Making sense of your monthly report
A report you don't read is a report we shouldn't be writing. This is what's in it, which numbers matter and which don't, the questions worth asking us — and how to tell whether you're actually getting value out of the arrangement.
On this page
On this page
Reporting exists for one reason: so you can make decisions. If a report doesn't change what you'd do next month, it's decoration. So the useful way to read yours isn't front to back — it's to arrive with two or three questions and go looking for the answers.
If you only read one thing
- Compare to the same month last year, not to last month. Venues are seasonal; June will never beat December and that means nothing.
- Look for trends across three months, not single-month movements. One month is noise.
- Ask what a number means before you react to it. A drop in reach with a rise in bookings is a good month.
- Check the hours against what you asked for. If most of your retainer went on reactive fixes, that's worth a conversation.
- Tell us what you actually want to see. Reports should be built around your decisions, not ours.
01 — WorkWork done, and where the hours went
The first thing to look at is the plainest: what was asked for, what was done, and what it took.
| What to look at | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Jobs completed | The straightforward one. Worth scanning for anything you don't recognise — that's usually something a staff member raised without telling you, which is fine, but you should know. |
| Jobs still open | Anything sitting there for weeks deserves a question. Sometimes it's waiting on you, sometimes on a part, sometimes on a decision nobody's made. |
| Split between reactive and planned | The most revealing number in any report. If nearly everything is reactive fault-fixing, you're spending your budget on symptoms. That's the trigger for a conversation about what's causing them. |
| Hours used against your retainer | Consistently over means the arrangement is undersized or something is wrong. Consistently well under means you're either in great shape or not asking for things you should be. |
| Repeat faults | The same equipment appearing month after month. That's a replace-or-repair decision waiting to be made, and it's usually cheaper to make it than to keep paying for visits. |
| Anything we flagged | Ageing equipment, capacity limits, a system nearing end of support. These are the notes that turn into next year's capital budget — read them before the budget is set, not after. |
"What did we spend the most time on this month, and could we have avoided it?" That's the question that turns a report into a decision. Sometimes the answer is a printer that needs replacing, sometimes a process, sometimes a staff member who needs ten minutes of training. All three are cheaper than another month of the same.
03 — NoiseNumbers that don't mean much
- Total follower count. A vanity number. Ten thousand followers who never visit is worth less than eight hundred locals who do.
- Impressions on their own. The same person seeing a post six times counts six times. Fine as a rough signal, meaningless as a target.
- Month-on-month comparisons in a seasonal business. February will not beat December. That's your trade, not your marketing.
- A single post's performance. One post going well or badly tells you almost nothing. Three months of pattern tells you a lot.
- Comparisons to venues unlike yours. A city pub with a young crowd and a regional bowls club aren't playing the same game. Compare yourself to yourself.
- Platform-wide changes. If everyone's reach dropped in a month, that's the platform changing what it shows, not your content getting worse. We'll say so when that's what happened.
If a number in your report is one of these and you'd rather not see it, say so. We'd genuinely rather send you four numbers you act on than twenty you scroll past.
04 — TechnologyThe technology side
Less glamorous, more consequential. Worth reading properly once a quarter even if you skim it monthly:
- Backups. Are they running, and have they been tested? A backup nobody has ever restored from is a hope, not a backup. Ask when yours was last verified.
- Updates and patching. Whether your systems are current. This is the boring line that prevents the bad week.
- Ageing equipment. Anything we've flagged as nearing the end. This is the section that should shape your capital budget rather than surprise it.
- Recurring faults. The same thing failing repeatedly is almost always cheaper to replace than to keep fixing. We'll tell you when we think you've crossed that line.
- Storage and capacity. Including your CCTV retention, which quietly shrinks as cameras are added — see the footage guide.
- Accounts and access. Worth reviewing once a year against who actually works there. See staff access.
We try to raise things once, plainly, without alarm. If the same warning appears in three consecutive reports — a server past its life, backups that can't be verified, a switch running at capacity — that's us telling you as clearly as we know how. Those are the items that become an expensive weekend if left. Ask us what it would cost to fix properly and put it in the budget.
05 — QuestionsQuestions worth bringing to us
Arrive with these rather than reading passively. Any of them is a better use of half an hour than a full read-through:
Ask us any month
- Where did the hours go?
- And how much of it was avoidable?
- What's the one thing you'd fix?
- If we could do one improvement at your venue next month, what would we choose and why?
- What worked best, and why?
- Which content earned the most attention, and what does that tell us to do more of?
- What are we not doing that we should be?
- Genuinely useful. We see a lot of venues and the gaps are usually obvious from outside.
- What's coming that we should budget for?
- Anything ageing, out of support, or approaching capacity in the next twelve months.
- Are we asking for the right things?
- If most requests are urgent fixes, what would move us to planned work?
- How do we compare to how we were a year ago?
