# Plain Finance
> The communication skill your qualification never taught you. Plain language gets you and your ideas noticed.
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).

## Pages
- [Further reading (and watching) for Financial Management and Accounting in the Public Sector](https://www.plainfinance.net/3e-further-reading.md) - Each chapter of the third edition of Financial Management and Accounting in the Public Sector concludes with a section called Further Reading (and Watching). This page collates links to all those resources, plus other relevant resources I have found since the manuscript was finished. If you are a t…
- [5 steps to clearer finance reports](https://www.plainfinance.net/5-steps-to-clearer-finance-reports.md)
- [5 steps to your best presentation ever](https://www.plainfinance.net/5-steps-to-your-best-presentation-ever.md)
- [About](https://www.plainfinance.net/about.md) - I turn technically correct finance writing into documents that get read and acted on.
- [Contact me](https://www.plainfinance.net/contact.md) - Send me one of your documents and I'll tell you what's slowing the reader down or confusing them. For a makeover, training, or a style guide for your team, email me with what you're working on. I'll come back to you within two working days. Use the same email address if you have questions about a p…
- [Cookie policy](https://www.plainfinance.net/cookie-policy.md) - This website uses cookies. A cookie is a small piece of data or a text file that is downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you access certain websites. Cookies may contain text that can be read by the web server that delivered the cookie to you. The text contained in the cookie generally…
- [Do not mistake silence for approval](https://www.plainfinance.net/do-not-mistake-silence-for-approval.md) - Writing Guide > The principle You send out a report. Nobody objects. No one emails to say it was unclear, or hard to follow, or wrong. You conclude it was fine. It was not necessarily fine. Nobody complained, which is a different thing. Silence tells you no one raised an objection. It does not tell…
- [Home](https://www.plainfinance.net/home.md) - Your ideas. Clearly written. You’re an expert in public finance but your time is limited and your message matters. I help public sector accountants, auditors, and CFOs write reports, briefings, articles and other documents that get straight to the point. Let's work together Better writing for busy…
- [How to fix ugly documents in 5 minutes](https://www.plainfinance.net/how-to-fix-ugly-documents-in-5-minutes.md) - A slide deck explaining how you can make your documents much easier to read by making a few changes to the typography.
- [Get a free e-book about public procurement](https://www.plainfinance.net/how-to-hire-a-consultant-in-the-public-sector.md)
- [No more death by PowerPoint](https://www.plainfinance.net/no-more-death-by-powerpoint.md)
- [Presentation skills for accountants](https://www.plainfinance.net/presentation-skills-for-accountants.md)
- [Pricing](https://www.plainfinance.net/pricing.md) - Document Length Makeover (Rewrite) From Scratch Up to 2,000 words £150 £450 Up to 5,000 words £300 £900 Up to 10,000 words £500 £1,500 Notes * Makeover: You provide a draft and I'll rewrite, restructure, and edit it for clarity, tone, and impact. * From scratch: You provide a brief or notes — I’ll…
- [Privacy statement](https://www.plainfinance.net/privacy-statement.md) - Privacy policy This privacy policy notice is for this website and served by Gary Bandy Limited, Clover Cottage, Stubbins Lane, Chinley, High Peak, SK23 6AE and governs the privacy of those who use it. The purpose of this policy is to explain to you how we control, process, handle and protect your p…
- [My services](https://www.plainfinance.net/services.md) - I offer ghostwriting, editing, and coaching for senior finance professionals in the public and not-for-profit sectors. Whether you’re writing for a board, a minister, or your LinkedIn network, I’ll help you say what matters—clearly and concisely.
- [Stop burying the point in your reports](https://www.plainfinance.net/stop-burying-the-point-in-your-reports.md) - Most finance reports make the reader work too hard. They wade through background, context, and data before they find out what you actually think or what you want them to do. This one-page guide gives you three fixes you can apply to your next report today. Sign up free to download it and join over…
- [The rules in brief](https://www.plainfinance.net/the-rules-in-brief.md) - Writing Guide > Everything in this writing guide comes down to ten rules. Apply them to the next document you write and it will be better than the last one, whether or not you read another word. 1. Put the answer at the top. The first paragraph should tell the reader what the position is and what y…
- [Typography 101 for accountants](https://www.plainfinance.net/typography-101-for-accountants.md) - The presentation below shows you how to fix the typography in your reports and other documents by changing four settings.
