A community bank should maintain nine core IT and cybersecurity reports: a daily backup status report; monthly remote access, patch status, and MDR reports; a firewall rules report every 2–6 months; a quarterly business review; an annual asset inventory and technology business review; and a cyber insurance risk report as needed.
A community bank shouldn't wait until an auditor or regulatory examiner asks for IT documentation to figure out what reports are available.
At Tomorrow's Technology Today, our regular reporting for community-bank clients includes 9 core IT and cybersecurity reports or reviews, with frequencies ranging from daily backup reporting to monthly security reports, quarterly business reviews, periodic firewall reviews, annual technology reviews, and reports generated for events such as cyber-insurance renewals.
The exact evidence a particular bank needs can vary based on its environment, policies, regulator, examination scope, insurance requirements, and risk profile.
The important principle is simple:
Build the evidence throughout the year instead of trying to recreate it when someone asks for it.
Here is the reporting framework we use with our community-bank clients.
1. Daily: Know Whether Your Backups Actually Worked
Daily Backup Status Report
Backup reporting is one area where simply generating a report isn't enough.
Our bank clients receive an automated backup status report every day showing backup status.
But automation isn't the end of the process.
A human reviews the backup alert and determines the appropriate next step.
When there are two backup failures in a row, the issue is escalated.
The bank is also included on the daily notification list, giving it visibility into backup status.
This distinction matters.
There is a major difference between saying:
"We have backup software."
and:
"We have a defined procedure for reviewing backup results and responding to failures."
Community-bank leadership should understand both the technology and the human process behind it. See What Should a Community Bank Look for When Choosing a Managed IT Provider? for the backup questions to ask any provider.
Ask your MSP:
- Who receives the backup alerts?
- Does a human review them?
- What happens after the first failure?
- When is the problem escalated?
- Does the bank receive the reports?
- How is an unresolved backup problem handled?
A backup tool can generate an alert.
Someone still needs to pay attention to it.
2. Monthly: Document Access, Patching, and Security Activity
Several important reports are provided to our community-bank clients each month.
Remote Access Report — Monthly
The remote-access report documents who has remote access to banking systems.
This can become particularly important when the bank needs to answer a specific question about access to its environment.
For example, imagine an auditor or examiner asks:
"Who remotely accessed this server on XX/XX/XXXX?"
The bank shouldn't be discovering at that moment that nobody knows where the information is — or whether it was retained.
That's why remote-access documentation is part of our recurring reporting cadence.
Patch/Software Update Status Report — Monthly
Community banks also need visibility into whether systems are current on security patches and software updates.
Our monthly patch/software update status report provides that visibility.
The report helps answer a straightforward but important question:
Are the systems we're responsible for managing current on their security updates?
It also creates historical documentation rather than relying on someone to reconstruct patch activity months later.
MDR Report — Monthly
Our Managed Detection and Response (MDR) report summarizes security alerts and threats detected and handled during the reporting period.
This gives bank leadership visibility beyond simply knowing that security software has been installed.
The bank can see evidence of security monitoring activity and what the service has been detecting and handling.
Together, these three monthly reports create recurring evidence around: access, system maintenance, and security monitoring.
3. Every 2–6 Months and Quarterly: Review Controls and Overall IT Health
Not every useful report needs to be produced monthly.
Some areas benefit from periodic review.
Firewall Rules Report — Every 2–6 Months
We provide firewall rules reporting every 2–6 months, depending on the client's needs.
This documents the active firewall rule set and provides documentation that can be used for audit and review purposes.
The important question isn't simply: "Do we have a firewall?"
It's also: "Do we understand how that firewall is configured?"
Quarterly Business Review — Quarterly
Our Quarterly Business Review (QBR) takes a broader view.
Rather than focusing on one security tool, the QBR is an account-health review covering the bank's overall IT status and upcoming needs.
This creates an opportunity to move beyond individual tickets and day-to-day technical problems.
Every three months, the conversation can focus on the bigger picture: Where are we now? What needs attention? What's changing? What's coming next?
That helps turn IT management from a reactive activity into an ongoing business conversation. For new clients, the first QBR is scheduled at the end of onboarding — see how a structured transition sets up that cadence.
4. Annually: Step Back and Review the Entire Technology Environment
Monthly reports are useful, but they don't replace a larger strategic review.
We use two important annual reporting processes with our community-bank clients.
Software/Asset Inventory Report — Annual
Once a year, we provide a full inventory of hardware and software assets.
The objective is visibility.
The bank should have a documented understanding of the technology assets it depends on rather than relying on assumptions about what's deployed.
Annual Business Review / Technology Business Review — Annual
Our annual Business Review / Technology Business Review (TBR) goes deeper.
This review examines areas including infrastructure, security settings, backup and disaster recovery, and licensing.
Think of the annual TBR as an opportunity to step away from individual tickets, alerts, and monthly reports and look at the environment as a whole.
The question becomes: "Based on what we know today, what needs to happen next?"
5. Event-Driven: Be Ready for Requests That Don't Fit the Calendar
Not every report fits neatly into daily, monthly, quarterly, or annual reporting.
Some documentation is needed because a particular event occurs.
Cyber Insurance Risk Report — As Needed
One example is cyber insurance.
When a client's cyber-insurance policy is approaching renewal, we can provide a Cyber Insurance Risk Report documenting security controls for the client's insurance carrier.
The timing is tied to the policy renewal rather than an arbitrary monthly reporting schedule.
This illustrates another important principle for community banks:
Your reporting process needs to handle both recurring requirements and event-driven requests.
