A complete guide to investor reporting

Table of Contents

Investor reports are vital for any startup business. It’s important to update your investors on the changes your company experiences. Reporting to your investors helps build trust with them as well. Financial dips and peaks, new expenses, market changes, important hires, and more are all critical pieces of information that your investors want to know about. This is because your investors not only fuel your business. They also provide you with helpful advice, expertise, and networks to help you succeed.

Here’s where investor reports come in.

Best Practices for Investor Updates

Your investor report should give your investors a snapshot of your company’s trajectory. Show your investors how you’re killing your financial goals, and keep them in the loop of any setbacks that you need support with. Here are some best practices for your investor update:

Keep them consistent: Your updates should be consistent in both frequency and format. Consistent formatting lets your investors compare reports with ease, and consistent reporting builds trust with your investors.

Give an all-encompassing picture: Most investor updates include these five areas:

Highlights and Lowlights, which showcase your main takeaways in an easily scannable display;
Financials and KPIs, which include specific metrics that measure your company’s success;
Customer Wins, which showcase unique stories about new customers, customer metrics like net promoter score, or customer milestones.
Key Hires, which demonstrate important and exciting changes to your team;
Asks, which allow you to ask your investors for support, be it through fundraising, network introductions, or market advice.

15 Metrics to Consider When Drafting an Investor Report

Apart from the written updates, startups should also include key metrics and data in their investor reports. Metrics are great indicators of a company’s progress, strengths, and areas for improvement. But, which metrics make the cut? Here’s a list of 15 metrics to consider when drafting your investor update report:

Bonus Tip – Make Your Startup Stand Out

Qualitative and Quantitative updates are obviously really important, however, VC and Angel investors are keen to know how you are performing compared to your forecasts. Typically you should report the difference as a percentage and as a whole number.

investor reporting metrics

Rundit – Investor Reporting Tool

Want to make investor reporting hassle-free? Look no further than Rundit’s investor reporting tool. Our platform offers comprehensive investor reporting features, making the process of startup investor reporting a breeze, as you can see in the demo video below:

Our investor report template includes both metrics updates and written summaries. The metrics table displays your key performance indicators in an easy-to-read format, while the written updates provide brief summaries of the information you want to share with your investors. You can even pull data from the metrics table and attach it to the written report.

With Rundit, sharing your report with investors is easy – simply send it via email. Investors can view your updates without logging into Rundit or even being a Rundit user. Plus, they can directly comment and react to your report, reducing the need for back-and-forth emails and minimizing misunderstandings.