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Writing a Business Report: Structure & Examples
Imagine you are a new graduate and are excited to join your first job. Teeming with confidence, you put in your best efforts, and are able to achieve your daily, monthly, and quarterly goals. At the end of the quarter, your boss calls you into her cabin, praises your excellent performance, and asks you to write a quarterly business report.
Report writing for business is something you have heard of, but don’t exactly know how it’s done. However, with the help of experts and some practice, you can master the art of business report writing. After all, former Indian cricket team captain M.S. Dhoni did not hit a six the first time he picked up a bat!
Read on to know how reports for the business are written and structured.
Structure of the Report
Vijay and Ajay were best friends in college. While Vijay was proficient in computer programming and coding, Ajay paid more attention in English classes. Both the friends were placed in the same company after graduating. So when it was time for both of them to submit their quarterly reports, Vijay came to his friend seeking help.
Ajay assured his friend that writing the report would be quite simple if Vijay followed a standard structure. There are quite a few business report writing formats. The standard format of a business report is as follows:
1. Title page: Start with giving a clear title to the report that explains your work. Mention your name and the date on which the report was created on this page.
2. Summary: This includes a brief paragraph about the objective of your business report, the data collection strategies you adopted, an overview of the report, and your findings.
3. Table of contents: Include a table of contents in your report to help the reader easily navigate through the content.
4. Introduction: The introduction should include information about your project, the purpose of the report, along with the context and background of the work.
5. Methods and findings: Describe data collection methods and analyses you have used while composing your findings.
6. Conclusion and recommendations: After presenting the results, write your conclusions from the findings. This will help readers understand your perception of and solution to the problem you have worked to resolve.
7. References: You will need to mention the references you have used such as research papers, books, and interviews. This will provide scientific solidarity to your conclusions in the report for business.
As mentioned earlier, there are several business report formats available. The one we have detailed is called the ‘General Business Report Writing Format’.
For internal team communication, you may not need to write a business report in such a meticulous and structured manner.
When communicating with your team or colleagues, you can keep the structure of the report informal. While writing an email report to your colleague or immediate manager, include your name, the project’s name, statistics, and data, findings and a conclusion note. .
Business reports require to be presented in specialized formats. At Harappa, you can learn the dependable framework known as the PREP Model, which talks about the Point of start, Reason, Example/Evidence, and Point of conclusion. The framework will help you create impressive and well-structured reports in easy steps.
Business Report Writing Examples
Let’s start with a simple example of a business report for a company’s balance sheet. It has a common structure that’s easy to understand. Usually, every spreadsheet and accounting program like Tally or MS Excel has a template that allows you to create your report without any hassle.
A marketing plan, such as a general business report or a balance sheet, has a structured format that includes a cover page, an executive summary, and a budget. The chapters of the report present detailed industry research, the target audience, positioning of the business, a study of the competitor and the market strategy.
You know your project well, have done all the work, but if you are still having trouble with writing a report, you can consider taking Harappa Education’s Writing Proficiently course. With a little practice and help from our renowned faculty, you will be able to master different formats of business reports and write them in no time!
Explore topics such as What is Report Writing, Types of Reporting and Steps on How to Write a Report from our Harappa Diaries blog section to ace your writing skills.
