About Plain Finance

Most financial writing is correct and still doesn't work. The numbers are right and the analysis is sound, but the message does not land with the reader. This is because the document (or email) buries the point, repeats itself, or asks the reader to do work that's the writer's job.

Plain Finance exists to fix that.

I help finance professionals turn technically correct drafts into clear, confident documents that decision-makers actually read and act on. Not jargon-free writing for its own sake but writing that gets results.

Plain Finance covers three things: written reports and business cases, the charts and tables that go with them, and the presentations that put them in front of people. If it's influencing people through negotiation, leadership or office politics you are looking for, you won't find it here. This is about the document itself.

This is for finance professionals who know their numbers are right and want their writing to carry the same weight — people heading towards senior roles, or already in them, where being understood is essential, and not a nice-to-have, skill.

I'm Gary Bandy. I worked for 19 years in public sector finance, the last three as a finance director, before turning to consulting, training and writing. I've written two books on public financial management, and spent many years teaching it, in the UK and internationally.

Plain Finance is about applying what I've learned about the gap between knowing your numbers and getting your point across.

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And if you have any questions about Plain Finance, please email me.