Use case · Executive & investor reporting
The board deck that updates itself, and answers the follow-up.
Cube runs executive and investor reporting from one set of live numbers. The deck stays current in PowerPoint or Slides, and leadership's questions get answered in chat.
The problem
Board prep is a week of screenshots and paste-ins.
One late entry breaks every slide
A journal entry lands after the export and every figure, chart, and talking point goes stale at once.
The follow-up nobody can answer
The CEO, or an investor, asks what moved cloud spend, and the answer lives three tools away from the room.
The story outruns the numbers
Commentary gets written before actuals settle, so the narrative and the model quietly disagree.
Board prep, the manual way
A week of screenshots and paste-ins, and one late entry breaks every slide at once.
What screenshots and paste-ins add to every board cycle before the story can even start.
The version-control system most board packs actually run on.
What replaces it: deck, spreadsheet, and dashboard reading from the same governed actuals.
The bridge
The quarter, in one chart.
Revenue to EBITDA in four bars. The same bridge renders in the deck, and every bar drills to the source.
From close to boardroom
How executive and investor reporting works in Cube
GL and operational sources land in one governed model; the board deck, the investor update, and your dashboards all read from it, so commentary and figures stay in sync.
Cube
One governed model for actuals, plans, and the commentary that explains them.
Live actuals
A board P&L where every line opens.
Every finance leader knows the feeling of presenting a number they can't fully explain. In Cube, any line of the pack drills to the transactions behind it, so the explanation is one click away.
| $K | Apr · Actuals | May · Actuals | Jun · Actuals | Q2 · Actuals | Jul · Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 4,820 | 4,990 | 5,210 | 15,020 | 5,400 |
| Payroll & benefits | 1,940 | 1,960 | 1,980 | 5,880 | 2,000 |
| Cloud & software | 810 | 835 | 875 | 2,520 | 915 |
| Operating expenses | 2,750 | 2,795 | 2,855 | 8,400 | 2,915 |
| EBITDA | 2,070 | 2,195 | 2,355 | 6,620 | 2,485 |
Cube Decks
Edit it in PowerPoint. It stays tied to Cube.
Cube Decks binds PowerPoint and Google Slides to the model. Design the pack your way; the figures stay live.
Connect the slide to the model
Figures, tables, and charts in the deck bind to Cube once, straight from PowerPoint or Slides.
Keep working like a deck
Move charts, rewrite headlines, restyle pages. Edits happen right in the slide, and they hold.
The numbers update themselves
When actuals move, every bound figure and chart updates to the current model. Your layout stays put.
Why finance teams choose Cube
The story and the numbers finally agree.
One version of the numbers
Deck, spreadsheet, and dashboard read from the same governed actuals, so versions can't drift apart between meetings.
Decks that update themselves
Edit the pack in PowerPoint or Slides with Cube Decks; after a late entry, every bound figure and chart lands current.
Answers in the room
Any figure opens to its source transactions, so follow-up questions get answered before the meeting ends.
Answers in the room
When the CEO asks what moved cloud spend, the figure opens to its transactions before the meeting ends.
Adoption
Runs alongside the stack you already trust.
Cube connects to hundreds of source systems and deploys alongside Excel, your ERP, and your BI tools.
Finance-led setup
Configured by your team, guided by ours.
Of source systems
Pre-built connectors for major platforms.
Rip-and-replace
Keep Excel, your ERP, and your dashboards.
Onboarding
Hands-on setup with a named contact.
Live where leadership already reads
Keep Excel, your ERP, and your BI tools. Cube feeds them the same governed actuals, so nothing gets ripped out.
FP&Agents
Answers where your executives already are.
Executives have little time and a lot of questions. They ask in Slack or Teams, and FP&Agents answer with governed numbers and the trace behind them.
Smart Analysis
Drafts variance commentary tied to the drivers behind each move. Finance edits and approves before anything ships.
AI Analyst, in chat
Ask in Slack, Teams, or Cube and get the governed figure back, with the source transactions one click away.
Data Manager
Keeps every source synced so the pack is always built on final actuals.
Why is cloud spend up this quarter?
Answers that don't keep office hours
Executives ask in Slack or Teams whenever the question hits. FP&Agents answer with the governed figure and the trace behind it.
Where you work
One model, on every surface.
Cube delivers the same governed numbers wherever the work happens. Explore the full story on Where You Work.
Cube Workspace
The browser app where finance builds the model, sets permissions, and publishes.
Excel & Google Sheets
Bi-directional sync: fetch live actuals into the sheet, publish plans back.
AI assistants via MCP
Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini answer from your governed numbers.
Slack & Teams
Ask a question in chat and get the governed figure back, with the trace.
PowerPoint & Google Slides
Decks with figures bound to Cube that refresh to the current numbers.
BI tools
Tableau, Looker, and Power BI read from the same model as the plan.
Use cases
One model behind every leadership meeting.
