set, as well as any outcomes you are trying to achieve.

Here are some questions to keep in mind when you’re setting your targets:

●● Are there laws or authorities that require a performance target? If

so, make sure your target is equal to or above the required target.
●● What is the performance baseline or trend? You want to make sure
you’re improving your performance, so look at your historical data to
inform your future goal.
●● What do your customers want? It’s important to listen to what your
 ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, & RULES

customers need, want, and expect. Don’t forget that you also must
consider the resources you have available. While customer input is
essential, it cannot be the only factor.
●● How are similar organizations performing in this area? Other
organizations’ performance serves as a good example to know how
you should be performing, especially if the measure is a differentiator
between you and a competitor. Find out benchmarks or other industry
standards. Try to meet them, and then aim to exceed them.

Note: When data is available, it should be recorded, and there should

be a corresponding target. This could be monthly, quarterly, or annually,
depending on the measure. You can set your quarterly or monthly targets
based on your target for the year if you prefer, but you should have a value
to strive for every time data is entered in the system.

CHANGING TARGETS

If you have your targets set for the year, but surpass them early on, you
can increase them. Since targets are set at the beginning of the year and
can be controlled by the performance management team, you need to fill
out a performance management change request form by the change form
due date outlined in our reporting calendar. You can also request to have
a target decreased if circumstances change and it is no longer attainable,
but make sure you have well thought-out reasoning! Change requests are
important so that when the entire team reviews information, the targets are
not constantly changing. You will always have a documented way to review
the process.

For more information about how to set targets,

please refer to this article: How To Set KPI Targets
 ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, & RULES

SETTING RAG STATUSES

REPORTING
PROCESS RAG (red, amber, and green) statuses are a way
TIP
of showing how well each of your elements is
doing. Every organization defines each status
color differently. It may even be different
from element-to-element within the same
organization. Use this section of your reporting
guide to provide your users with guidelines
for setting their RAG statuses so there is
consistency throughout the organization.

We use color status indicators in our reporting so we can easily see how
well all our elements are performing. These statuses are called RAG (red,
amber, and green) statuses, which represent the colors of each indicator. We
define each status indicator as follows:

●● Green: The element is on target. In order to have a green status, the

value is generally at or achieving the target.
●● Yellow: The element is not meeting target and needs attention in
order to reach the target by the required time. In order to have a
yellow status, the value is generally within a certain range of the
target (for example, within 1-15%).
●● Red: The element is not close to target, and there is a high risk that
it will not be completed by the required time. In order to have a red
status, the value is behind the range required for a yellow status.
 ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, & RULES

Here’s an example of what your RAG status requirements could look like for
a measure.

Measure Name Number Of Survey Responses

Are we reaching for a higher

Higher
or lower number?
Green Value ≥ Target
Value ≥ Target x 0.90
Yellow
(90% Of Target)
Value < Target x 0.90
Red
(Less Than 90% Of Target)

For more information about setting RAG

statuses, please refer to this free download:
The Measure & Goal Evaluation Toolkit
 REPORTING

REPORTING

REPORTING
PROCESS This section is about the main components of
TIP
reporting. You can change the order of how you
implement this to meet your needs, because it
will probably get pretty specific (depending on
your organization).

There are three important parts to any strategy review process: the meeting
calendar, the report, and the meeting itself. In this part of the process, we
break down all three so our review process runs smoothly.

OUR REPORTING CALENDAR

In order for our reporting process to run smoothly, we have a calendar to
follow, and we know we need to stick to it. This calendar includes all of our
important dates, including the dates of each meeting, the dates that certain
elements need to be updated by, when each period will be locked so no
further changes can be made, and when reports will be generated. The
calendar is color-coded to clearly indicate due dates and the key is located
below.

We have scheduled our meetings throughout the year, so we do not expect

any excuses for missing deadlines or meetings.
 REPORTING

Per the example calendar below, the due date for each item is the date on
the calendar marked by the corresponding color. The task must be complete
by 11:59 p.m. on that day.

REPORTING CALENDAR

MONTH
S M T W T F S

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30

Update Reminders Sent

Second Reminder Sent

Data Due & Period Locked

Data Review

Report Generated

Departmental Meetings

Change Forms Due

 REPORTING

MEETING REPORTS

REPORTING
PROCESS In this section, explain what the report is that
TIP
you use to run your meeting. This will have all
the information you want to review—not just the
agenda. You’re reviewing your goals, measures,
and projects, so where do they live? Also,
make sure you lay out who is responsible for
creating the report and ensuring that it is ready
for the meeting. You will want to send out the
There are three important parts to any strategy review process: the meeting
report several days ahead of the meeting for
calendar, the report, and the meeting itself. In this part of the process, we
attendees to review.
break down all three so our review process runs smoothly.

