Financial Reports

Site: MSL Learn
Course: Montana Library Budgets and Finance
Book: Financial Reports
Printed by: Guest user
Date: Friday, 12 June 2026, 10:56 AM

Reading Your Monthly Financial Reports

Just like your home budget and the budget for your business or place of work, regular review of financial statements is a good idea.

We'll walk through the terminology and types of financial statements you may encounter for public libraries in just over five minutes.  Use the pause and rewind to review any sections of the video.

Routine Inspection

Pages in a monthly calendarEstablishing a regular and predictable routine for reviewing financial reports and budgets will help you answer these essential questions:

  1. Are revenues coming in as expected?
  2. Is there a need to adjust planned expenses?
  3. Are expenditures on track?
  4. Do you have questions about line items?
  5. How are things going, in general, with the annual budget?

You may decide on a routine or calendar to review specific reports or elements of the budget at significant points prior to or after a fiscal year ends.

The board, director and clerk or treasurer work together to create a routine that helps keep you informed and timely in managing the library's finances.

Next Steps

Your next steps in the course are to review Handbooks and Guides.  After that, complete the course evaluation.