- [Need help with a document? Upload it here.](https://www.plainfinance.net/upload.md)
- [The Plain Finance Writing Guide](https://www.plainfinance.net/writing-guide.md) - Finance qualifications teach you to get the numbers right but they don't teach you to write well. So most finance professionals write the way they were shown — long reports, buried conclusions, tables nobody can read — and nobody ever tells them it isn't working, because everybody writes that way.…

## Posts
- [Nobody taught you Word and it shows](https://www.plainfinance.net/nobody-taught-you-word-and-it-shows.md) - I once spent a full day fixing the formatting on a 100-page policy document. Multiple authors had worked on it, each with their own understanding of how Word works. Some knew about Styles and used them properly. Others made text look like a heading by bumping up the font size and bolding it. Lookin…
- [Unclear writing is expensive](https://www.plainfinance.net/unclear-writing-is-expensive.md) - The cost of unclear writing is real and it is large, but it never appears on an invoice and nobody is asked to account for it. The writer pays first, in the hours spent drafting and redrafting a document that does not land. The reader pays next, in the time spent decoding it, in the queries sent ba…
- [The longer version is sometimes easier to read](https://www.plainfinance.net/break-up-long-sentences-2.md) - I keep a note of sentences that are harder to read than they need to be. Most come from documents that are otherwise careful and correct: it is the writing that lets them down, not the thinking. Here is one I added last week, a definition of fraud. Fraud is any intentional act characterised by dece…
- [Write headings that carry the message](https://www.plainfinance.net/write-headings-that-carry-the-message.md) - Busy readers skim headings and reads little else. Think of the committee member turning to your report the night before the committee meets, the chief executive rushing through a briefing note between meetings, or the finance director trying to catch up with a backlog of unread emails. They run an…
- [Pretty beats easy to read](https://www.plainfinance.net/pretty-beats-easy-to-read.md) - Look at a typical business report. The effort is obvious. The charts are in the brand colours. The KPIs sit in little speedometer gauges. The risks are a grid of red, amber and green. There is a table so dense the total has to be picked out in bold. It has been designed. And it is still hard to rea…
- [Data your reader will understand](https://www.plainfinance.net/data-your-reader-will-understand.md) - Open almost any board report pack and you will find one. A table that fills a whole page: thirty budget lines, three years of comparatives, variances in pounds and again in per cent, all set in eight-point type so it fits. Somewhere in that table is the one number the reader needs to act on. If onl…
- [The right way to write links](https://www.plainfinance.net/the-right-way-to-write-links.md) - A hyperlink is a decluttering tool. It lets you move supporting material out of the sentence and behind a word or phrase, so the text stays clean and the reader who wants the detail can still reach it. This works for a quick email as much as a full report. The question is not whether to use links b…
- [Accounting needs words as well as numbers](https://www.plainfinance.net/accounting-needs-words-as-well-as-numbers.md) - The monthly accounts land in a manager's inbox. The figures are right. The statements are complete. The accountant who prepared them has done the work and moved on, on the quiet assumption that the numbers speak for themselves. The manager will see what they show. They will not. A column of figures…
- [The skill nobody trains for](https://www.plainfinance.net/the-skill-nobody-trains-for.md) - Every accountancy qualification tests technical knowledge: bookkeeping, IFRS, audit standards, tax, treasury. None of them test whether you can write a paper that changes a decision, or explain a number to someone who's already made up their mind. By the time someone reaches CFO, or chief auditor,…
- [Do you have a writing problem?](https://www.plainfinance.net/do-you-have-a-writing-problem.md) - Most accountants don’t think they have a writing problem. There’s a good reason for that, and it’s not complacency. The professional training system never showed them they did. To pass accountancy exams, you need technical accuracy. Marks go to correct calculations, sound judgements, appropriate re…
- [Your next promotion may depend on your writing skills](https://www.plainfinance.net/your-next-promotion-may-depend-on-your-writing-skills.md) - In a 2024 survey, Deloitte asked 200 CFOs what quality they valued most when choosing their successor. 39% said communication skills — the ability to explain results clearly and simply. It was the top answer. Not technical knowledge. Not financial acumen. Not strategic thinking. Communication. Ever…
- [Simpler is often better](https://www.plainfinance.net/simpler-is-often-better.md) - Tax Policy Associates has mapped 81 of the UK's 90 taxes onto a single interactive chart, ranked by revenue raised in 2024/25. The other 8 yield nothing at all, so they don't appear. The various taxes on employment account for almost half of all tax revenue. Add on VAT and corporation tax and you’r…