For our meetings, we use specific reports that show the data and
information we want to cover. These reports contain the goals, measures,
and projects specific to each business unit, along with high-level reports that
show measures according to their status.

Every element has an owner who is responsible for updating their elements
according to the calendar laid out in the previous step. The administrative
assistant for each department will ensure that all measures are updated for
the period before the time of the meeting. After confirmation, that individual
will create the report.
 REPORTING

Each report contains the following:

●● A cover page with the name of the business unit, date of the meeting,
and date that the report was created.
●● A list of all business unit goals.
●● A list of all business unit measures.
●● A list of measures that have a red status for the reporting period
under review plus detail pages for each of these measures.
●● A list of current business unit projects and their associated
milestones.
●● Action items that have been recently completed or are still
outstanding.

It is expected that meeting participants review the read-ahead report

before the meeting so that they are familiar with the status of our strategic
elements. The report template is named “Quarterly Review” and can be
generated by the performance management officers.

We focus on the following high-level reports during these meetings:

●● All business unit goals and their associated measures.

●● All business unit measures that have a red status for the reporting
period under review.
●● All current business unit projects and their associated milestones.

USE
CLEARPOINT? Include information here about where to find
each of these reports in the system. Also,
explain that you’ll run the meeting by projecting
ClearPoint onto a display screen.
 REPORTING

REVIEW MEETINGS

REPORTING
PROCESS This section should explain exactly what your
TIP
strategy review meetings will look like. It should
answer the following questions:

● What is the purpose of the meeting?

● Who attends the meeting and what is
everyone’s role?
There are three important parts to any
● How do strategy
we handle review process:
action items? the meeting
calendar, the report, and the meeting itself. In this part of the process, we
break down all three so our review process runs smoothly.
You probably have several different levels
of meetings—make sure you explain the
significance of them all.

Our organization has several types of strategy review meetings. They

happen at different time intervals and at different levels of the organization.
Our meetings include:

●● Business Unit Review Meetings (Monthly)

●● Senior Management Meetings (Weekly)
●● Senior Management Strategy Review Meetings (Quarterly)
 REPORTING

Please find below an overview and sample agenda for each meeting type.

Meeting Type: Monthly Business Unit Review

Purpose: Review the progress of goals, measures, and projects for the
business unit.

Attendees:

●● Business Unit Director (Leads meeting.)

●● Administrative Assistant (Responsible for creating the agenda and
taking notes during the meeting.)
●● Measure Owners & Collaborators
●● Project Managers

Note: If discussing a specific project, others can be added to the invite list
for that month.

Action Items: At the beginning of the meeting, we will discuss the

progress of action items from the previous month. During the meeting, the
administrative assistant will capture action items in the notes. At the end of
the meeting, we will review action items and make sure they are all assigned
an owner. The administrative assistant will then send out a copy of the notes
and action items to all who attended the meeting, as well as anyone who
should have been in attendance but missed it.
 REPORTING

SAMPLE MEETING AGENDA

REPORTING
PROCESS It’s important that you have an agenda to
TIP
follow during review meetings. This is a good
place to provide a sample agenda so those
responsible for creating meeting agendas can
create them consistently. Make sure you note
who is responsible for creating agendas as well
as when and how they need to be created and
sent to meeting attendees.

Meeting Name: Monthly Business Unit Review (Marketing)

Date of Meeting: December 7, 2016 Time: 10:00-11:00 a.m.

Review Goals,
Meeting Purpose: Prepared By: Dan Smith
Measures & Projects

Attendees

• Dan Smith, Administrative Assistant

• Jane Farmer, Director Of Marketing
• Henry Johnson, Project Manager
• Frank Miller, Marketing Analytics

Estimated Time (In

Item Lead
Minutes)

Review Of Past Action Items Jane Farmer 10

Review Of Red Measures Frank Miller 15

Review Of Key Projects Henry Johnson 15

Action Item Recap Dan Smith 10

 REPORTING

USE
CLEARPOINT? You should also include your briefing book
with the agenda when you send it to meeting
attendees. You may also want to include the
scorecards and summary reports you will be
reviewing.

Still planning your review meetings?

Check out our free guide:
How To Lead Effective Strategy Review Meetings
 MEETING PREPARATION

MEETING PREPARATION

REPORTING
PROCESS This section of your reporting guide is where
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you should cover how to prepare documents
for review meetings. Include instructions and
accountability information for the members of
the team that will be updating your software.
This is where you should include your
personalized process for updating information
and creating the reports needed.

Meeting preparation is critical to a good management reporting process.

When you have poorly structured information and are lacking data, you
cannot have a good meeting.

Here are the instructions we use for preparing for each review meeting.
 MEETING PREPARATION

UPDATING DATA

REPORTING
PROCESS In this section, give step-by-step instructions
TIP
to your users for how to update their data.
Make sure you include screenshots from your
software so users know exactly where to go and
what to update.

