Meeting types · KPI / business review
A business review where every number has an owner and a fresh figure
The monthly review is the meeting most likely to be rebuilt by hand and least likely to be current. One person assembles twelve numbers they don't own, half of them a week old, and reads them out to a room that mostly listens.
Curact turns the KPI block into part of the series instead of part of the deck: owners are asked for their own figures beforehand, the previous period is carried over automatically, and the live half hour — if you keep one — is spent only on what's off target.
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What should a monthly business review agenda include?
A monthly business review (MBR) focuses on tracking performance against targets and unblocking stalled initiatives. It works remotely when each number has a named owner who reports their figure and commentary before the call. This leaves the live session for discussing what is off-track rather than reading through a deck of stale data.
- 01Assign every tracked metric to a specific owner in the team.
- 02Nudge owners to report fresh figures and a one-line comment before the review.
- 03Pull in follow-ups from the previous month with their current status.
- 04Review the deck and only flag the numbers that missed their targets.
- 05Spend the live time on root causes and new commitments.
- 06Record every decision with an owner and a date for the next round.
Today
How the business review usually runs
A day of deck-building, a room of listeners, and figures whose provenance nobody can quite reconstruct.
The deck is rebuilt by hand
Someone spends a day copying figures into the same layout as last month, then fixes the two that changed while they were doing it.
Half the numbers are stale
A figure pulled a week early is presented as current, and the discussion runs on a version of reality nobody has checked.
The presenter doesn't own the number
One person reads out twelve KPIs they had no part in producing, so every follow-up question ends with "I'll have to check."
Nothing carries over
Last round's "we'll look into it" was never written down with a name, so the same number is discussed again from scratch.
The flow
Before, during and after — with the call optional
Reporting a number is written work. Deciding what to do about it is the part that sometimes deserves a room.
Before
The KPI watcher finds the numbers that have gone stale and messages each owner in Slack with a link. They report the figure and a one-line comment on what changed. Last round's follow-ups are pulled in with their status, agents propose context from the connected channels and boards, and the host approves it all in one inbox.
During
Nothing is read out that could have been read. The session covers the numbers that missed their target, with the owner speaking to their own figure, and ends on the commitments. Everyone answers polls and asks questions from their phone, no account needed. Skip the call entirely and the deck does the same job in writing.
After
Commitments become follow-ups with an owner and a date, and come back in the next review with a status. The recap posts to Slack as a by-product, and this month's reported values become next month's previous column without anyone copying them.
One number, one slide, one owner. The comment is written by the person who reported the figure, not by whoever built the deck.
A focus slide listing the numbers that need the room's attention, so the live minutes go to what's off track rather than a read-through of everything.
The KPI block
What one number looks like as a slide
The KPI block belongs to the series, so it survives between meetings. Each number carries everything the room needs to judge it without a spreadsheet open on the side.
One number per slide
Revenue, net churn, NPS, pipeline coverage — each gets its own page rather than a wall of figures nobody reads. The room can only discuss one number at a time anyway.
A named owner
The person who owns the number is on the slide and is the one nudged for it. Questions go to them directly instead of to whoever happens to be presenting.
Value, target and delta
The current figure sits next to the target and the change since last period, so whether a number is good is visible without anyone explaining it.
A one-line comment
Owners write what changed and why when they report. That sentence is usually worth more than the figure, and it is written by the person who knows.
Staleness, in the open
A number that hasn't been refreshed shows how old it is. No more presenting a three-week-old figure as this month's result.
Carried-over follow-ups
Commitments from the last round come back with their status attached, so the review starts from what was promised rather than from a blank page.
Example
What one monthly review actually looks like
A 90-person company, eight tracked numbers with seven different owners, and nobody spending a day in a slide editor.
- Ten days out
The KPI watcher checks which of the series' numbers are stale and messages each owner in Slack with a link — one message per person, listing only the numbers they actually own.
- A week out
Owners report their figure and a one-line comment on what changed. It takes under a minute per number and happens on their own schedule, in whatever timezone they're in.
- Three days out
The KPI slide is generated from the reported values: current figure, delta against the previous period, target and owner, one number per slide.
- Two days out
Follow-ups from last round are pulled into the deck with their current status, and agents propose commentary and context slides from the connected channels and boards.
- One day out
The host works one review inbox: accept, edit or drop each reported value, each follow-up and each agent suggestion. The deck is finished the day before, not the night before.
- The review
A short live session on the numbers that are off target, or no session at all. Everyone else reads the deck and comments in writing over the next two days.
- After
Every commitment leaves with an owner and a date, the recap posts back to Slack, and the reported values become next month's previous column.
Agenda
A 25-minute monthly business review agenda, and the days around it
This agenda is built for speed. It assumes the data is reported beforehand so the room can focus on the decisions that follow.
