20 Purpose of Business Reports and Its Types

Dr. Mani Shreshtha

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1.      Module 20: Purpose of Business Reports and Its Types

 

2.      Learning Outcomes:

 

understand the meaning and purpose of a business report know the various types of business reports

 

 

3.      Introduction:

 

Writing an effective business report is one of the most sought after skill in the corporate sector. Every organization requires information for decision making. Importance of such information further increases if the decision is strategic in nature and posing long term impact on the well being of an organization. In such situations, a business report is generally prepared for providing accurate, specific, concise, and unbiased information. A business report is explained as a document prepared to cater to the information related requirements of a precise audience and acts as an aid to decision making. All the information presented in a business report strives to fulfil an identified objective. Every report possesses few characteristics such as

 

In a report, facts or evidences or information is presented All the information presented in a report is unbiased.

 

In it information is presented for a specific audience A report is generally presented in a structured form It mentions the way of collection of data

 

It specifically highlights the observations of the author At the end of a report concluding remarks are given

It include recommendations pertaining to the objective of report

 

A good report always carries an in-depth analysis of the problem at hand. It steers the reader through understanding the problem, the way required data is identified and acquired, understanding the analysis and the basis on which conclusions are drawn, and finally the reason behind the mentioned recommendations. Reports are being used by all types of organizations such as business, government, professionals, and not for profit organizations. The importance of a report increases with an increase in the scale of the organization. A report also provides an opportunity to keep a check on the happenings in and outside of an organization. Overall, it can be stated that a business report offers actual and fact based information in structured form to the persons concerned that enables them to take an informed decision for managing an issue at hand.

  1. Purpose and Audience of Business Reports:

     In order to identify the purpose of a report, it is always relevant to answer the question “Why?” I am writing a report. Fundamental purpose of business report is to assist in decision making. As reports are meant to assist, the clarity about the aim of a report is utmost important. One of the indications in this regard is to identify the expectations of the management requesting a report. A report can serve wide range of purposes from simply conveying information, providing actual solutions, assisting in future planning, understanding a business model etc. Another view of understanding the purpose of a report is to check whether you are expected to provide information only or your evaluation. While information is limited to present the findings only, evaluation covers conclusion and suggestions. In other words, it is important to understand whether the requirement from the report is to get information only (i.e. compiling secondary information), to gather information and provide an interpretation (i.e. consumer surveys) or to present suggestions alongwith the information and analysis (i.e. feasibility reports and troubleshooting reports).A report falling in last category has the broadest scope and is most elaborative. These reports generally end with a number of feasible solutions alongwith pros and cons of each. The purpose of a report should be specific as too broad or vague purpose makes a report worthless.

Once the writer got the clarity about the purpose, it is also important to know about the audience of the report. The purpose and the audience will guide about the degree of formality, structure, and the most suitable type for a report. An audience analysis tells more about the intended readers of a report. Generally a business report is intended for multiple audiences and report writer has to keep each and every audience in mind before drafting a report. While formulating a report, a writer has to consider various characteristics of target readers such as awareness about the issue of report, educational background, hierarchical position, decision making power, responsibility and authority, and time pressure for taking a decision. To avoid any mistakes, it is suggested to classify your audience on the basis of relevance of report to them. A suggested classification is as follows:

 

Primary audience: It includes all the people who have to take a decision on the basis of information provided in the report.

 

Secondary audience: It includes all the people who are at the receiving end of the actions taken by the above group. Secondary audience are the gainers or losers of the outcome of a business report and the decision based on it.

 

Immediate audience: It includes all the people who have the responsibility to evaluate the report and disseminate it to the larger relevant audiences.

 

It is further relevant to reiterate that an understanding of audience expectation is an advantage for report writing. It directs about the weightage for pictures and text, complexity of report, need for elaboration, usage of technical terms etc. Overall it can be stated that the knowledge of audience helps the writer in shaping the purpose and the structure of a report.

 

5.      Understanding Classification of Reports:

 

There are various ways to classify reports. One of the most common bases for classifying a report is mode of communication. A report can be written or oral. Oral report involves face to face communication and possesses all the characteristics of oral communication. Contrary to oral report, a written report uses printed format and could be stored as permanent record. A report that conveys only information is considered as an informational report. On the other hand, a report that persuades the readers and helps in drawing a conclusion is known as analytical report. We can also classify reports on the basis of formality. Formal reports possess characteristics like following a standard and structured format, special emphasis on language used, detailed, and used for internal as well as external circulation. On the contrary, informal reports uses letter like format, less structured, put little emphasis on formality of language used, crisp and short, and generally meant for internal circulation. The length of a report can be the basis of classification. A short report is also considered as a memo report. It can range from few paragraphs to five pages, having few headings and sub-headings, and less weightage is given to graphics. A long report can range upto hundreds of pages and carries lot of sections with headings and sub-headings. As these reports are lengthy, there is an ample scope for detailing of text and graphics.

