Run a Finance Operating Review

A finance operating review connects six distinct records without collapsing them into one number:

1. source freshness
2. observed cash and performance
3. invoice and collection exposure
4. budget plan versus actual
5. cash-flow forecast
6. stress-test decision

Run this review weekly for operating decisions or at close after transactions and invoices are updated.

Participants and access

Invite the people responsible for the underlying records:

• founder or finance owner for decisions
• bookkeeper or operator for source and transaction quality
• collections owner for invoices and receivables
• budget owner for plan changes

Owners and Members can perform the full workflow. Viewers can read most team finance data, but cannot change budgets or execute Forecast runs.

1. Establish the review boundary

Before opening metrics, agree on:

• reporting period
• reporting currency
• accounts included in cash
• decisions the review must answer

Use the same period in Overview and Reports. Treat Cash Balance separately because it is current, not a period total.

2. Validate source health

1. Open Settings → Account → Bank Connections.
2. Confirm expected accounts are connected and enabled.
3. Resolve any connection that needs attention.
4. Open Transactions and review unusual or uncategorized entries that can affect reports.

Reports and Overview do not provide one universal last-sync timestamp. Do not use a clean action queue as proof of a fresh sync.

3. Triage the owner view

Open Finances → Overview.

1. Set Reporting period.
2. Read the Owner brief.
3. Review the health score and weakest signal.
4. Open each Critical action in Do these first.
5. Validate Revenue, Profit, Cash, and Runway.
6. Choose the relevant action from Make more money, Lose less money, or Plan what may be coming.

The page promotes at most three queue items. Use linked product areas for complete lists.

4. Review invoice exposure

Open Invoices → Insights for invoice-performance analysis, then use Receivables for collection work.

Separate:

• invoiced amount from collected cash
• unpaid invoice value from current bank balance
• expected collection timing from observed payment status

If collection timing is material to the decision, plan to use Model real payment behavior in Forecast.

5. Review actual financial performance

Open Finances → Reports.

1. Use Grid to review the KPI strip and curated chart deck.
2. Distinguish observed cards from Runway and Revenue Forecast.
3. Select Table.
4. Review Revenue, Expenses, Profit, and Profit margin against the prior equal-length period.
5. Select Export CSV if the four variance rows need to leave the app.
6. Select Print for a printable view.

CSV is not a raw export of every chart. The report URL and printed output do not grant public access to live workspace data.

6. Review budget variance

Open Finances → Budgets.

1. Select Expense.
2. Review Budget vs Actual and Track & pace.
3. Select Revenue and repeat.
4. Use List for individual monthly targets.
5. Use Grid to review the annual category plan and active budget scenario.

Interpretation:

• Expense actual below plan is favorable.
• Revenue actual above target is favorable.
• Pacing is a linear month-to-date projection.
• Annual projection uses actuals through the current month and budget for future months.

Confirm whether the team is viewing Base plan or a named budget scenario. A budget scenario is a parallel plan version, not a forecast stress case.

7. Review baseline cash risk

Open Finances → Forecast.

1. Choose 6, 12, or 24 months.
2. Reset all assumptions.
3. Confirm baseline Ending cash, Minimum balance, P10/P50/P90 runway, and Cash-negative odds.
4. Check Forecast accuracy.
5. Turn on Model real payment behavior if observed client payment patterns should adjust collections.

If the page says Not enough history to forecast, the baseline is not decision-ready.

8. Test the operating decision

Apply the minimum assumptions needed:

• hiring decision: Headcount change
• large purchase: One-time expense
• customer risk: Clients cancelling or Revenue shock
• collections risk: Collections delay
• cost pressure: Expense surge
• foreign exposure: FX shock

Compare Baseline, Active plan, and Defensive plan. Record:

• ending-cash difference
• P10 and P50 runway
• cash-negative odds
• first Watch, High, or Critical month
• mitigation that improves the result

Save the scenario when the team needs to return to exactly those inputs.

9. Close with a decision ledger

The finance pages do not create a single meeting record. Close the review by recording, in your team's working system or underlying Eigenn records:

• issue
• owner
• due date
• source record
• observed evidence
• budget impact
• forecast assumption
• decision threshold

Do not paste a projected number into an actual field. Keep the source link or saved scenario name with the decision.

Completion checklist

The review is complete when:

• source health is known
• the reporting period and currency are consistent
• every critical Overview item has an owner
• invoice exposure is separated from cash
• Reports variance is understood
• Expense and Revenue budgets were reviewed explicitly
• the active budget scenario is known
• Forecast baseline is usable
• at least one relevant downside and mitigation were compared
• observed, budget, forecast, and scenario figures are labeled correctly

Status guide

Sharing the output

• Use Reports Export CSV for the four-row variance dataset.
• Use Reports Print for a printable current view.
• Use a saved Forecast scenario name to preserve an assumption definition.
• A copied live finance URL requires workspace access.
• Public widgets and Assistant shared snapshots are separate restricted sharing systems.
• Budget and Forecast pages do not create public links.

Troubleshooting

The team is debating different numbers

Confirm period, currency, enabled accounts, budget type, budget scenario, forecast horizon, and active assumptions. Most apparent conflicts come from comparing different record types or scopes.

Budget and forecast disagree

Translate the plan difference into an explicit forecast driver. The systems are intentionally separate.

Invoice exposure is high but cash risk is low

Review timing assumptions. Current cash may cover the horizon, or the baseline may assume collection timing that needs a delay or behavior overlay.

A Viewer can open pages but cannot run the scenario

Forecast execution is a write-backed team operation. Ask an Owner or Member to run and save it.

Exported CSV is too small

The Reports export contains Revenue, Expenses, Profit, and Profit margin variance only. Use underlying record exports for transaction- or chart-level data.

Related pages

• Weekly CFO Review
• First Cash Review
• Financial Overview
• Financial Analytics and Reports
• Budgets and Forecast
• Build and Review a Forecast
• Invoice Insights