- [Reports no one reads](https://www.plainfinance.net/reports-no-one-reads.md) - Most public finance reports are written for the writer, not the reader. The structure follows convention. The headings mirror last year's version. The executive summary is four pages long. The recommendations are at the end. Nobody planned it that way. It just happened because the incentive was to…
- [Trust your reader](https://www.plainfinance.net/trust-your-reader.md) - Most accountants and auditors don't trust their readers. And it shows in their writing. They repeat themselves, use jargon when plain words would do, and explain things twice, just in case. This backfires. When readers get a dense, jargon-heavy document, one of two things happens: • They struggle t…
- [4th edition](https://www.plainfinance.net/4th-edition.md) - I signed a contract today for the 4th edition of Financial Management and Accounting in the Public Sector. It will be published by Routledge in early 2028. The 4th edition will include new material on: * Gender budgeting * Sustainability reporting * The use of AI in public finance. These aren't fri…
- [Content first. Format second. Always.](https://www.plainfinance.net/content-first-format-second-always.md) - Office workers spend 31% of their time in MS Office on formatting. That's more than a day a week spent on fonts and margins instead of thinking. The real problem is not the formatting itself. It's that people open Word or PowerPoint before the content is even clear. The blank page becomes a design…
- [Your finance report isn't unread because it's bad.](https://www.plainfinance.net/your-finance-report-isnt-unread-because-its-bad.md) - It's unread because of three fixable mistakes. Most unread documents aren't ignored because the content is bad. They're ignored because of structure and presentation failures that are entirely fixable. 1. Put your bottom line first. You know the numbers inside out. So you present them in the order…
- [Your slides are a window into how you think.](https://www.plainfinance.net/your-slides-are-a-window-into-how-you-think.md) - Cluttered slides don't just bore your audience. They undermine the audience's trust in your financial judgement. I've sat through hundreds of finance presentations. The worst ones all make the same mistake: cramming too much onto each slide. Budget variance tables with 15 columns. Bullet points tha…
- [Flip your writing around](https://www.plainfinance.net/flip-your-writing-around.md) - The problem with most financial documents is that they're written backwards. The writer starts at the beginning of their analysis and drags the reader through every step until they finally reach the conclusion. It's exhausting and it wastes time. The way you solve a problem is not the way you shoul…
- [The problem isn't the reader](https://www.plainfinance.net/the-problem-isnt-the-reader.md) - Jargon isn't the same as precision. Finance professionals defend technical language as if the two are identical. They're not. Some technical terms are genuinely necessary. Accrual, materiality, going concern. These have specific meanings. Using them with a finance audience is legitimate. But most f…
- [There's an important skill your accountancy qualification didn't teach you](https://www.plainfinance.net/theres-an-important-skill-your-accountancy-qualification-didnt-teach-you.md) - It's probably the skill that will define your career more than any technical knowledge. I'm talking about clear writing. I qualified as a CIPFA accountant in 1990. I passed exams on accounting, audit, reporting, ethics. I learned how to prepare accounts and analyse budgets. But nobody taught me how…
- [What's stopping you from learning how to fix your reports?](https://www.plainfinance.net/whats-stopping-you-from-learning-how-to-fix-your-reports.md) - Finance people know their reports are rubbish. Too long, too technical, too boring. Hard to read. Then they go back to their desks and write exactly the same way. I've been in finance for over 30 years. I've written two textbooks and taught at business schools. I've seen this pattern everywhere. Pe…
- [Write headlines for your tables](https://www.plainfinance.net/write-headlines-for-your-tables.md) - Your tables are invisible. Not literally. But readers skip them. They see a block of numbers, a generic label at the top, and their eyes glaze over. They move on. You spent time building that table. You chose the data carefully. But without a clear message, it's just noise. Here's how to fix it: st…
- [Your writing should save time, not waste it.](https://www.plainfinance.net/your-writing-should-save-time-not-waste-it.md) - Your readers shouldn't have to dig through paragraphs to find what matters. Put your conclusion first. Total costs go at the top. Decisions you need belong in paragraph one. This saves your reader time and effort. High impact for them, with minimal effort. That's what your writing you should delive…
- [Edit your writing 3 times](https://www.plainfinance.net/edit-your-writing-3-times.md) - Most finance professionals write a report, read it through once, fix the typos, and hit send. That's not editing. That's proofreading. For finance professionals aiming for CFO roles, clear writing signals clear thinking. And clear writing requires good editing. Here's what real editing looks like:…
