ProofreadNZ presents Business Report Writing

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Business Report Writing

People often cringe at the thought of writing a "business report". Granted, these are somewhat more complicated than business letters, but if approached in the right way, writing a business report can be a straightforward and reasonably painless process.

There are a number of different generic types of business reports including: general business report, business plan, business proposal, marketing plan, strategic plan, business analysis, project report, project analysis, project proposal, project review, financial plan, financial analysis, and others.

Although the technical content and terminology will vary from report to report, depending on the subject and industry context, the actual "report writing process" will be essentially the same. Whether it's a short 10-pager, or a major 100-plus pager, that "process" will involve the same fundamental steps.

The following seven points are what I consider to be the essential steps for writing any business report. Follow these steps carefully and you won't go wrong.

7 Tips For Writing Better Business Reports

Confirm Exactly What the Client Wants
This is a very important initial step. Whether the client is you, or someone else, be sure that everyone is talking about the same thing in terms of final outcome and expectations. When determining this, always think specifically in terms of the final deliverable (usually the final report). What issues must it address? What direction/guidance is it expected to give? What exactly will it contain? What bottom line are they looking for?
Determine What Type of Report Is Required
This is another very important initial matter to clarify. There are a number of different types of business reports. Although there is usually overlap between the different types, there are also important differences. For example, do they want: a business plan, a business proposal, a strategic plan, a corporate information management plan, a strategic business plan, a marketing plan, a financial plan, or what? Know exactly what type of final report is expected from the outset.
Conduct the Initial Research
Once you know exactly what the client (or you) wants, and the specific type of report they are looking for, you are ready to conduct your initial pre-report research. This stage may be as simple as collecting and reading a few background documents supplied by the client, or it could involve developing questionnaires and conducting detailed interviews with the appropriate people. It will vary with each situation. The Internet of course, can really simplify and shorten the research process, but don't forget to double and triple check your sources.
Write the Table of Contents First
In my experience, drafting the Table of Contents (TOC), before you start writing the actual report is the single most important key to developing a successful business report. This document can normally be done before, or in parallel with, the first phase of project information gathering. This should be more than just a rough draft TOC. It should be a carefully thought out breakdown of exactly what you imagine the TOC will look like in the final report. Although this takes a certain amount of time and brain power up-front, it really streamlines the rest of the process. What I do is to actually visualize the final report in my mind's eye and write the contents down. This really works! This TOC then becomes a step-by-step template for the rest of the process.

Sidebar:
If you're writing the report for an external client, it's a good idea to present the draft Table of Contents to them at this point in the process and get their approval. This will force them to think it through and confirm what they really want at this point. Once they have agreed to a TOC you will have their "buy-in" for the rest of the process, therefore significantly reducing chances of any major changes or reversals at the final report phase.

Do Any Additional Research
After thinking through the TOC in detail, you will know if any additional research is required. If yes, do this extra information gathering before you sit down and start to actually write the report. That way, once you begin the writing process you will have all of the information needed at hand and you will not have to interrupt the writing process to conduct any further research.
Create the Skeleton Document
A trick I always use when working with MS-Word is to create a skeleton document first. That is, before you actually write any of the text, enter the entire Table of Contents that you have already developed into MS-Word (see Point 4), heading by heading, including sub-headings. At this point, the document is essentially a sequential series of headings and sub-headings with blank space between them. Then, have MS-Word generate an automatic Table of Contents that exactly matches your planned TOC. You're then ready to start filling in the blank spaces after each heading and sub-heading in the body of the document, with text.
Write the Report By Filling In The Blanks
That's right, by filling in the blanks. Once the TOC skeleton framework is in-place as per the previous step, writing the actual report becomes almost like filling in the blanks. Just start at the beginning and work your way sequentially through the headings and sub-headings, one at a time, until you get to the end. Really. At that point, with all of the preparation done, it should be a relatively straightforward process.

Report Writing Resources

Business Plan Writing
I've developed a lot of business plans for clients over the years. These critical business documents are typically time-consuming and difficult to research, structure and write. To help with this, I have begun the process of de-identifying and re-formatting some of my more exemplary business plan documents so that they can be downloaded and used as "real-life templates". I've always found that working with an actual business plan as an example is the quickest and most effective way to develop another business plan for a new venture. If you are interested in working from the real thing, check out the following link.
Sample Business Plan

Business Proposal Writing
In addition to business plans, I've also developed a lot of business proposals for clients over the years. As anyone in business knows, a well structured and well written business proposal is critical if you hope to win that next big project or contract. So, to help you with this I have begun the process of de-identifying and re-formatting some of my the more exemplary business proposals that I've developed so that they can be downloaded and used as "real-life templates". I've always found that working with an actual business proposal as a model is the quickest and most effective way to develop another business proposal, even in response to a completely different request-for-proposal. So, if you are interested in working from the real thing, check out the following business proposal link.
Sample Business Proposal

Business Letters, Forms, and Templates
My own writing toolkit, Instant Business Letter Kit focuses on business letters, forms, and templates. It's a comprehensive business writing toolkit that combines "how-to" tips, tricks, advice, and pointers with over 100 fully-formatted real-life templates for writing any type of business letter that you can download into your word processor and use as you choose. The Kit includes a Bonus Chapter on how to write Business Reports, as well as a Special Bonus Book containing Business Forms and Templates ranging from, invoices and purchase orders, to minutes of meetings, and trip reports. Whether you're involved in small business, home-based business, or large business, if you need help writing business letters, you could easily make this Kit your business writing style guide.
InstantBusinessLetterKit