The Most Useful Reports for a PI Managing Partner's Monthly Review

Managing partners at PI firms ask variations of the same core question in every marketing review: are we spending the right amount of money, in the right places, to produce the cases this firm needs? The reports that answer that question effectively are specific, outcome-focused, and designed for a person whose primary concern is business performance — not marketing activity.

This article describes the reports that consistently generate the most useful conversations in PI managing partner reviews — what to include, how to frame the data, and what to leave out.

What Managing Partners Actually Want to Know

Before building any report, understand the mental model of the person reading it. Managing partners at PI firms typically care about three things:

1. Are we on track to hit our case goals? They want to know whether the marketing and intake funnel is producing the volume and quality of cases the firm budgeted for.
2. Are we spending our marketing budget wisely? They want to know that someone with accountability is watching every significant spend category and making decisions based on performance.
3. What are the risks? They want to know if anything in the marketing or intake pipeline could become a business problem they need to address.

Reports that answer these three questions directly will get attention and generate productive conversations. Reports filled with impressions, click-through rates, and ad platform performance will generate glazed eyes and follow-up questions that take longer than the report.

Report 1: The Case Pipeline Summary

This is the top-level view every managing partner review should start with. It shows the current month's intake funnel from lead to signed case, compared to the prior month and the same month in the prior year.

The report should include:

• Total leads received — current month vs. prior month vs. prior year
• Leads contacted by intake — with contact rate percentage
• Leads screened — with screening rate
• Cases signed — with conversion rate from screened leads
• Cases signed vs. monthly goal — percentage of target achieved
• Cases signed year-to-date vs. annual goal

Keep this report to a single page or a single view. Managing partners should be able to see whether the funnel is healthy or not in under 30 seconds. Use color coding — green for on or above target, yellow for within 10% of target, red for below — to make the status immediately readable.

Report 2: Cost Per Signed Case by Vendor

This is the financial accountability report. It answers the question: what did we pay to acquire each signed case, and is that acceptable?

The report should show:

• Each vendor's spend for the period
• Cases attributed to each vendor
• Cost per signed case for each vendor
• Cost per signed case vs. target for each vendor
• 90-day trend (up, flat, or down) for each vendor
• Total spend across all vendors
• Weighted average cost per case across the portfolio

Managing partners don't need to understand every vendor relationship in detail. They need to see, at a glance, whether the vendors they're paying are performing against defined benchmarks. The trend column is particularly important — a vendor above target but improving is a different conversation than a vendor above target and deteriorating.

Accompany each underperforming vendor with a one-line note: what is being done about it and when will results be reviewed. This shows active management, not passive monitoring.

Report 3: Marketing Spend vs. Budget

This is the budget accountability report. Managing partners approve a marketing budget and want to know whether it's being spent as planned — not just whether it's being spent.

Show:

• Approved monthly budget vs. actual spend
• Variance by line item (by vendor or channel)
• Year-to-date budget vs. year-to-date spend
• Projected year-end spend at current pace

If you are over budget in a specific category, explain why and whether it was intentional (e.g., a new vendor test that was approved out-of-cycle) or a variance that needs correction. Managing partners are less concerned about budget variance when it comes with an explanation and a plan.

Report 4: Case Quality Distribution

This report connects the intake pipeline to downstream financial outcomes. It answers the question managing partners often ask but rarely get answered: are we signing the right cases?

Show the distribution of signed cases by severity category for the current month, compared to the prior 3-month average and the same month in the prior year:

• Minor injury cases — count and percentage of total
• Moderate injury cases — count and percentage of total
• Severe injury cases — count and percentage of total
• Cases with surgery or hospitalization — count and percentage

A shift toward lower severity cases should prompt a question about lead quality by source. A shift toward higher severity is a positive signal about vendor or intake quality. Managing partners who review this data monthly will, over time, develop an intuition about what a healthy case mix looks like for their firm — and will notice when it drifts.

Report 5: The 12-Month Cost Per Case Trend

This is the strategic view. It shows whether marketing efficiency is improving or deteriorating over time, and provides the context managing partners need to evaluate whether the current performance is acceptable.

A simple line chart showing monthly average cost per signed case over the trailing 12 months, with a target line, communicates more than any table. A cost per case that has been declining for 6 consecutive months is a compelling story. A cost per case that has been rising for 3 consecutive months while case volume has stayed flat is a concern that needs explanation.

Include brief annotations on the trend line for major events: a vendor change, a significant budget reallocation, a new intake process change, a competitive market shift. This context helps managing partners interpret the data rather than attributing everything to marketing department performance.

Report 6: Top Vendor Performance Summary

Managing partners in most firms have opinions about specific vendors — they hear about them from other firm owners at conferences, they see their own ads and question spend levels, they receive vendor sales calls. A brief vendor performance summary addresses these questions proactively.

For each of your top 3 to 5 vendors by spend, show:

• Monthly spend
• Cases produced
• Cost per signed case vs. target
• One-line assessment: performing, monitoring, or action required

This is not a detailed vendor analysis — it's a one-page view that confirms to managing partners that the top spend categories are being actively managed. The detail lives in the full cost-per-case report. This summary is for the executive reader who needs the headline, not the footnotes.

How to Present These Reports

The format matters as much as the content. A few principles for managing partner marketing reports:

• Lead with the headline.Don't make partners read five pages to get the bottom line. Open with a 3-sentence summary: where you are vs. case goal, whether cost per case is on target, and the primary action item for the coming month.
• Use consistent formatting every month. Partners who see the same report structure every month can find the numbers that matter in seconds. Redesigning the report each month adds no value and creates re-orientation time.
• Avoid technical marketing language.“CPL was $187 with a CPC of $42 and CTR of 3.8%” means nothing to a managing partner. “We paid an average of $1,650 per signed case in February, which is within our target of $1,800” means a great deal.
• Pair every problem with an action.If cost per case is above target for Vendor C, say what you're doing about it and when you expect resolution. Managing partners can handle bad news much better when it comes with accountable action.

The monthly partner review is one of the most important recurring touchpoints in a PI firm's marketing operation. Firms that invest in building clear, outcome-focused reports for these meetings build partner confidence, reduce friction around budget discussions, and create an environment where the marketing function is seen as a strategic asset rather than a cost center.