- [If your writing doesn't work on mobile, it doesn't work.](https://www.plainfinance.net/if-your-writing-doesnt-work-on-mobile-it-doesnt-work.md) - The problem with public sector reports isn't the content. It's that we're still writing like it's 2005. We format documents for A4 paper and desktop screens. Then we email them to executives who read them on phones during their commute. * Your 40-page cabinet report? Viewed on a 6-inch screen whils…
- [Plain language isn't just about the words you choose](https://www.plainfinance.net/plain-language-isnt-just-about-the-words-you-choose.md) - Your readers don't have time to hunt for information. They need to find what matters in seconds, not minutes. That's why plain language isn't just about the words you choose. It's about how you present them. Think about the last report you read. Did you scan the headings first? Did you skip to the…
- [Nobody reads your finance reports all the way through.](https://www.plainfinance.net/nobody-reads-your-finance-reports-all-the-way-through.md) - That's the uncomfortable truth most finance professionals don't want to hear. Your readers are drowning in emails, back-to-back meetings, and competing priorities. If your opening doesn't grab them immediately, they'll skim the executive summary and move on. Here are 3 ways to open a finance report…
- [How long is too long?](https://www.plainfinance.net/how-long-is-too-long.md) - 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 read…
- [New year, same financial communication challenges](https://www.plainfinance.net/new-year-same-financial-communication-challenges.md) - This week is an opportunity for change because everyone's starting fresh. Inboxes are being cleared. Priorities are being reset. Teams are regrouping. It's the perfect moment to change how you communicate financial information. Before the holidays, you probably sent reports full of technical langua…
- [Fix your typography in 5 minutes](https://www.plainfinance.net/fix-your-typography-in-5-minutes.md) - The US State Department just switched from Calibri back to Times New Roman. Neither font is particularly good for reading on a screen. (Times is good for a newspaper, though.) But the bigger issue is this: font choice is only one small part of making documents readable. I see finance reports every…
- [Use the Minto Pyramid when you write reports](https://www.plainfinance.net/use-the-minto-pyramid-when-you-write-reports.md) - I've been writing finance reports for over 30 years. Most people do it wrong. They start with background. Build up slowly. Save the conclusion for page 47. There's a better approach. It's called the Minto Pyramid. It flips everything upside down: 1. Answer first. Lead with your conclusion. Don't ma…
- [Answer these 3 questions in your introduction](https://www.plainfinance.net/answer-these-3-questions-in-your-introduction.md) - Every reader of your reports has the same three questions. * What's your point? * How do you know? * Why should I care? If your introduction doesn't signal you've got answers to all three questions, you've already lost your reader. Here's what that looks like in practice: What's your point? State y…
- [The AI revolution isn't your problem.](https://www.plainfinance.net/the-ai-revolution-isnt-your-problem.md) - Accountants who can't write clearly won't survive the AI revolution. That's not hyperbole. It's what the data shows. MIT research found that AI tools improved writing speed by 40% for routine tasks. AI handles the mechanical stuff brilliantly. It drafts reports, summarises data, formats documents.…
- [Don't let AI replace your thinking](https://www.plainfinance.net/dont-let-ai-replace-your-thinking.md) - At first I thought AI would revolutionise report writing in the public sector. Then I saw what it produces. The problem is AI is trained on existing content. If your organisation (and every other one) has spent years producing reports that are too long, unclear and unread, AI will learn from them a…
- [How to write (finance version)](https://www.plainfinance.net/how-to-write-finance-version.md) - You may have seen on social media the David Ogilvy memo from 1982 about "How To Write" . I've taken the liberty of translating it for a 2025 finance professionals. The better you write, the higher you'll go in finance. People who think clearly, write clearly. Good writing isn't a natural gift. You…
- [When should you write numbers as words?](https://www.plainfinance.net/when-should-you-write-numbers-as-words.md) - When should you write numbers as words and when as figures? Most people guess. But guessing leads to inconsistency, and inconsistency makes your writing look unprofessional. BBC News has a simple rule in its style guide: * Spell out numbers one to nine * Use figures for 10 and above * Always spell…
- [Writing in plain language could save your job](https://www.plainfinance.net/writing-in-plain-language-could-save-your-job.md) - Cory Doctorow nailed it: AI cannot do your job, but an AI salesman can 100 per cent convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job. Here's the thing about accounting. AI can crunch numbers faster than you. It can spot patterns you'd miss. It can generate reports in…
- [Clarity isn't unprofessional. Confusion is.](https://www.plainfinance.net/clarity-isnt-unprofessional-confusion-is.md) - The best financial communicators don't hide behind complexity. They cut through it. They replace "utilize" with "use." They break up walls of text. They explain concepts like they're talking to a smart colleague, not performing for an academic journal.