Yours to use, with or without Curact. No signup for the template.
Templates
Three ready-made versions of this meeting
Pick the depth that fits the week. Every template opens as a real deck you can edit, reorder or throw away.
Short
The 15-minute numbers check
The one number that matters, what's off target, and the commitments that follow.
17 min · 5 slides
- 1.Business Review — weekly numbers
- 2.Headline number
- 3.Off target this week
- 4.How confident are you we'll hit this month's target?
- 5.What we're doing about it
Standard
The monthly business review
Every tracked number with its owner, direction and target, and the decisions that follow.
30 min · 9 slides
- 1.Business Review — monthly
- 2.Join in
- 3.Revenue
- 4.Net churn
- 5.Pipeline coverage
- + 4 more
In depth
The quarterly deep dive
The full scorecard, trend lines against target, root-cause discussion and next quarter's targets.
44 min · 11 slides
- 1.Business Review — quarterly deep dive
- 2.Join in
- 3.Revenue
- 4.Net churn
- 5.Pipeline coverage
- + 6 more
FAQ
Questions people running business reviews ask first
Who is responsible for updating each number?
Every KPI carries a named owner, and the owner is the one asked for the figure — not the person building the deck. Before the review, the KPI watcher sends that owner a direct message in Slack with a link, and they report the value and a one-line comment on what changed from their phone. If a number has no fresh figure, the slide says so instead of quietly showing an old one.
Does the deck have to be rebuilt every month?
No. The KPI block belongs to the series, not to a single meeting, so each new occurrence starts with the same numbers, the same owners and the previous period's values already in place. What changes month to month is the figures and the commentary, which is exactly the part the owners write.
How does the trend carry between rounds?
Each reported value is stored against its period, so a KPI slide can show the current figure, the previous one, the delta and the target side by side. Nobody has to remember what last month said or dig out an old file — the comparison is built from the values that were already reported.
Can a business review run without a call?
Yes, and many do. The deck is published, owners report their numbers, and everyone reads and comments in writing across a couple of days. Companies that keep a live session usually keep a short one, spending it on the two or three numbers that are off target rather than reading every figure out loud.
What happens to the decisions the review produces?
Anything that becomes a commitment is written as a follow-up with an owner and a date. It reappears in the next review's deck with its status, so the standing question "what did we say about this last month?" has an answer on the slide instead of in someone's memory.
Can we connect the numbers to the tools we already use?
Agents can read the sources you point them at — Slack channels, boards and the KPI register — and propose slides and commentary with a suggested owner. They never publish on their own: everything waits in a review inbox until the host accepts it, and an agent cannot overwrite a slide someone already approved. Figures that live in a system Curact does not read are reported by their owner in a few seconds.
Instead of
What does this replace?
Most business reviews are run with a mix of dashboard screenshots and manually updated slides. The cost is not just the time — it is the lack of a reliable record.
CRM/Dashboard reports
Great for data, poor for context.
The figure is paired with the owner’s one-line commentary on why it changed.
Presentation tool
Rebuilt from scratch every single month.
The KPI block belongs to the series, so the layout and owners carry over automatically.
Slack/Email nudges
The host has to chase everyone for numbers.
Curact handles the nudges and provides a single link for owners to report their figures.
Spreadsheet for history
Comparison against last month is a manual copy-paste.
Previous values are carried over to the next round, building a trend without any extra work.
Curact does not replace Slack, your boards or your video call. It sits next to them: the deck is the meeting, and the tools you already pay for stay where they are.
Built by Textalk
Curact is made by Textalk AB in Sweden, a software company that has run its own distributed weekly meeting for years. This is the tool we built for ourselves first.
Participants need no account
People join from a link or a code on screen and answer from their phone. Only the people who build the deck need a login.
Works next to your stack
Slack for the reminders and the recap, your boards for the source material, any video tool for the call itself.
30 days, no card
The trial is the full product, not a stripped demo. Nothing to cancel if you walk away.
Written and reviewed by the Curact team. Last reviewed August 2026.
Other meetings teams run this way
Project kickoff
Goal, scope, milestones and risks written by their owners in advance, and every open decision leaving with a name and a date.
Read moreRetro / check-in
Anonymous 1–5 scales and word clouds answered from a phone, so the honest signal is on the screen before the discussion starts.
Read moreWorkshop / brainstorm
Contributions collected on a link days ahead, prioritised by a live vote from everyone's phone, and turned into follow-ups with owners.
Read moreRun the next review without rebuilding the deck
Set the numbers and their owners up once in the series. Every round after that, the owners report and the deck assembles itself — keep the short live session or drop it.
30 days, no card, cancel in one click.