After having broad understanding of classification of reports used in businesses, in next few sub-sections various types of reports are discussed.

 

5.1. Progress Reports: Progress reports are created to show the progress and accomplishments in an assignment at a given point of time. It updates the readers about the status of task assigned till the date of submission of report. Such reports are helpful to management in deciding whether the project is heading towards the right direction. It also guides people concerned to have an idea about what has been done and how much is remaining that helps them in planning the future activities. Such report specifically mentions the task assigned, work in progress, future course of action, and expected date of completion of project. A sample template showing progress report

5.2. Periodic Reports: As the name suggests, a periodic report is concerned with the frequency of preparation of a report. The frequency may be weekly, quarterly, annually or any other regular period. Many times departments in the organization need information on a regular basis to analyse and plan for future. These reports are more popular with those companies having subsidiaries at different geographical locations. A periodic report provides information regarding the latest performances of all the subsidiaries to plan for strategic decisions. A periodic report like annual report is a popular document at most of the organizations.

 

5.3. Compliance Reports: Such reports are prepared for disclosing whether the organization is abiding by the laws laid down by various statutory bodies. In such reports the organizations have to present data indicating procedures followed and their outcome. While preparing a compliance report the correctness of the data has to be emphasized.

 

5.4. Recommendation Reports: A recommendation report falls in the category of analytical report wherein an action related to the issue is desired. This action or recommendation can be in the form of changing the present strategy or maintaining the status quo. A recommendation report provides a background of the issue, findings, and recommendations. A sample of recommendation is as follows:

5.5. Trip and Contact Reports: Trip and contact reports fall in the category of informational reports. Preparation of these reports is not a fixed feature. Such reports are prepared as and when the situation arises. Whenever employees of the company visit the client or any other stakeholder, these reports need to be generated. These reports generally mention the itinerary of the trip, persons contacted, and a summary of all decisions and discussions. One of the purposes of such reports is to inform the management about the value addition and worth of such trips or contacts. A sample

5.6. Annual Confidential Reports: Annual confidential reports or ACR’s is very popular document used in most of the organizations to depict the periodic evaluation of their employees. Annual confidential report is prepared for employees’ performance over a period of one year. These reports are used as base to decide about the reward to be given to the employees for their performance. These rewards can be in the form of increment or promotion. As an input for preparing annual confidential report, various factors are decided to check the efficiency and effectiveness of an employee. Each employee’s performance is then rated against the pre-decided criteria. This rating or grading is then presented in the form of annual confidential report. As a standard procedure, the immediate supervisor of the employee has to prepare the report. While preparing such report, it is important to take few precautions. The reporting officer has to take specific interest while preparing the report. Also, elaboration is required while assessing an employee as indicating the performance of an employee might be difficult. To remove any kind of biasness while preparing this report, a 360 degree appraisal system is gaining popularity. In this system an employees’ performance is reported by all the persons concerned.

 

A sample Annual Confidential Report:

5.7. Inspection Reports: Inspection reports are prepared for two purposes namely inspection for reporting functional issue and inspection for reporting quality issues. Most of the organizations especially manufacturing companies are highly interested in the inspection reports. An inspection report is prepared after examining the equipments and checking whether everything is functioning properly or not. If any damage is identified then it is reported alongwith the requirement of repair or replacement. Other instance when an inspection report is prepared is for reporting product quality control. The inspector checks whether all the products are manufactured as per the standards and specifications. If any variation is noticed, it has to be reported in the inspection report.

5.8. Letter Reports: A report presented in a letter format is considered as a letter report. It is another type of short report. Such kind of reports is used to send information to the stakeholders present outside the organization. In a letter report all the guidelines of formal business letter writing are followed. Letter report serves various purposes like it helps in providing information to the reader about the happenings at research and development department and it helps in presenting facts after investigation of a problem.