- [Why finance reports get worse when we try to improve them](https://www.plainfinance.net/why-finance-reports-get-worse-when-we-try-to-improve-them.md) - Your boss hands back your draft report with red ink everywhere. "Can we add a section on market trends?" "Let's include more data." "We need another chart showing the quarterly breakdown." Sound familiar? Here's what almost never happens: "Can we cut this section? It's not adding value." There's a…
- [Clear writing saves time and money](https://www.plainfinance.net/clear-writing-saves-time-and-money.md) - Most people don’t realise how unclear their writing is. Clear writing isn’t just about grammar or big words. It’s about stripping away the clutter so your message gets through. If your writing is cloudy, your meaning gets lost. Take a fresh look at your last email or report. Was every word needed?…
- [Typography for accountants 101](https://www.plainfinance.net/typography-for-accountants-101.md) - Matthew Butterick has a great website and book called Typography for Lawyers. Inspired by that, here is lesson 1 of typography for accountants. You can make your documents clearer and easier to read with some simple changes that will take you less than 5 minutes. The secret lies in making the body…
- [What can accountants learn from writers](https://www.plainfinance.net/what-can-accountants-learn-from-writers.md) - What can accountants learn from writers? Great writers don’t just write—they read, a lot. They learn what works and what doesn’t and sharpen their own skills. Accountants who want to communicate more clearly should borrow this habit. Next time you read a finance report (or anything) written by some…
- [Don’t write your finance reports like detective stories](https://www.plainfinance.net/dont-write-your-finance-reports-like-detective-stories.md) - Don’t write your finance reports like detective stories. Don’t make your reader sift through pages and pages of clues before the real findings and recommendations are revealed on the final page. This problem–cause–solution approach where you describe the problem/issue, then explain why it has occur…
- [How to write about finance](https://www.plainfinance.net/how-to-write-about-finance.md) - When you write about finance you need to be in the top left quadrant of the above chart. How do you do that? You put the bottom line up front. Tell the reader right at the beginning what your key message is. You’re not writing a mystery story. if the document is about costs, tell them the total cos…
- [AI = accountant insights](https://www.plainfinance.net/ai-accountant-insights.md) - The conversation about AI in accounting is louder than ever. But here’s what hasn’t changed: insight is the most valuable skill an accountant can offer. And insight requires real thought. AI can process data at lightning speed and spot patterns you might miss, but that’s not the same as genuine thi…
- [Quick win: One sentence that saves everyone time](https://www.plainfinance.net/quick-win-one-sentence-that-saves-everyone-time.md)
- [Get the first page right](https://www.plainfinance.net/get-the-first-page-right.md) - The way people read has changed and so should the way we write. When newspapers first went online, journalists wrote articles in the same way they always had. This meant articles were often split across several webpages with a button at the bottom of each page to go to the next. Readers had to clic…
- [A new name — same focus on writing that works](https://www.plainfinance.net/a-new-name-same-focus-on-writing-that-works.md)
- [Hell is other people’s slides](https://www.plainfinance.net/hell-is-other-peoples-slides.md) - For some people hell is other people. For me, it’s other people’s PowerPoint slides. We’ve all sat through bad presentations. * Too many words. * Tiny charts. * The presenter reading every word out loud. * Or looking at the screen, not at us. They're boring. They're hard to follow. They feel like t…
- [The 3Ls](https://www.plainfinance.net/the-3ls.md) - Want to write finance content that actually gets read? Start with the 3Ls of financial writing: language, layout and look. * Language – Use plain English to explain your ideas and messages without dumbing them down. * Layout – Structure your content so the message is clear at a glance. * Look – Mak…
- [AI can write finance reports but should you ask it to write yours?](https://www.plainfinance.net/ai-can-write-your-finance.md) - In the public sector, written reports need to be clear and credible because the audience is usually non-experts. Yes, AI can generate reports fast. But it doesn’t understand your stakeholders, your risks, or your political context. And let’s be clear: AI isn’t actually intelligent. It doesn't think…
- [Is your audience pretending to listen?](https://www.plainfinance.net/powerpoint-allows-speakers-to-pretend.md) - PowerPoint allows speakers to pretend that they are giving a real talk, and audiences to pretend that they are listening. (Edward Tufte, 2006) Ouch! Take a moment to reflect on your own presentations. Have you ever been in front of an audience (in the room or on the screen) and sensed they weren't…
- [If you don’t have time to make good slides, don’t make any.](https://www.plainfinance.net/if-you-dont-have-time.md) - Most presentations would be better without slides. Because most slides compete against the presenter instead of supporting them. I know what it's like. A presentation is looming and you leave it late to create slides. And when you do finally open PowerPoint you do the obvious thing: you create slid…
