When times are tough, what should proactive leaders be looking at on a regular basis to make sure they have the relevant information to manage their institution effectively? The president and senior administrators need daily reports that show the state of the institution so that they can take immediate action when results are deviating from plans.

Here are set of reports that should be available in a Daily Flash Report for presidents and their senior staff:

1. Enrollment Funnel: Inquiries, applications, admissions, deposits, and enrolled new students.
2. New Student Characteristics: Average SAT, average GPA, average parental income, number of Pell recipients.
3. New Student Tuition Generated: Average tuition discount, average net tuition, average balance not covered by government or institutional aid or by loans.
4. EBIDA: Earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization; this indicates how well operations are performing.
5. Receivables: Receivables as a percentage of tuition revenue, balances more than 60 or 90 days late, and uncollectable bills as a percentage of total billings.
6. Cash Available: Unrestricted cash-on-hand compared to the prior year.
7. Unbudgeted Expenses: List of expenses that are not included in the budget and the effect on the bottom line.
8. Capital Project Status: List of projects, how they are funded, amount expended, balance to be expended, and project net cash receipts.
9. Major building, equipment, property problems: List and priority of problems.

Your IT department should develop and produce the Daily Flash Report in collaboration with the chief financial officer, registrar, the director of admissions, the director of building and grounds, and the manager of capital projects.

Originally posted December 31, 2010