Earnings Season Prep: 3 Resources Worth Checking Out
Earnings season is underway. We pulled together three resources to support Q4 earnings preparation. Scan and pick what’s useful, from guidance framing, to ideas for building a repeatable earnings prep system, to Mark Hayes’ take on pressure-testing what belongs in your Q4 materials.
How guidance placement sets the tone
Drawing on 36 years as a sell-side analyst, Rae Maile explains why the timing and placement of guidance in an earnings call matters more than many IROs realize.
When we listened to Rae on the Enquire podcast, his perspective stood out as a useful reminder ahead of Q4 earnings.
Rae notes that guidance is most helpful when it appears early in the call, even when it has not changed. Providing clarity upfront reduces uncertainty and allows listeners to focus on the broader narrative that follows. When guidance shows up later, the opening minutes are often spent trying to determine whether anything has shifted, which can distract from the rest of the discussion.
A practical takeaway for Q4 earnings: While this can vary by company and situation, Rae’s perspective is that clear guidance early in the script and presentation helps set the tone for how the rest of the call is received. You may want to double-check whether guidance appears prominently in your opening remarks and early in your materials, so investors can quickly orient and engage with what comes next.
👉 Listen to the full episode for more on how analysts process earnings calls
Visa’s IRO built a system for earnings prep
Jennifer Como, Visa’s IRO, has spent years refining an earnings process that is repeatable, disciplined, and built to scale. It turns earnings from a quarterly scramble into a system that runs all year.
👉 Read the full article for the complete breakdown of how Visa structures its earnings process.
Here are three ideas from Jennifer’s approach that stood out to us:
1. Start with the business, not the slides
Early in each cycle, Jennifer meets directly with regional and product leaders to understand what’s actually changing in the business. Those conversations ground earnings messaging in real operating dynamics, not just financial outputs, and sharpen both the narrative and Q&A.
2. Make earnings a shared responsibility
At Visa, finance, legal, product, and comms each own pieces of the earnings story. Clear ownership, timelines, and expectations reduce last-minute issues and materially improve message quality. Strong earnings calls are built through coordination, not heroics.
3. Treat Q&A prep as a pressure test
Jennifer works through tough questions directly with the CEO and CFO, pushing for clarity and conviction. The goal is not rehearsal, but stress-testing. When leadership can handle prep at that level, the live call feels controlled and confident.
Why this matters for Q4 (and future earnings): The confidence investors hear on earnings calls rarely comes from last-minute prep. It comes from systems that compound over time. Jennifer’s approach is a useful reminder that process discipline shows up directly in credibility.
Our take for IROs: Strong earnings calls are built through shared ownership. When people across the company know their role and deliver high-quality inputs on time, you messaging is sharper, and you have fewer last-minute issues.
10 things to include in your Q4 earnings call
Mark Hayes, Partner at Breakwater Strategy, recently shared a practical checklist for Q4 earnings calls focused on decision-useful disclosure. His lens is simple: what investors actually need to model the business with confidence.
The framework spans areas like cash flow durability, capital allocation discipline, guidance clarity, balance sheet strength, and risk transparency. Below, we’ve pulled the first five items from Mark’s checklist that IR teams may want to pressure-test as they finalize Q4 materials.
- A clear bridge from earnings to durable free cash flow: Include a concise reconciliation showing how reported earnings convert to free cash flow, highlighting working capital, capex, cash taxes, interest, and one-time items. Provide enough context for investors to assess sustainability into the next year.
- Capital allocation presented as explicit math: Show how cash is allocated across CapEx, M&A, shareholder returns, and debt. Clearly articulate priorities, guardrails, and the conditions under which each lever would change.
- Segment-level KPIs aligned with how investors model the business: Provide stable, repeatable segment KPIs tied directly to guidance drivers (price, volume, mix, churn, utilization, backlog, ARR, loss ratio, etc. as applicable). Avoid introducing new metrics without clear rationale.
- Guidance supported by ranges and sensitivities: Present guidance with ranges and explain key sensitivities such as demand, rates, FX, or input costs. Explicitly state the assumptions underpinning the outlook.
- AI investment framed through execution and returns: Disclose where AI spending sits in the P&L or capex, the primary use cases being deployed, early performance indicators, and how AI is expected to impact productivity, margins, or growth over time. Include governance and controls.
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