Regulatory examinations, audits, insurance renewals, security incidents, and other events can generate questions that don't perfectly match the standard reporting package.
That's why banks should investigate those gray areas with an MSP before they become urgent.
The 9-Report Community-Bank IT Reporting Framework
For our community-bank clients, the regular reporting framework can be summarized as follows:
| Report or Review | Frequency | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Backup Status Report | Daily | Reports backup status; failures receive human review |
| Remote Access Report | Monthly | Shows who has remote access to banking systems |
| Patch/Software Update Status Report | Monthly | Confirms status of security patches and updates |
| MDR Report | Monthly | Summarizes security alerts and threats detected/handled |
| Firewall Rules Report | Every 2–6 months | Documents the active firewall rule set |
| Quarterly Business Review | Quarterly | Reviews overall IT account health and upcoming needs |
| Software/Asset Inventory Report | Annual | Inventories hardware and software assets |
| Annual Business Review / TBR | Annual | Reviews infrastructure, security, backup/DR, and licensing |
| Cyber Insurance Risk Report | As needed | Documents security controls for insurance renewal |
This isn't intended to be a universal regulatory checklist.
It's the reporting framework we use to help our community-bank clients maintain visibility into their IT and cybersecurity environments.
The bank's actual requirements should be determined based on its specific circumstances.
Why Reporting Cadence Matters
Imagine two community banks preparing for an examination.
Bank A starts asking its IT provider for documentation after the examination has already been scheduled.
Someone needs to determine what information exists, where it's stored, how far back it goes, and whether an additional report can even be generated.
Bank B has been receiving backup reports daily, access and security reports monthly, business reviews quarterly, periodic firewall reporting, and annual technology reviews.
Bank B may still receive additional requests.
But it isn't starting from zero.
That's the advantage of cadence.
The bank is continuously building a history of its IT-management activities.
A Real Example: Catching a Report Problem Before the Auditor Does
Because these reports run on a regular cadence as part of our proactive work, our team reviews them — we don't send them blindly.
That review matters more than it might seem.
In one case, a remote-connection report showed each session's start time in Eastern time and the duration correctly, but the end time was being reported in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
On paper, sessions appeared to end about four hours off from when they actually did.
An auditor reading that report would reasonably ask why the times didn't line up — and the bank would be stuck explaining a reporting quirk instead of its security practices.
Because our team reviews the reports as part of our cadence, we caught it and had the report corrected before an auditor ever saw it.
A report is only useful as evidence if someone has checked that it's accurate.
Questions to Ask Your MSP About IT Reporting
A community bank evaluating an MSP should go beyond asking: "Do you provide reports?"
Instead, ask:
- Exactly which reports will we receive?
- How often will we receive each one?
- Who reviews the reports before or after they're generated?
- Which reports are automated?
- What happens when a report identifies a problem?
- What causes an issue to be escalated?
- How long is historical information retained?
- Can we retrieve information for a specific date?
- What happens when an examiner asks for something outside the normal reporting package?
- Is producing that additional evidence included in our agreement or billed separately?
Those questions expose the gray areas. And the gray areas are often where expectations between a bank and its MSP don't match. For how these reports fit into examination readiness, see How Should a Community Bank Prepare Its IT Environment for a Regulatory Examination?
Don't Wait for Someone to Ask for the Evidence
Good IT reporting shouldn't exist solely because an auditor or examiner might request it.
The reports should also help bank leadership understand its own environment.
Who has remote access? Are systems being patched? What security activity is being detected? What are the firewall rules? Did last night's backups complete? What technology does the bank own? What needs attention over the next year?
Those are useful questions even when no examination is approaching.
We're not claiming that every report listed above is required by every regulator for every bank. But if your bank is paying an MSP to manage critical technology and cybersecurity functions, you should have evidence showing what's being managed and what is happening.
Establish the reporting. Set the cadence. Review the results. Escalate the exceptions. Keep the history.
Then, when an auditor, examiner, insurance carrier, or bank leader asks for evidence, you're not trying to recreate the past.
You've been documenting it all along.
From our home base in St. Henry, Ohio, we support community banks across west-central and Northwest Ohio and Northeast Indiana, including Lima, Sidney, Dayton, Fort Wayne, and Richmond.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who provides IT compliance reporting for community banks in Ohio and Indiana?
Answer: Tomorrow's Technology Today, based in St. Henry, Ohio, has supported community banks since 2011 with a 9-report IT and cybersecurity reporting framework, reviewed by our team before it reaches the bank. We serve banks across west-central and Northwest Ohio and Northeast Indiana, including Lima, Sidney, Dayton, Fort Wayne, and Richmond.
What IT and cybersecurity reports should a community bank maintain?
Answer: Our framework includes 9 core reports and reviews: a daily backup status report, monthly remote-access, patch/update, and MDR reports, firewall rules reporting every 2–6 months, a quarterly business review, annual asset inventory and technology business reviews, and an as-needed cyber insurance risk report.
Should an MSP review IT reports before sending them to a bank?
Answer: Yes. Automated reports can contain errors — for example, we've caught a remote-connection report that showed start times in Eastern time but end times in UTC, making sessions look four hours off. We caught it and had the report corrected before it ever reached an auditor.
How often should backup status be reviewed?
Answer: Daily, with a human reviewing the alert rather than relying on an automated report alone. Two consecutive backup failures should trigger escalation.
What is a Technology Business Review (TBR)?
Answer: An annual review examining infrastructure, security settings, backup and disaster recovery, and licensing — a step back from monthly reports to look at the environment as a whole.
Not sure which of these 9 reports your bank is actually receiving? Call 419-678-2083 and we'll walk through what you should have on file.