Monthly update email or live document: which to send

On the first working day of the month, a familiar choice arrives. Write the update as an email, with the figures typed in and a spreadsheet attached? Or send a link to a document that holds the numbers and the story, current whenever it is opened?

Both formats have loyal users, and both have real strengths. The right answer depends less on preference than on who reads the update, what they do with it and how long it needs to stay true.

What an email does well

An update email has advantages that are easy to underrate.

It arrives where readers already are. Nobody has to click through, sign in or remember a link. For investors, advisers and senior colleagues with full inboxes, that matters.

It is a fixed record. The email says what you said on the day you said it. If a figure is later revised, the original stays visible, which is exactly what some readers, such as a board or an auditor, want.

It invites a reply. An email ends naturally in a conversation. A question about a number comes back in the same thread.

The weaknesses are the mirror image. Figures typed into an email are out of date the moment anything changes. Corrections need a second email, which half the readers miss. And the preparer rebuilds the whole thing every month, retyping numbers that already exist somewhere else.

What a live document does well

A live document keeps its figures linked to their source, so the update shows current numbers each time it is opened.

It is always the latest version. A colleague who opens it a week later sees the revised figure, not the one you typed on the first.

It holds more than an email comfortably can. Tables, trend charts, definitions and a section per team fit naturally in a document and badly in an email body.

It takes less rebuilding. The structure and the figures carry over. Each month, the work is the commentary.

Its weaknesses are also real. A link asks the reader to do something. A document that changes is not, by itself, a record of what was reported. And some readers simply prefer to be told the news rather than sent to find it.

Questions that decide it

Ask these about your readers, not about your own workflow.

Do they need a record or a reference?

If readers will later need to know exactly what was reported on a given date, as a board or investor group might, they need a fixed record. If they mainly want to know where things stand today, as a leadership team or client usually does, a live reference serves them better. Board packs sit in the first group, and their figures need to agree page by page; see board pack figures that match on the day.

How long will they keep coming back?

An update read once and filed suits email. An update people return to during the month, to check a figure before a meeting or settle a question, suits a live document.

How much is in it?

A few headline numbers and three paragraphs fit an email. Several tables, charts and sections are better in a document with an email pointing to it.

Who else will see it?

Emails get forwarded, often without the attachment. A link travels intact, but you should be comfortable with whoever it reaches being able to open it.

The combined approach

For many teams, the answer is both, with each doing what it does best.

1. Write a short email. Three to five sentences: the headline, what changed, any decision needed.
2. Link to the live document for the detail: figures, charts, team sections and definitions.
3. Save a dated snapshot of the document on the day you send, as a PDF or locked copy, and keep it in an archive folder.
4. Say which is which. One line at the end of the email, for example: “Figures in the linked report stay current; the snapshot of today’s version is in the shared folder.”

The email becomes the record of what you said. The live document becomes the place to check where things stand. Readers get the news in their inbox and the detail when they want it. If your document tool can’t export a clean snapshot, you can make a PDF version separately; what matters is that the file is dated and never edited afterwards.

Writing the email that sits on top

When an email points to a live document, it should not repeat the document’s figures. Repeating them reintroduces the problem the live document solves: two versions of the same number, one of which will go stale.

Use the email for judgement instead. What is the single most important change this month? What does the reader need to decide or know? What has improved, and what hasn’t? If a number is central to the message, state its direction and point to the document for the value: “Revenue grew for the third month running; the figures are in the report.”

For the routine behind the document itself, see how to stop rebuilding the weekly report every Monday.

Making the switch

If you currently send email-only updates, change one thing at a time. Keep the email, add the link, and tell readers what’s new. After two or three months, ask a couple of them which part they actually use. Their answer tells you where to put your effort.

Live Documents is designed for the document half of that arrangement: figures that stay current beneath commentary you write yourself.