Every month our data needs to be updated to prepare for the monthly
review meetings. We make sure our team follows along on the reporting
calendar so the elements they are each responsible for are updated by the
appropriate date.

USE
CLEARPOINT? Include instructions here about how to update
your data, as well as screenshots of data tables
and explanations of periods.
 MEETING PREPARATION

PREPARING REPORTS

REPORTING
PROCESS Within this section, you should provide step-by-
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step instructions for creating the reports that will
be used in your meetings. If you have turnover
in your organization or someone is absent
unexpectedly, it is important that your process
is documented so the report can still easily be
generated.

We like to remind the owners of goals, measures, and projects to update

their information. To do this, we send out two reminder emails each month.

The first email is a gentle reminder one week before the report is due, and
the second email is more of a stern reminder that their elements will be
locked in 24 hours, so the system must be updated.

Afterward, the administrator will lock the period, review the information, and
then generate the report and email it to the leadership team. The report
structure is the same each month so we avoid surprises or confusion among
the leadership team.

USE
CLEARPOINT? Include instructions so a user can create and
export the appropriate briefing book for
the meeting.
 MEETING PREPARATION

REPORT MANAGEMENT

REPORTING
PROCESS Sometimes organizations have a challenge with
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version control for meetings. This section deals
with managing version control to get a good,
clean report out the door. (You may or may
not need a section like this in your own policy
document.)

In order to ensure we have only one fully updated version of our reports
for meetings, we lock the source software several days before the report is
generated. The reporting officers lock periods at the appropriate time.

We make sure we take the necessary time to review all information

before we generate a report (at least before we send the report out to the
leadership team). The report should have a date and time stamp on the
front, so we include that in our meeting reminder email.
 CHANGE MANAGEMENT

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

REPORTING
PROCESS At this point, you will have already established
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roles for all the people involved in your
management reporting process. In order to
keep the process consistent, there must be a
process for changing the system. The person
making those changes to the process will
typically be your reporting administrator. In this
section, tell your users what kind of changes are
permitted, how users request changes, and how
those requests get approved.

In order to make any changes to our performance management process,

a request must go through our reporting administrator. We ask that team
members have all approvals needed before submitting the request to the
reporting administrator. Requests must be submitted using a performance
management process change request form by the date outlined in our
reporting calendar.
 CHANGE MANAGEMENT

TYPES OF CHANGES

PROCESS CHANGES

People in the senior management level of the organization are the only ones
who can make a process change request. This is to ensure consistency and
to prevent unnecessary and unbeneficial changes to the process.

ELEMENT & DATA CHANGES

We lock past periods in the system to ensure the security and accuracy of
data. The reporting administrator must make any changes after the period
lock date on the reporting calendar. If someone wants to suggest a new
measure to replace an old measure, they must justify the request through
the change form, and both measures must be presented for two reporting
cycles so the leadership team can see the impact of using the new measure
without losing sight of what was agreed to at the beginning of the year.

CHANGE REQUEST FORM

This is where we include a link to our change request form. In order to

complete the form, a team member needs the following information:

●● Name, Title, Department

●● Type Of Change Requested
●● Period, Old Data, New Data
●● Reason For Change

We ask that they submit the form to our reporting administrator by the date
defined on our reporting calendar in order for the change to take place
before the next reporting period.
 CHANGE MANAGEMENT

CONTACT INFORMATION

REPORTING
PROCESS Include a section in your document that
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provides details about your management
reporting guide and contact information for the
person with ownership.

This handbook is intended to provide a basic introduction to

performance management and our reporting processes.

For questions or a copy of our [software] user guide, please contact the
[office responsible for these documents and the software].
We’re just a phone call or email away!

Phone: [Phone Number] Email: [Email Address]

 GLOSSARY

GLOSSARY

REPORTING
PROCESS Use a section like this in your own reporting
TIP
guide to define any terms used in your
management reporting process that users
may be unfamiliar with. Here’s a starter list
you can expand upon and edit based on your
organization’s needs.

●● Office of Strategy Management

●● Scorecard
●● Monthly Business Review Meeting
●● Measure Analyst
●● Goal Owner
●● Initiative
THERE’S A BETTER WAY
Having a complete management reporting process is
extremely important. A guide like this helps organizations
and leadership teams manage their monthly and quarterly
reports both smoothly and efficiently—individuals can join
and leave the reporting office without skipping a beat or
forgetting details,
and ultimately,
everyone will
have a better
understanding
of their roles and
responsibilities.

ClearPoint allows you to manage both your goals and

objectives—as well as the processes for updating
and reporting on them. If you’d like to see how this could
work for your organization, schedule a free, customized
demo of our software. If you have your own management
reporting process or think we missed anything, tweet
us @clearpointstrat.