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A useful managed service provider (MSP) quarterly business review (QBR) shows whether technology and service work advanced the client’s business priorities, where results fell short, and what both parties will do next. Build it around agreed outcomes and a few clearly defined measures—not a ticket export or a feature presentation—and finish with decisions, owners, and due dates.
Start with the client’s goals
Before assembling charts, restate the client’s priorities for the quarter and the business outcomes the MSP agreed to support. Confirm them with the executive sponsor and the service owners involved. A concise vision-to-value statement can connect each goal to the work being done and the way progress will be measured; ServiceNow’s customer-success guidance recommends defining this with executive and service stakeholders and reporting a small number of KPIs tied to business objectives (ServiceNow customer-success guidance).
For each priority, make the link explicit: what matters to the client, what service or technology outcome supports it, and what evidence will show progress. If a client’s priority has changed, agree on the new measure rather than continuing to report a metric simply because it was used before.
Prepare a one-page quarter-at-a-glance
Open with a handful of measures selected with the customer—not a universal KPI checklist. For each measure, show the agreed target or expectation, this quarter’s result, the previous quarter’s result, and a brief explanation of meaningful movement. State the period and scope, and flag incomplete or limited data. A compact report layout is illustrated in an Atlassian Community article, whose displayed counts and percentages are examples rather than industry benchmarks (Atlassian Community SLA reporting example).
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| Area | What to report | Useful context |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability and SLA performance | Relevant response or resolution commitments, attainment, breaches, and corrective work | Define the SLA, period, numerator, denominator, exclusions, and any useful breakdown |
| Service desk experience | Agreed trends in requests, resolution, recurring issues, or customer feedback | Explain what the measure says about the client’s experience; note sample size and data coverage |
| Security and risk | Agreed security outcomes, remediation progress, material risks, and decisions needed | Translate technical activity into client impact only where the evidence supports it |
| Proactive work and continuity | Relevant prevention work, recovery readiness, and continuity risks | Describe downtime avoided or revenue protected only when the client-specific basis is defensible |
| Roadmap and budget | Upcoming decisions, dependencies, lifecycle concerns, and investment needs | Relate recommendations to the client’s 12–24 month technology roadmap and budget discussion |
ConnectWise’s QBR guidance recommends aligning technology with business objectives and discussing a 12–24 month roadmap and budget with customer decision makers (ConnectWise QBR best practices). Select only the rows that fit the client’s agreed priorities. ConnectWise also cautions that apparently healthy service metrics can coexist with poor service or customer experience (ConnectWise QBR best practices); pair operational figures with customer feedback and explain what the data does—and does not—establish.
Define and contextualize service metrics
A percentage without its definition can mislead. For SLA compliance, the Atlassian Community article gives this formula: “SLA Compliance Rate = Tickets resolved within SLA / Total tickets × 100” (Atlassian Community SLA reporting example). Use it only with the numerator, denominator, SLA rules, reporting period, and exclusions defined consistently by the MSP’s agreement and reporting system.
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Break results down when a breakdown helps explain a pattern or cause. Potential cuts include priority, request type or service category, team or queue, customer tier, region or support calendar, and month within the quarter. Avoid adding slices that are too small to support a reliable conclusion. The sample figures in the cited article are illustrative, not a standard against which to judge an MSP.
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- Definition and quality: State period, scope, source, denominator, exclusions, and coverage.
- Change over time: Compare the result with the target and prior period, then distinguish a trend from a one-quarter fluctuation.
- Actionability: Identify what the team will change or what decision the client needs to make.
- Audience fit: Explain the outcome in language a business decision maker can follow without translating technical jargon.
Explain what changed, why it matters, and what happens next
For every material movement, connect the result to the client’s priorities. Explain what changed, the evidence-backed likely cause, the action already underway, and any client decision or support required. A single quarter is not proof of sustained performance; use prior-period context and relevant exceptions to show whether a result is continuing, improving, or newly at risk.
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- QUARTERLY PLANNING SYSTEM Break your annual vision into four focused 90-day plans using the 12-week-year structure that coaches and entrepreneurs rely on, giving you a strategic layer that sits above your daily calendar and holds the direction your scheduling tools cannot.
- TRACK REVENUE-GENERATING ACTIVITIES EVERY MONTH Every month gets a dedicated spread to set priorities, track revenue and the activities driving it, and review results against plan, keeping the business moving between quarterly reviews.reviews instead of drifting.
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- A THOUGHTFUL GIFT FOR NEW BUSINESS OWNERS, COACHES AND CREATORS A quarterly planning system makes a purposeful gift for someone building a business alongside a full life, useful long after a birthday or a business milestone has passed because they will reach for it at the start of every quarter and every month.
Good QBR reporting also distinguishes activity from outcome. A list of patches, alerts, tickets, or configuration changes tells the customer what the MSP did. Explain the client effect—such as reduced exposure or stronger recovery readiness—only to the extent the underlying evidence supports it. ConnectWise’s dashboard examples are illustrations, not results from an actual client (ConnectWise QBR dashboard examples).
When the available data cannot establish an effect, say so plainly. For example, report that remediation is complete against an agreed scope rather than claiming a specific amount of risk or revenue was saved without a defensible calculation.
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Run a business-focused meeting
Hold the review quarterly and include a client executive or other top-level decision maker at least a couple of times a year, as ConnectWise recommends (ConnectWise QBR best practices). Write for the full audience, including C-level stakeholders, and frame recommendations around the client’s needs rather than the MSP’s service catalogue (ConnectWise MSP Playbook).
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- Reconfirm the client’s priorities and review decisions carried forward from the previous quarter.
- Present the outcome summary and explain material changes against targets and prior results.
- Discuss service, risk, and customer-experience exceptions, including the evidence and response.
- Align roadmap, budget, dependencies, and decisions coming due.
- Agree on next-quarter actions, owners, due dates, and how progress will be checked.
Treat the meeting as a joint review, not a sales presentation. Leave time for the customer’s questions, concerns, and feedback; those can reveal gaps a dashboard will not show.
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Turn the review into commitments
End with a short action register. For each item, record the action, accountable owner, due date, expected client outcome, and status to revisit at the next review. Include client-side decisions and dependencies alongside MSP work so responsibility is clear. This is a practical way to turn roadmap discussion and follow-up into accountable work.
If an SLA commitment is unclear, unrealistic, or no longer matches the service the client needs, discuss it openly and agree on a precise definition. ConnectWise advises that commitments be clearly defined and attainable and suggests reassessing them during QBRs (ConnectWise SLA and QBR guidance).
A useful way to write each outcome is: “This quarter, we agreed to improve [client priority]. We achieved [measured result] against [target], compared with [prior-period result]. The main driver was [evidence-backed explanation]. The remaining gap is [risk or issue]. We recommend [next action] by [date], with [owner] responsible. This should support [client outcome], which we will measure by [agreed indicator] next quarter.” Replace every bracket with verified, client-specific evidence; do not present the template as a result.
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