- [Don't have borders around every cell of a table](https://www.plainfinance.net/dont-have-borders-around-every.md) - All those borders are clutter. They get in the way of the message. The vertical lines obviously get in the way of a reader scanning across the rows. If you have your data in columns that are aligned (left for text, right for numbers) then let the white space between columns do the work …
- [A faster, better way to reply to emails](https://www.plainfinance.net/a-faster-better-way-to.md) - We don’t send original letters back with our replies—so why do we include the full text of every email in our responses? Email systems automatically create message threads. There’s no need to repeat every line of a previous message. Instead: 1. Highlight the sentence or two you’re responding to. 2.…
- [Take the easy way](https://www.plainfinance.net/take-the-easy-way.md) - Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious. So said Saint Thomas Aquinas. Let me paraphrase it: not every long document is worth the time it takes to write it and read it. Remember that when it comes to writing your next long-ish document. Think about whether you are making your job…
- [Help your reader by having only 1 request per email.](https://www.plainfinance.net/help-your-reader.md) - Have you ever received an email asking for a document, someone’s phone number, some suggested dates for a meeting, and your thoughts on a current issue? Emails like that are hard to respond to. You likely don’t have all the information to hand, so you end up replying multiple times. And maybe some…
- [I'm on the Audit 15 Fun podcast this week](https://www.plainfinance.net/tldr-audit-15-fun-podcast.md) - The episode title is TL;DR and I talk about ways that internal auditors can improve their communication in terms of writing and presenting. It was a fun 25-minute conversation with host Jon Taber and includes lots of tips that can be implemented immediately. You can listen to the episode on Spotify…
- [Let's replace PDFs](https://www.plainfinance.net/lets-replace-pdfs.md) - PDFs are OK to read on a laptop but they are terrible to read on a phone. And busy people do a lot of reading on their phones. So ... we should stop sharing PDFs and share HTML documents that are responsive to the dimensions of the device they are on.
- [Use round numbers](https://www.plainfinance.net/write-round-numbers.md) - Yesterday the company that supplies our energy sent me an email to tell me the amount of my monthly direct debit will change. Both the old and the new monthly amounts are shown to the penny. This suggests a level of accuracy in their estimation models than is justified by the fact that my wife and…
- [Stripes are for zebras, not tables.](https://www.plainfinance.net/table-shading.md) - Tables in reports are helpful for presenting information but you need to help your reader to see your message. Formatting your table can help but too much formatting works against you. All you’re doing is adding clutter. In particular, don’t use “zebra striping” (where alternative rows are shaded o…
- [The waste basket is a writer's friend](https://www.plainfinance.net/the-waste-basket.md) - This poster hangs above my desk. It is a reminder to be willing to delete bad writing. I hope my ratio of good writing to bad is better than 1:91 but bad writing is bad writing. The lessons for us all are: * Always read what you write. * Delete everything you don’t need. * Revise what’s left to be…
- [Writing in short sentences is not childish.](https://www.plainfinance.net/writing-in-short.md) - We begin to write by using short sentences. As we grow so do our sentences. By the time we reach working age we think we need long, complex sentences to be professional. This leads us to a use jargon and unclear language. We end up writing without clarity and impact. Yes, long sentences can sound i…
- [Accountants are human, too](https://www.plainfinance.net/accountants-are-human-too.md) - I was recently interviewed for the Human, Too podcast. In the interview I talk about my career path, which began conventionally with jobs in accounting and audit in local government settings but, after 3 years as a finance director, it changed. The second half is more interesting. And later in the…
- [Let's get rid of executive summaries](https://www.plainfinance.net/lets-get-rid.md) - Write shorter reports instead. Long reports usually have an executive summary that is maybe only 1 or 2 per cent as long as the report. Isn't this an admission that 98% of the report is not needed by most readers, if not all of them? One thing you can be confident about is that your most important…
- [Replace "but" with "and"](https://www.plainfinance.net/pro-writing-tip.md) - Remove the negative tone of your writing by using and instead of but to join two thoughts. When you do this you’ll sound more positive. We all know when someone says, “Yes, but …,” they are disagreeing with us. When we get feedback from someone that follows the “(comment 1) but (comment 2)” we know…
- [How to type a decimal point](https://www.plainfinance.net/how-to-type.md) - Continuing my occasional series of typographic typing tips (I like that alliteration). Usually we use the full stop as the decimal point in a number but strictly speaking the decimal point should be at middle height of the digits not at the base. You want 123·45 and not 123.45. What you need to typ…
- [Q: when is a space not a space?](https://www.plainfinance.net/q-when-is.md) - A: when it’s a non-breaking space. Q: What’s a non-breaking space? A: A non-breaking space is used when you want the text on both sides of the space to stay on the same line of text. Q: Why should I care? A: Mostly you don't need to care. The app you are writing in will take care of line breaks and…
