To understand business reporting, you need to know precisely what a business report is. It is an official document comprising factual information, statistical data, research findings or related details to evaluate particular issues or circumstances that may inhibit business performance. Business reporting is simply the process of recording and communicating relevant information efficiently. It provides a critical analysis of the business’s success and offers recommendations for decision-makers.
Table of Contents
The Importance of Business Reporting
Essential Characteristics of a Business Report
- Clarity
- Valid Information
- Simple
- Relevance
- Completeness
- Conciseness
- Grammatical Accuracy
- Tonality
Types of Business Reports
- Formal Reports
- Informal Reports
- Informative Reports
- Verbatim Reports
- Analytical Reports
- Ad-Hoc Reports
How to Create a Business Report
- Understand the Objective
- Present an idea before you Write
- Check for a Format
- Add a Title
- Write a Table of Contents
- Write an Introduction
- Outline your Methodology
- Present your Findings
- Finish with a Conclusion and Recommendations
- Bibliography and Appendices
- Proofread
Tools for Business Reporting
- Tableau
- Looker
- SAP Crystal Reports
- Zoho Analytics
- Whatagraph
- Power BI
- Fourth Dimension
Conclusion
Importance of Business Reporting
A business report is a great supporting tool for decision-making within organisations as it is an analysed and documented outcome of a series of ETL processes. Here are just some of the reasons why business reporting is a vital component of business intelligence tools:
- Business operations require significant amounts of data in order to be managed. A business report highlights the essential data necessary for this process.
- Most critical business decisions are made based on information provided in a business report.
- A business report is crucial for future forecasting, marketing strategies, budget planning and decision-making.
- Business reports are precise and avoid unnecessary information. Thus, they comply with reader requirements by providing important information at first glance.
- Business reports track the performance of a business over time and prevent the loss of information through long-term documentation.
- Business reports promote transparency within companies.
Overall, business reporting is an essential tool for documenting progress as it provides companies with a comparative assessment of time periods, project details and past growth. Progress history is especially important in business reporting, as it aids you in avoiding past mistakes and recreating trends that generate revenue. Furthermore, this process can assist in identifying anomalies in the data, so an investigation can be launched if required.
Essential Characteristics of a Business Report
Ideal business reports are identified by a distinct set of characteristics. Here are some examples of essential business report characteristics:
Clarity
A business report should have sufficient clarity so readers can easily interpret data. The information should be arranged systematically to increase clarity, indicating the objective, data source, outcomes and suggestions. An absence of transparency will result in the business report failing to fulfil its purpose, which is to provide recommendations on how to improve an organisation.
Valid Information
A prime characteristic of effective business reports includes that they must be credible and reinforced with valid evidence (e.g. data). There is no room for error. It must be accurate and reliable so that its influence on decision-making can create opportunities for growth. To ensure reports are valid, it is necessary to ensure that the data on which the evidence is based is also valid. This can be done using data-cleaning processes to ensure that the data collected does not include any errors or repetitions.
Simple
For the report to be effective, the data should be presented in a simple and organised manner using easily understandable language. The presented data should be clearly visible, such as charts and graphs. To maximise the understanding of others, the report should be divided into relevant but logical paragraphs. Paragraphs should not exceed 300 words nor be any less than 200 words. The length of sections is an essential characteristic of business reporting due to the ease with which readers can grasp the idea of a sentence. To keep the business report structurally sound, identify each page chronologically with numbers.
Relevance
The information provided in the report should be relevant to the topic and other contextual aspects.
Completeness
Business reports must be comprehensive in what they intend to convey. They must provide the conditions and inputs of the incident as well as the outcomes.
Conciseness
A good business report is concise, remaining objectively intact. Be quick and to the point. For example, avoid unnecessary clutter and include only crucial information. Rely on illustrations and charts as explanatory propaganda instead of attempting to explain a concept in words.
Grammatical Accuracy
A business report shouldn’t have any errors. Errors of any sort – grammatical or lexical can change the outcome.
Tonality
A business report should be conveyed formally to accommodate the necessary clarity and concision. However, there must be a balance between formality and connection with the readers. This is to ensure they understand what is being asserted. Furthermore, it should use an active voice rather than a passive voice. When using an active voice, the subject performs the action represented by the verb. For example, “Bob dropped the can”. This is the type of writing that should be used in a business report. Avoid passive writing, which is when the subject is acted upon or affected by the action represented by the verb, such as “the can was dropped by Bob”.
As you can see, an active voice is far more concise than a passive voice, which is direct and clear. Due to this, it allows readers to be engaged and is easier to comprehend. It is important to note that active voice does not need to be used in the entire report, and it is appropriate to use a passive voice in some circumstances. These circumstances may include when it is necessary to emphasise the object of an action rather than the person or thing performing it.
