An appendix is a promise: everything you might reasonably ask for is in here, you can find it in one instruction, and I can put it on the screen in about ten seconds. If any of the three fails, what you've got is storage.
What goes in a presentation appendix, and how is it indexed?
One question, asked page by page, decides what goes there. Does the argument in the body fall over without this? If yes, it stays in the body. If no, it goes back, and it goes back with an index entry. In the India deck, 8 of 14 exhibits went back, which is 57.14% of everything built. That ratio is normal, and it's a useful diagnostic. An analyst whose body carries every exhibit they built hasn't made any editorial decisions, and it'll show in the meeting when the fourth chart gets a puzzled look.
People skip the index, and it's the part that does the work. A usable index gives every appendix page a stable identifier and states the question it answers. It's printed on the divider page so it survives a printed handout. Something like this, from the India deck, where the appendix runs 8 exhibits over 11 pages at 0.7273 exhibits a page:
| Page | Answers the question |
|---|---|
| A1 | How is contribution defined, and what is excluded? |
| A2 | What does each cohort's store base look like by vintage? |
| A3 | What is the break-even density formula, worked for each cohort? |
| A4 to A5 | What does the store-level scatter show, with the outliers named? |
| A6 | How has contribution per order moved by quarter, with the data table? |
| A7 to A8 | What would closing Tier-2 cost, one time and ongoing? |
| A9 | What happens under a 10%, 15% and 20% density lift at metro expansion? |
| A10 | What are the three biggest sensitivities and how were they tested? |
| A11 | What sources and dates back every figure in the deck? |
Advertisement
What makes an appendix index work?
Three properties turn that table from a list of contents into an index. Every entry is phrased as a question, because a partner under fire thinks in questions, whatever the exhibits happen to be called. Page ranges are explicit, so "A4" is an instruction and not a search. And the last entry, the sourcing page, exists at all. When it's missing, that's the most reliable sign you'll get that nobody has checked a deck's numbers.
The practical test is a rehearsal, and it takes four minutes. Have somebody ask you the six hardest questions about the work. For each one, say the page number out loud and go to it. If you hesitate on more than one, the index isn't real yet.