What are management accounts?

What are management accounts?

They're not your annual accounts (those are for the IRD and your accountant).

Management accounts are monthly financial reports built for one purpose: helping you make better decisions.

They typically include:

→ Profit & Loss with comparisons to budget and prior year

→ Balance Sheet showing what you own and owe

→ Cash Flow showing where the money actually went

→ KPI dashboard with traffic light indicators

→ Variance analysis explaining why numbers moved

→ Plain-language commentary on what it all means

The difference between annual accounts and management accounts is the difference between a post-mortem and a health check.

One tells you what went wrong. The other helps you stay healthy.