Further, the report should be drafted with the target audience in mind so it may answer their possible questions, which will be precise to their area of work. As such, it is necessary to keep in mind the problems that need to be addressed prior to constructing the report.
Types of Business Reports
There are many types of business reports depending on intent, information, and methodology.
Formal Reports
Formal reports are classified into statutory and non-statutory reports. They occur in a pre-planned format and are presented to the administration conventionally. Generally, formal reports are scheduled to be generated in accordance with specific time intervals as they report business metrics, including quarterly sales reports, monthly inventory reports, etc.
Informal Reports
Informal business reports have no predetermined layout. They are used frequently and on-demand for communication within a business and do not require lengthy durations to be created as they are typically short. Examples of informal reports include memorandums, business letters, and emails.
Informative Reports
As per the name, the purpose of an informative report is to inform the reader of something. They may contain text and illustrations to provide insights into certain subject matters.
Verbatim Reports
Verbatim reports are exact word-by-word reports transcribed from a meeting or conversation and presented in textual form.
Analytical Reports
An analytical report presents the outcome of a company’s performance. It usually highlights interpretations and suggests future actions.
Ad-Hoc Reports
Ad-hoc reports are prepared when a special committee is appointed to deal with an inquiry. This committee is usually liquidated once the report is submitted.
How to Create a Business Report
Business reports are one of the most effective ways to communicate in the business world. Despite the many types of business reports, they are all created similarly.
Understand the Objectives
To write a good business report, you need to know why you are writing it. This allows the report’s purpose to be conveyed to the reader clearly and understandably. Understanding the objectives will reduce errors and the inclusion of unnecessary information.
Present an Idea Before You Write
Present your idea to someone else first. This may be your team members, a reporting person, or a higher authority. They will let you know if you are on the right track.
Check for a Format
Each company usually has a standard report format. If not, ask how you should structure your report before proceeding. Using the suggested designs increases professionalism without increasing effort.
Add a Title
The title should be provided with the brief. Make sure it is appealing and exact to the intent.
Write a Table of Contents
The table of contents assists navigation of the report. It is especially required for more extensive reports. This part should be completed last so you can insert page numbers corresponding to topics and subtopics.
Write an Introduction
This section briefly overviews the topic and infers the objective and overall results. It informs the readers of why the report has been submitted and why it is necessary for them to read it.
An introduction is similar to a summary, a non-mandatory section that appears before the introduction. It summarises the entire report without additional explanatory details.
Outline Your Methodology
The methodology contains the research process and the justification behind it.
Present Your Findings
Primary and relevant data is presented to support the findings. Presentation type varies. You may use numbered topics, tables, charts, complex infographics, etc. However, the choice of the presentation shouldn’t alter the style of the report. Business intelligence tools such as Fourth Dimension create stunning visual displays analogous to the report format.
Finish With a Conclusion and Recommendations
Conclude the findings. Pinpoint the trends, outliers or the outcome of the conclusions previously presented. Add suggestions and recommendations if they are appropriate.
Bibliography and Appendices
List all the sources and documents required for the preparation of the report. It may include journals, articles, surveys, charts, summaries, etc. Arrange them alphabetically.
Proofread
Proofread it on your own first, then, if possible, send it to someone else for a peer review. While reading, be aware of the reader’s demographic. If necessary, remove complex words and add definitions to increase understanding.
Tools for Business Reporting
With the help of business reporting tools, you can create all types of business reports with ease. These tools may also assist in analysis and data visualisation.
Tableau
Tableau is one of the most prominent data analysis and visualisation tools which helps convert raw data into automated reports. It also offers over 150 built-in functions and a wide range of pre-built data connectors to conduct ad hoc analyses rapidly. Its drag-and-drop feature enables the creation of interactive dashboards with advanced graphical analytics.
Looker
Looker is a data analytics and reporting tool that facilitates data analysis while simplifying complex data. It is helpful for data analysis, visualisation, and many other business intelligence components. It can also convert data from different sources into a simple view.
SAP Crystal Reports
SAP crystal reports is an online and offline reporting tool. It is popular amongst small and medium-sized businesses. SAP Crystal Reports is effective for extracting direct information from the data source and converting it into understandable reports.
Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is a business intelligence and reporting tool with many predefined reports and dashboards.
Whatagraph
Whatagraph is a business intelligence and reporting tool used to obtain data insights and build customisable visual reports.
Power BI
Power BI is a reporting and business intelligence tool which visualises any data in the platform for self-service. It is simple and insightful.
Fourth Dimension
Fourth dimension is an affordable business intelligence tool with all the necessary functions provided at a reduced cost.
Conclusion
Business reporting is often the last step in a business intelligence routine. To create an effective business report, it is necessary to have an in-depth understanding of data aggregation, analysis, etc. Once you know how to assemble a successful business report, you can use this knowledge to drive your company to success by identifying areas for improvement based on historical data.