How long is too long?

Yesterday, I received an audit committee agenda pack. 730 pages.

Seven. Hundred. And. Thirty. Pages.

For one meeting.

I've been a council finance director. I've sat through countless committee meetings. I've written hundreds of reports myself. And I can tell you with absolute certainty: nobody reads 730 pages before a meeting.

Not the chair. Not the non-executives. Not the finance director.

When finance reports become doorstops, three things happen:

• First, important information gets buried. That critical risk on page 487? The material variance on page 623? They disappear into the noise.
• Second, readers stop reading. They skim. They skip sections. They focus on the executive summary and hope nothing vital was hiding in the appendices.
• Third, trust erodes. When you consistently produce documents that are impossible to consume, people start questioning your judgement.

A document is too long when it contains information the reader doesn't need to make the decision you're asking them to make.

Not information that might be interesting. Not information we've always included. Not information that shows how hard we worked.

The best finance reports follow an 80/20 structure:

• 80% of the document should be the core information that every reader needs. The financial position, key variances, significant risks, decisions required.
• 20% of the document should be supporting appendices for readers who need to go deeper. 

Most finance teams get this backwards. They produce reports where 80% is supporting detail and 20% is core information.

Then they wonder why nobody reads them.

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