---
title: The CFO's guide to impactful board decks (slides included!)
description: How can you put prep and deliver impactful quarterly board decks? Here's the slide deck our CFO-turned-CEO used in a CFO leadership council webinar.
---

[Cube Blog ](https://www.cubesoftware.com/blog)

# [The CFO's guide to impactful board decks (slides included!)](https://www.cubesoftware.com/blog/cfo-guide-board-deck)

 Written by [Christina Ross](https://www.cubesoftware.com/blog/author/christina-ross) | Jun 22, 2023 5:32:43 PM

Board meetings are stressful, especially preparing that infamous quarterly meeting deck. As a serial CFO turned CEO, I've worked with boards of all sizes and backgrounds, and presented at my fair share of board meetings. 

Michael Brown of Battery Ventures and I offered our advice on creating and delivering an impactful board deck. Check out the highlights below. 

## 10 tips to level up your board deck

1. **Define 2-3 key topics and build your agenda and deck around it using words and pictures.** Your deck should have a flow with transitions and a place for business performance vs. strategy.
2. **Be transparent and balanced in your messaging. **Share what’s working and not working, so you can focus on solutions, not what might be missing.
3. **Start with the high-level takeaways and be prepared to drill down. **Don’t try to share everything on a slide all at once. Let the board ask questions and you will shine.
4. **Always share context on the numbers. **Is $1M good, bad, or on track? Variance or using Red/Yellow/Green to highlight progress is a simple way to share a lot of context at once.
5. **Share callbacks.** Refer back to previous presentations/conversations to ground the meeting and provide greater context for recommendations.
6. **Add page numbers.** Yes, seriously! You’d be surprised how frequently “go to slide 17” creates mass confusion during a board meeting.
7. **Provide a clear call to action. **Ask the board for what your business needs: approvals, support, and answers. Provide space in the agenda for discussion with a clear takeaway.
8. **Send the appendix/data deck ahead of time**. It will answer all of the questions upfront that may derail the meeting.
9. **Keep the font size 14 or larger.** Ensuring you only present the most crucial info.
10. **A picture is worth a thousand words. **Wherever possible, use visuals (graphs, charts, scoring systems, etc).

## 4 common pitfalls CFOs and CEOs should avoid

- **Don’t wait until the last minute**. Board prep should start about a month before the board meeting takes place.
- **Don’t create too much new work for the board meeting. **Design a set of standard KPI slides and use them for managing your business and reporting out to the board.
- **Don’t forget to practice your mental math. **If you don’t know the answer to an on-the spot question, you can often share parts of it (e.g., it’s roughly 20% of last quarter’s number).
- **Don’t be too precise.** Accuracy is good, but too much precision can dilute the message. Know the board's materiality threshold and report on it (e.g., $millions vs. $thousands).

## Check out the full deck for deeper dives into:

- Creating a prep timeline so you, your team, and the board are all on the same page
- Tailoring your presentation to what the board actually cares about
- Presenting your data so it makes the right impact
- Being prepared for what lies ahead
- Avoiding common board deck pitfalls

Click the image or button below to view and download the slide deck.

<https://www.cubesoftware.com/hubfs/CFOLC%20Webinar%20Updated.pdf> [View the deck

** ](https://www.cubesoftware.com/hubfs/CFOLC%20Webinar%20Updated.pdf)

[View full post](https://www.cubesoftware.com/blog/cfo-guide-board-deck)

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