[BIP:70] Financial Reporting

Total Cost: $2,000 per month.

Background:

Beefy has recently launched an inaugural quarterly financial report, which showcases its current financial performance. A copy of the report is linked below for any who haven’t yet seen it. This proposal asks for DAO approval to continue these efforts, and for a new budget to fund this work.

It is suggested that regular financial reporting is invaluable for a mature and sophisticated protocol like Beefy. Internally, financial data helps contributors to adapt their focus or to target areas of interest or difficulty. For the community, reporting improves understanding and awareness, to inform better governance decisions and maintain shared understanding and morale. And for external readers, detailed data can help prospective partners, investors, service providers and commentators to understand Beefy better, and to recognise its full potential.

Already, we've received feedback from multiple external parties who have viewed our report and praised our approach, including one of the largest DAOs and one of the most essential and well-respected information sites for DeFi. Our reputation as one of the most open and sophisticated DAOs is preceding us.

This new initiative has taken input from a range of contributors, including non-Core DAO members and auxiliary support from Core contributors beyond their ordinary responsibilities. As such, the hundreds of hours taken to gather this data and build the report has not yet been compensated. This proposal calls for a $2,000 per month budget to compensate contributors to these efforts. This includes an initial $6,000 in compensation to be paid to the team behind the first report, reflecting work from January - March 2023.

Beyond the team that prepared the inaugural report, we are also fortunate that our community hosts a huge range of skills and expertise that can assist with this work, including accountants, data scientists, lawyers, writers and of course developers. By allocating a fixed budget, this proposal anticipates that the team behind the report can expand and change over time, and will compensate anyone who can bring additional value to the table. If you have a skill that you think you can bring to the table, don’t hesitate to raise your hand.

Suggested Use

To maximize the budget’s potential, it is suggested that this could be paid out quarterly in a lump sum, and only after the previous quarter’s budget has been successfully published. This avoids the risk of contributors being compensated for ongoing work which is later abandoned or excluded, and acts as a constant incentive to the team preparing the report. It is suggested that the report team can allocate the budget amongst themselves with their own preferred method (e.g. using a Coordinape circle), but the Core team should retain final say on allocations in the event of any dispute.

Through feedback from the Core team, it is also agreed that the report team should aim to refine and automate reporting processes, to minimize the amount of manual work required and bring down the overall cost over time. With that said, the team has also considered expanding the report to cover other key financial analyses, such as preparing a balance sheet and cashflow statement. The static budget anticipates some cost savings on repeated work, as well as some investment in new areas and techniques.

The suggestions in this section are not strict requirements of the proposal, but consider how the budget may operate to maximize value for the DAO. It is expected that best practices will emerge over time if the proposal is approved.

Proposal

Beefy should adopt quarterly financial reporting, and fund this with a budget of $2,000 per month, including an initial payment of $6,000 to compensate for work completed from January to March 2023.