Quick background: I'm selling my business through a court-supervised receivership. The receiver keeps mentioning monthly reporting requirements, but I'm getting conflicting info from different people. What financial reports actually have to be filed with the court every month? I'm talking about the real, practical list, not the 200-page handbook version. Bonus points if you've been through this and can tell me what the judge actually cares about vs. what's just noise.
Receivership
What financial reports do you have to file with the court every month?
Depends on the court and the receiver, honestly. In our case it was a monthly operating report, bank statements, and a cash flow projection. The judge barely glanced at the projections but the bank recs got scrutinized.
Following. We're not in receivership but our buyer's attroney keeps asking for 'court-ready' financials and I have no idea what that even means.
Been through a Ch. 11 sale (not receivership, close enough). Every month we filed: MOR (monthly operating report), bank statements, a schedule of receipts and disbursements, and variance reports against the budget. The variance report was the one that caused the most drama because our actuals were all over the place. Pro tip: your accountant will charge you more for the variance narrative than the actual report costs to produce.
lol @ "court-read" — meaning they want it to look like a real company, not a shoebox of receipts.
It really varies by jurisdiction. Some courts require a monthly report from the receiver, not from you. In my district the receiver files the report and the debtor just has to cooperate. Ask the receiver's office for their standard reporting template — they have one, guaranteed.
One more thing: don't sleep on the certificate of service. You can have perfect financials and still get a nastygram from the clerk if you didn't serve the right parties. Ask me how I know.
This thread is making me grateful my sale was a plain asset purchase with no court involved. Good luck, OP.
Wait, SaltLampSam — what do you mean by 'variance narrative'? Is that like a written explanation of why you missed budget? Our accountant just sends a spreadsheet with no commentary and Im wondering if that's going to bite us.
Yeah, essentially a short paragraph per line item that's off by more than whatever threshold the court or receiver sets (often 10% or $5k). Ours was three sentences max per variance. The judge never commented, but the U.S. Trustee's office did, so it mattered.