- [Understand how your reader reads](https://www.plainfinance.net/understand-how-your.md) - For everything you write you need to understand how your reader will read it. Some things are read closely, word by word. Students can expect this for their essays. You can’t expect this for anything you write that has more than two paragraphs. Others are skimmed, with readers only reading the firs…
- [Why I don’t write in MS Word](https://www.plainfinance.net/why-i-dont.md) - Excel changed the world by allowing users to format and beautify data, although this is often at the cost of clarity. This trend is worse with Microsoft Word, where users are bombarded with formatting options. That massive ribbon at the top of the screen is a siren calling to the user to mess about…
- [Keep it simple, stupid.](https://www.plainfinance.net/keep-it-simple-6841b808235189001bd3c5ce.md) - One of my former bosses always wanted "KISS" reports. Keep it simple, stupid. It's easier to say than do. Us technical folk think in technical terms but, here's the thing, when we communicate to non-technical people we need to simplify. Here's an example of what not to do. Recently I got an email f…
- [4 tips for smart writing](https://www.plainfinance.net/tips-for-smart.md) - Why not write your next finance report the Axios way. The Axios mission statement is “Axios gets you smarter, faster on what matters.” They’re focused on the news of course, but as an #accountant or #auditor, don’t you want to get your colleagues or clients smarter, faster? If you do, you need to a…
- [Choosing a report structure](https://www.plainfinance.net/choosing-a-report.md) - You can tell any joke you like but it’s best if you tell one that your audience laughs at. When it comes to writing a financial report you can use any structure you like but it’s best to choose one that works for the reader. Typically you might structure your report along the lines of: Here’s a pro…
- [A tip about writing abbreviations.](https://www.plainfinance.net/a-tip-about.md) - Have you ever thought about how you write abbreviations? Accountants and auditors will often find themselves using technical terms and long titles that it is best to abbreviate after their first use. Some abbreviations, such as BBC, UK and USA, are so well-known they can be used without ever writin…
- [Q: How can you make your writing 50% better?](https://www.plainfinance.net/q-how-can.md) - A: Cut out 33% of the words. I've been reading a series of articles by Jason Zweig, a writer for the Wall Street Journal. The figures above are his. He is a strong advocate for cutting your writing. As he put it: > The point of cutting your writing isn’t to make it shorter. The point of cutting it…
- [Accountants need to be communicators not reporters](https://www.plainfinance.net/accountants-need-to.md) - CIPFA includes communication and impact as one of the key competencies for public financial management professionals. That means developing skills in telling stories with financial data. As luck would have it, late in 2022 the World Bank published A Guide to Data Storytelling in the Public Sector.…
- [Financial reports have not changed in 30 years](https://www.plainfinance.net/financial-reports-have.md) - When I began working as a trainee accountant there were very few computers in the office and they were not on individuals’ desks. They were on tables because to be used on a shared basis. Most people in the Accountancy team did not use them at all. They used calculators and created spreadsheets man…
- [Fix your line length](https://www.plainfinance.net/fix-the-line.md) - Here’s an instant tip to make your document easier to read. Set the margins and font-size so that the length of each line is around 65 characters. That’s two and a half alphabets. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklm A line length of about 65 characters is optimal for r…
- [3 tips to write faster](https://www.plainfinance.net/tips-to-write.md) - Here are three ways to write faster and make fewer mistakes. 1. Use keyboard shortcuts. Keeping your hands on your keyboard to do routine things like select, copy and paste text, open and close documents, apply formatting styles is much quicker than mousing to the File or Edit menus 2. Use text exp…
- [Don’t use pie charts](https://www.plainfinance.net/dont-use-pie.md) - Let me explain why you should avoid pie charts — and donut charts — in most documents and presentations. Pie charts are easy to create and they’re colourful and you might want to include lots of them in the reports and slidedecks you write. But there are lots of problems with them: * they are diffi…
- [Write headlines for your tables](https://www.plainfinance.net/write-headlines-for.md) - A picture paints a thousand words. A table of data could save you (and your reader) hundreds of words. But your table is a wasted opportunity if the reader doesn’t get your message from it. Or worse, skips over it. Here’s a tip to make the tables in your documents have more impact: instead of givin…
- [How to format a chart](https://www.plainfinance.net/how-to-format.md) - How to format a chart TIP: Remove the clutter from your charts. If you want your reader to get your message you need to make your message clear. Don’t just copy and paste a chart from Excel into a Word document or presentation. You need to format it first. Here's how. Formatting a chartFormatting a…
- [3 ways to grab the reader of your finance reports.](https://www.plainfinance.net/ways-to-grab.md) - If you want the receivers of your finance reports to read them then you need to grab their attention at the top of your document. If you fail to do that they’ll skim your report (at best) or just do something else. Here are three ways you could start a finance report that will keep the reader readi…