Monthly leadership pack
KPIs, variance walk, and commentary refresh from final actuals after each close.
Quarterly board deck
Board P&L, forward view, and asks, with every figure defensible in the room.
Investor updates
ARR and growth figures tied to the same revenue plan your team runs in Cube.
Department reviews
Leaders see their own spend and headcount plan, permissioned to their view.
Budget vs. actuals readouts
Variance against the annual budget and rolling forecast, explained by driver.
Cash and runway updates
A forward view built on the cash flow forecast, current as of the last sync.
See your board pack build itself.
A working session on your calendar: your P&L shape, your KPIs, one governed model behind them.
Security & controls
Your execs see what they need. Nothing they don't.
Draft numbers, open questions, and mid-close noise stay inside finance. What leadership sees is published, permissioned, and logged. The full posture is documented on the security page.
Published, then visible
Leadership surfaces read from published versions. Mid-close drafts never leave finance.
Their view, nothing else
The CEO sees the company, a department lead sees their org, and comp detail stays restricted.
Share when you're ready
Packs go out when finance publishes them, and versions lock at send.
Every view and change logged
A full audit trail of who saw what and who changed what, when.
Walk into the boardroom with every figure defensible back to its source.Executive & investor reporting · Cube
Already convinced?
Book a demo and see your own numbers in Cube. Still researching? The executive reporting guide continues below.
The definition
What is executive and investor reporting?
Executive & investor reporting
Executive and investor reporting is the practice of turning consolidated financial and operational results into a concise narrative that boards, CEOs, leadership teams, and investors can act on, with every figure defensible back to its source.
Cube treats it as an output of the governed model: the same numbers feed board reporting, investor updates, and department reviews, so the narrative never outruns the actuals. See how the platform fits together on the product overview.
Consolidated results
One narrative, every room
Six failure modes
Why is executive reporting hard to get right?
The work fails in predictable places. Each one has a structural fix.
Assembly crowds out the story
The hours go to screenshots and paste-ins. Cube refreshes the pack from the model, so the time goes to the narrative.
The deck drifts from the model
Exported figures age the moment they land. Cube feeds deck, Excel, and dashboards from the same governed actuals.
Follow-ups have no answer path
A question in the room used to mean a follow-up email. In Cube, the figure opens to its transactions.
Commentary restates the table
Repeating the figures explains nothing. Smart Analysis drafts the driver behind each move for finance to approve.
Chart sprawl buries the signal
Forty slides hide the five that matter. One KPI summary from one model keeps each audience on the page built for them.
Restatements land at the last minute
A late journal entry used to invalidate the deck. In Cube, it flows through and the pack stays current.
Two ways to build the pack
Manual assembly vs. a governed model
| Manual deck assembly | Executive reporting in Cube | |
|---|---|---|
| Source of truth | ✗Exports and pasted screenshots scattered across files | ✓One governed model behind every surface |
| A late entry lands | ✗Every slide is rebuilt by hand | ✓The pack refreshes; figures and charts move together |
| Follow-up in the room | ✗"We'll get back to you" | ✓Drill to the transaction while the question is still warm |
| Commentary | ✗Written before actuals settle | ✓Drafted from final numbers, approved by finance |
| Versions | ✗v7_FINAL_final.pptx | ✓One current pack, permissioned by audience |
Four building blocks
What goes into a strong executive report?
KPI summary
The five numbers leadership tracks, current and consistent with every page that follows.
Variance walk
What moved against plan and why, by driver rather than by account code.
Forward view
The forecast and runway leadership is being asked to act on.
Risks and asks
What could break the plan, and the decision you need from the room.
Five habits
What makes financial storytelling work?
These habits hold in any tool. Cube removes the manual cost of keeping them.
Lead with the takeaway
State the decision or headline first; the evidence follows.
One message per slide
A page that makes two points makes neither. Split it into two pages.
Tie every number to a driver
Anchor each figure to a driver, the way a driver-based plan does, so commentary explains the move.
Anticipate the follow-up
Pre-drill the numbers most likely to draw a question, and know the answer path for the rest.
Keep the appendix deep
The main pack stays short because the backup is one click away.
Evaluation criteria
What to look for in executive reporting software
A direct line to the GL
Native connections to your ERP and the rest of the stack, refreshed without exports.
Trace to the transaction
Any rolled-up figure should open to the entries behind it. Anything less leaves the follow-up unanswered.
One model, many audiences
Permissions that give each leader their view of the same numbers.
Delivery where leadership reads
The deck, the spreadsheet, and the dashboard should agree without manual reconciliation.
Governed AI commentary
First drafts from FP&Agents grounded in the model, with finance approving what ships.
An audit trail leadership can rely on
SOC 2 Type II, SSO, and a log of who changed what, when.
Present numbers you can defend.
Book a demo and watch a board pack build itself from your live actuals, ready for the follow-up, in the boardroom or on the investor call.
Book a demoPersonalized to your ERP, your P&L shape, and your board calendar.
