We have all heard the famous Einstein line, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it well enough”
The problem we face in finance is that most of the six-year-olds I know aren’t across EBITDA, variance analysis, or accrual accounting.
They don’t care about month ends and budgets. They care about birthdays and screen time.
Which means most finance teams – myself included – will fail that test every time.
Until now
We love detail. We thrive on numbers. We live in a world of accuracy, precision and thoroughness. But the moment we try to explain it, something happens. We turn into jargon machines.
We think using big words makes us sound clever.
It doesn’t.
It makes us sound confusing.
And when people don’t understand what you’re saying, they stop listening.
They lose trust in you and you lose the ability to influence them
That’s why I want to introduce you to one of my favourite little tools to help dumb down your communication – the Gunning Fog Index.
It’s not new. It’s not fancy. But it’s the best mirror you’ll ever hold up to your communication.
The Gunning Fog Index measures how easy (or hard) your writing is to understand.
It roughly tells you the number of years of education someone needs to read your text and “get it” the first time. The lower the better.
The formula goes like this:
Gunning Fog Index = 0.4 ((total words/total sentences)+100(complex words/total words))
What it’s really saying is shorten your sentences, shorten the syllables in your words and shorten the letters in your words.
But don’t try to calculate it, just go to gunning-fog-index.com – copy and paste any email, report, or presentation script – and hit calculate.
Or, if you prefer, drop it straight into ChatGPT and say, “What’s the Gunning Fog Index for this?”
That number is your “Fog Index.”
A Fog Index of 8–10 means your writing is clear. It reads like a newspaper or blog.
A score of 15 or more? That’s finance-speak. That’s the moment your reader stops reading.
Be prepared. The results can sting.
I once plugged in a finance report I wrote years ago. It scored 23.
That means you’d need a PhD to understand what I was saying.
Which explains why no one ever replied to that email.
In finance, we’re taught to be neutral. To “remove the emotion.”
We write “variance was unfavourable due to macroeconomic headwinds and activation of new pricing strategy” instead of just saying, “Sales dropped because prices went up.”
We say accruals are “a financial accounting journal so that expenses are recorded in the period they are incurred not the period they are paid” instead of just saying “costs not yet paid”
We hide behind data. We think facts speak for themselves.
They don’t. They need help.
This is where the concept of Brevity comes in. Less is more.
Brevity isn’t lazy – it’s really hard
Clarity isn’t dumbing down – it’s lifting up.
The Gunning Fog Index helps you see what your reader experiences. It’s a way of testing how much fog you’re creating.
Every time you shorten a sentence, your score drops.
Every time you swap a long word for a short one, your score drops.
Every time you stop trying to sound smart and just write like you talk – your influence goes up.
And that’s what business partnering is all about. Influence.
Mark Twain nailed it when he wrote, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead.”
Writing clearly takes effort. Editing takes discipline.
But your readers – your stakeholders, your CFO, your CEO – they’ll thank you for it.
And now you can do it easily and get instant feedback with the GFI
Try this:
– Take the last month-end commentary you wrote. Copy it.
– Go to gunning-fog-index.com
– Paste it in
– See what you get.
If it’s over 14, your audience probably needs a strong coffee and a dictionary to survive it.
If it’s under 10, congratulations – you’re writing like a human, not an accounting textbook.
A good target for most of your comms is 10 or below. That’s the sweet spot – simple, clear, professional.
If its too high how do you lower your Fog score?
Shorter sentences.
Smaller words.
Less Syllables
More full stops.
Say “help” instead of “assist.”
Say “use” instead of “utilise.”
Say “show” instead of “demonstrate.”
The difference isn’t small. It’s massive.
You’ll sound more confident. You’ll be easier to follow. And people will actually remember what you said.
Try it with your next presentation too.
I once worked with a finance manager who rewrote every email through this lens.
Within a month, her team said her messages were “easier to action.” Her CFO said her presentations “finally clicked.”
Nothing else changed. Just the clarity.
By the way, this post, scores around a 7 on the Gunning Fog Index.
Readable, simple, sharp. Exactly what we’re aiming for.
Less really is more.
Shorter sentences. Smaller words. Bigger impact.