Six submissions, three cut-off dates, one evening before the meeting.
Risk, sales and finance deliver their analyses as spreadsheets, each with its own cut-off date and its own scope. The board officer brings the figures onto a common basis, looks for the variance against plan and writes the paper. If a corrected figure arrives on the day of the meeting, text, chart and draft resolution all change at once.
6submissionsRisk, sales, finance, treasury, investments and the subsidiary each report separately.
3different cut-off datesThe spreadsheets end on different days and cannot simply be added up.
1 eveningconsolidationThe board officer brings everything onto one basis, usually the evening before the meeting.
2 hoursrework on the day of the meetingIf a submission arrives corrected, the board officer updates text, chart and draft resolution one by one.
What is left is the work on the options. Reconciling the six submissions to one cut-off date takes 60% less preparation time.
The 60% reduction in preparation time is this agent's headline figure. The six submissions and their three different cut-off dates reflect a typical meeting cycle in a board office; they do not come from a survey.