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Bruno Ashford @brunoashfordSubscribeModule 9 · Lesson 9.5 · 12 min
The Monthly Report That Writes Itself
Consolidate data from sales, marketing, finance and operations into an executive monthly report with real commentary, in minutes instead of a day.
Use ← → to move. The marker highlights text and the pencil draws on the slide; navigation locks while you annotate. Undo removes the last mark, Esc exits.
1Set up a monthly data folder
Create one folder per month and agree which exports go in it: sales or CRM export, ad platform summary, the reconciliation file from lesson 9.3, the aging report from 9.4 and the ops check from 9.2. Same files, same names, every month.
mkdir -p reports/2026-09/data2Adopt the executive report template
Copy the Monthly Executive Report template from this module's materials into your reports folder. It has a fixed structure: headline, scorecard, what went well, what went wrong, decisions needed, next month's priorities. A fixed structure is what makes months comparable.
3Generate the report from the data
Ask Claude to fill the template from the data folder, with a strict rule: every number must come from a file, and the file must be cited. If a number is missing, it must say so rather than estimate.
Fill reports/monthly-report-template.md using only the files in reports/2026-09/data and last month's report in reports/2026-08. Every number must cite the file it came from. Compare each metric with last month and with the targets in our CLAUDE.md. If data is missing, write MISSING, never estimate. Save as reports/2026-09/monthly-report.md.4Ask for the executive commentary
Now ask for the part that matters: the three to five things that changed most, the likely reasons, and the decisions you need to make. Push back on anything generic. A good commentary names clients, campaigns and amounts.
Write the executive summary for this month's report in under 200 words: the three biggest changes versus last month, the most likely reason for each based on the data, and the two decisions I need to make this month. Be specific and name the clients, campaigns or products involved. Mark anything that is a hypothesis rather than a fact.5Verify before you share
Spot-check at least three numbers against the source files every month, and always check the headline figure. Then export to PDF or paste into your usual format. In Module 10 you will schedule the first draft to be ready on the first working day of each month.
Before I share this, list the five most important numbers in the report with the exact file and row or cell each one came from, so I can verify them.The monthly report is where owners lose a full day and gain very little. Numbers are copied from five tools into one deck, formatted, and then read by nobody because it arrived on the 12th. The real value of a report is not the numbers. It is the three sentences that say what changed, why, and what we do next.
Claude Code is built for this job. It reads the exports you already have, calculates the changes, compares them with last month and with your targets, and writes the commentary in plain English. You spend your time on the part only you can do: deciding what to do about it.
Key points
- The value of a report is the commentary, not the table.
- A fixed template makes every month comparable.
- Every number must cite its source file; missing means missing.
- Always verify the headline figure yourself before sharing.
Avoid
- Letting the agent estimate a number it could not find.
- Accepting generic commentary like sales were strong this month.
- Changing the report structure every month.
- Sharing the report with partners or investors without spot-checking.
A two-site dental clinic in Surrey spent about a day each month building a report for its partners from the practice management system, the booking tool and Google Ads. Now the practice manager drops five exports into the month folder and Claude produces the full report with commentary in under ten minutes. The first version flagged that new patient bookings from one site had fallen 22 percent after a receptionist change, something the partners had missed for two months. The manager's day turned into 45 minutes, most of it spent checking numbers and discussing actions.