- [You don’t have to use long words to be professional.](https://www.plainfinance.net/you-dont-have.md) - I think somewhere during the journey towards a professional accounting qualification we adopt accounting-speak. Some of the words we learn are very specific, technical terms and we have to use them. I’m thinking of words like depreciation and recognition. But there is tendency amongst accountants t…
- [This is how I declutter tables in documents](https://www.plainfinance.net/this-is-how-6841b808235189001bd3c5d7.md) - When you’ve got a lot of data to include in a document it often makes sense to put it into a table. The default table style in Microsoft Word puts a fairly thick black border around every cell in the table. This is both ugly and a hindrance to your reader’s ability to read the table. To deliver you…
- [Learn this simple trick to save time writing emails. EOM.](https://www.plainfinance.net/learn-this-simple.md) - If you have a short message to send you can save yourself some time by putting the whole message into the subject line. This is also better for the receiver since they do not need to open the message unless/until they are going to reply to it. The trick here is to use the abbreviation EOM at the en…
- [Bad writing wastes time](https://www.plainfinance.net/bad-writing-wastes.md) - Bad writing costs your organisation a lot of money, too. A few years ago Josh Bernoff did some research into the Sad State of Business Writing. He surveyed business people who write at work and got over 500 responses. Amongst his conclusions were these gems: * Bad writing was costing the American e…
- [Accountants overcomplicate everything](https://www.plainfinance.net/accountants-overcomplicate-everything.md) - Richard Feynman said, If you can't explain something to a first year student, then you haven't really understood. Feynman was talking about physics but I think the same sentiment applies to accounting and finance. Except, instead of a first year student you should be able to explain finance to a no…
- [3 ways to make your writing clear and concise](https://www.plainfinance.net/ways-to-make.md) - You’ve read many times the advice to keep your writing clear and concise. But how do you do that? Here are three things you can do on your next piece of writing. First it means being a brutal editor of your work. Re-read your work before you “publish” it. For each sentence ask yourself, can I delet…
- [Writing tip: short not shallow.](https://www.plainfinance.net/writing-tip-short.md) - Your reader has limited time. Do them a favour with your emails and reports and keep them as short as possible. If a document is short (it fits onto 1 page or 1 screen) the reader can read it and remember what you want them to remember. If you include everything in your email or document (all the c…
- [Four alternatives to boring audit reports](https://www.plainfinance.net/four-alternatives-to.md) - The technology for writing internal audit reports has changed since I wrote my first one in 1987 but not the content or structure. I wrote my first audit reports in the 1980s by hand and they were then copied by a typist before being sent to the client. Modern technology hasn’t done much more than…
- [Warm up before you write](https://www.plainfinance.net/warm-up-before.md) - Top performers warm up before they perform. This goes for writers as well as athletes and singers. John Steinbeck wrote with Black Wing pencils on yellow pads. He started the day sharpening his pencils and writing letters. I’m sure the letters mattered to him and their addressees but this was how h…
- [Leaders need to be good writers](https://www.plainfinance.net/leaders-need-to.md) - Recently I read an article by Adam Bryant, a former editor at the New York Times, in which he explained that an effective manager requires strong written communication skills. Two of the biggest traps to avoid are: ❌ Treating writing as different from speaking. Don’t use words and sentences in your…
- [3 ways to make your writing clearer (in 3 minutes)](https://www.plainfinance.net/ways-to-make-6841b808235189001bd3c5e1.md) - Over the holidays I came across an article by Jane Rosenzweig in the Harvard Business Review that happens to have been translated by HBR into this short video. If you like this video why not follow Jane Rosenzweig’s Writing Hacks on Substack.
- [How to make your writing more concise](https://www.plainfinance.net/perfection.md) - Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. You’ve read many times the advice to keep your writing clear and concise. You get concise sentences when you take out the words you don’t need. But how do you do that? First it means being a…
- [Less is more (influential)](https://www.plainfinance.net/less-is-more-influential.md) - Last week I wrote that perfection comes from including only the essential. Let me explain one way to apply that thinking to an audit report or similar (as taught to me when I worked at a Big Four firm). Let’s say that the work being reported has identified 10 issues. Naturally some of those will be…
- [Add a touch of Hemingway to your next finance report](https://www.plainfinance.net/hemingway-finance-report.md) - What did the authors Raymond Chandler, John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway have in common? Well, aside from being American, they all had a writing style that was direct; they did not waste words. Sometimes I like to read a book with a lyrical style but for the most part I prefer the direct style of…

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