 

6.      Proposals: Many times, business proposal are considered as special kind of business report. Although there exist a fundamental difference between the two. A business proposal aims at persuading the receiver. A proposal writer has a vested interest and they expect the receiver of the proposal to act in a desired manner. Just like reports there are many kinds of proposals such as internal or external and solicited or unsolicited. An internal proposal helps you in internally obtaining all the things you require to do your work. It might be a proposal for computer, stationary, equipments, usage of laboratory etc. On the other hand, external proposals are prepared to obtain resources from outside agency. It might be in the form of funding for a project, technical consultancy, usage of infrastructure etc.

  A solicited proposal is prepared when it is asked for. Generally such kind of proposals is invited to work on a specific area of specialization, development of a system, fulfilment of goals etc. Basically, solicited proposals are invited proposals. On the contrary, unsolicited proposals are voluntary and no invitation is made to seek such proposals.

  1. Summary:

A business report is generally prepared for providing accurate, specific, concise, and unbiased information. A business report is explained as a document prepared to cater to the information related requirements of a precise audience and acts as an aid to decision making. All the information presented in a business report strives to fulfil an identified objective. A good report always carries an in-depth analysis of the problem at hand. It steers the reader through understanding the problem, the way required data is identified and acquired, understanding the analysis and the basis on which conclusions are drawn, and finally the reason behind the mentioned recommendations. Reports are being used by all types of organizations such as business, government, professionals, and not for profit organizations. The importance of a report increases with an increase in the scale of the organization.

 

Fundamental purpose of business report is to assist in decision making. As reports are meant to assist, the clarity about the aim of a report is utmost important. A report can serve wide range of purposes from simply conveying information, providing actual solutions, assisting in future planning, understanding a business model etc. Overall, it can be stated that a business report offers actual and fact based information in structured form to the persons concerned that enables them to take an informed decision for managing an issue at hand.

 

There are various ways to classify reports. One of the most common bases for classifying a report is mode of communication. A report can be written or oral. A report that conveys only information is considered as an informational report. On the other hand, a report that persuades the readers and helps in drawing a conclusion is known as analytical report. We can also classify reports on the basis of formality i.e. formal and informal reports. On the basis of length reports can be classified into short and long reports.

 

A business proposal is different from a proposal. It aims at persuading the receiver. A proposal writer has a vested interest and they expect the receiver of the proposal to act in a desired manner.

you can view video on Purpose of Business Reports and Its Types

Few important links to learn more about Purpose of Business Reports and Its Types:

 

  • https://www.humber.ca/liberalarts/sites/default/files/BUSINESS%20REPORTS.pdf
  • http://formalreports212.blogspot.in/2010/03/blog-post_6706.html
  • http://www.pearsoned.ca/highered/divisions/virtual_tours/northey/sample_chapter_9.pdf
  • http://www.practicalbusinessideas.com/2015/04/how-to-prepare-make-a-good-business-feasibility-report-study.html
  • https://www.template.net/business/report-templates/trip-report-template/

Did you know?

 

9 Major Areas to be covered by A Good Feasibility Report

  1. Introduction
  2. Description of the Business
  3. Market Consideration – A Preliminary Evaluation
  4. Management Team
  5. Technical Specification
  6. Marketing Plans
  7. Examination of Critical Risks and Problems
  8. Financial and Economic Plan
  9. Evaluation and Conclusion

Source: http://www.entrepreneurshipsecret.com/9-major-areas-to-be-covered-by-a-feasibility-report/

 

Points to Ponder:

 

  • A business report is generally prepared for providing accurate, specific, concise, and unbiased information.
  • A business report is explained as a document prepared to cater to the information related requirements of a precise audience and acts as an aid to decision making.
  • All the information presented in a business report strives to fulfil an identified objective.
  • It steers the reader through understanding the problem, the way required data is identified and acquired, understanding the analysis and the basis on which conclusions are drawn, and finally the reason behind the mentioned recommendations.
  • Reports are being used by all types of organizations such as business, government, professionals, and not for profit organizations. The importance of a report increases with an increase in the scale of the organization.
  • A report can serve wide range of purposes from simply conveying information, providing actual solutions, assisting in future planning, understanding a business model etc.
  • There are various ways to classify reports such as written or oral, informational or analytical report. We can also classify reports on the basis of formality i.e. formal and informal reports. On the basis of length reports can be classified into short and long reports.
  • A business proposal is different from a proposal. It aims at persuading the receiver. A proposal writer has a vested interest and they expect the receiver of the proposal to act in a desired manner.