- The only comparison that's really fair.
If the answer to any of these isn't in your report and you want it to be, tell us — we'll change the report.
06 — BoardsTaking it to a board or committee
A monthly operational report and a board paper are different documents, and handing a board the former usually goes badly. What a board wants:
- One page, three or four numbers, with last year alongside for context
- What changed and what it cost — in plain language, with no jargon at all
- Anything needing a decision or money, stated as a recommendation rather than a description of a problem
- Risks in one sentence each — what could go wrong, what it would cost, what prevents it
- Nothing they can't ask a question about. A metric no director understands will get challenged instead of the thing that matters.
If you need a board-ready summary each month or each quarter, ask us and we'll produce one alongside the operational report. It's a different document for a different audience, and it's much easier for us to write than for you to translate. We're also happy to come and present it if that's useful — sometimes a question is better answered directly than relayed.
07 — ValueAre you actually getting value?
A fair question and one you should ask out loud, of us, once a year. Signs it's working:
Healthy
- Fewer emergencies than a year ago
- More planned work, less firefighting
- Content going out consistently, not in bursts
- Staff know how to raise things and do
- You knew about the big costs before they arrived
- Your screens and website are current
- You'd know who to ring at 6pm on a Friday
Worth raising
- Same faults every month, unresolved
- Everything is urgent, nothing is planned
- You don't read the report and don't miss it
- Surprises in the budget
- Content dries up when your team gets busy
- You're not sure what the retainer covers
- You've stopped asking for things
That last one matters most. A venue that's stopped asking for things has usually decided, quietly, that asking isn't worth it — because it's slow, or unclear what it costs, or they don't want to seem demanding. If that's you, tell us. It's a fixable problem and it's the one most likely to be costing you the value you're paying for.
And if the honest answer is that the arrangement isn't right — too big, too small, the wrong mix — say that too. We'd much rather resize something than have a client slowly disengage from it.
08 — QuestionsQuick answers
Can we change what's in the report?
Yes, and please do. Tell us which numbers you use and which you skip, and we'll cut it down. A shorter report you read beats a thorough one you don't.
Can we see the raw numbers ourselves?
Yes. Your platform insights, website analytics and Google Business Profile data are yours, and we can give you access to look whenever you like. Ask and we'll set it up and show you where the useful bits are.
Why did our reach drop even though nothing changed?
Usually the platform changing what it shows, seasonality, or fewer posts in a shorter month. Worth asking rather than assuming — and if it's something we did, we'll tell you.
How do we know the marketing is working?
The honest answer: social numbers alone can't prove it. Tie them to something you can count — function enquiries, bookings on a promoted night, redemptions of an offer, membership sign-ups. Tell us which outcome you care about and we'll build the reporting around that instead of around reach.
What if we don't understand something in it?
Ask, and it's a fault on our side rather than yours. A report with a term in it you don't recognise isn't doing its job — we'll explain it and then rewrite it so it doesn't need explaining next month.
How often should we sit down and go through it properly?
Monthly is a skim. Quarterly is the real conversation — and pairing it with your next-quarter planning makes both far more useful. Annually, a proper look at whether the whole arrangement still fits.
09 — Print thisThe review sheet
Print it and keep it with the report. Ten minutes a month, half an hour a quarter.
Monthly report — what to look for
Cyberry Know-How · cyberry.com.au/know-how
Every month, ten minutes
- Anything open for weeks? Why?
- Anything you don't recognise?
- Reactive vs planned — what's the split?
- Hours against the retainer
- Repeat faults on the same equipment
- Top-performing content — what's the pattern?
- Anything we've flagged for the second time
- Compare to the same month last year
Every quarter, half an hour
- Three-month trend, not single months
- Backups verified — when last tested?
- Ageing equipment for the budget
- Storage and CCTV retention still adequate
- Access list vs who actually works here
- Plan the next quarter's marketing
Ask us
- Where did the hours go, and was it avoidable?
- What one thing would you fix here?
- What should we budget for this year?
- What aren't we doing that we should be?
Last reviewed 25 July 2026. What appears in your particular report depends on the services we provide and what you've asked us to include — not every venue's report contains every section described here. If yours is missing something you'd find useful, that's a request rather than a limitation.
Not reading your report?
Then it's the wrong report.
Tell us which numbers you actually use and we'll cut the rest. Or ask for a one-page board summary instead.
02 — MarketingThe social and marketing numbers
Marketing reporting is where the most numbers live and the least meaning, unless you know which few to care about. For a venue, these are the ones that matter:
The honest limit of all of it. Social numbers can't tell you how many meals you sold. What they can tell you is whether people are seeing you, whether they're responding, and which content earns attention. Pair them with what you actually know — covers, bookings, function enquiries, membership — and the picture gets real. If you can share those numbers with us, even roughly, the reporting gets considerably more useful.