How to Write a Business Report

The most basic form of business writing is the report. The purpose of the report is to relate raw data. Reports may be academic documents and, generally speaking, should be academic in tone. In a true report, you will not come to a judgment or make a recommendation. The purpose of the conclusion in a report is to restate, in skeletal form, the data. 

Elements of a business report include (but are not limited to):

Business Report Front Matter

1. Title page: State the name of your report and list appropriate authorship information and for whom the report was created.
2. Abstract: Include the statement of purpose, a thesis statement, and an introductory outline of your data.
3. Table of contents
4. List of all figures
5. List of tables: Use this section if you want your tables listed separately from the rest of your figures.
6. List of abbreviations and symbols: Put this information first so it's easy to find so that your reader will be have more clarity.

Business Report Body

1. Executive summary (most important): In a single paragraph briefly list your findings. This part of the document exists primarily for the “power readers” and the decision makers in your audience and can also serve as your introduction.
2. Text: This is the body of the document and where you present the data appropriate to your purpose. Break the data into blocks divided by headers and subheads consistently formatted for the power reader and executive reader.
3. Conclusions: Even though you are not expected to make a judgment or recommendation about the data you are reporting, you need to use the conclusion to restate the outline of your data in a broad sense.
4. Recommendations (second-most important): The recommendations section should be an extension of your conclusion statement, only more focused. A single paragraph set apart from the rest of the text is ideal here. The executive reader will probably read the summary, the table of contents and the recommendation and use the rest of the document only as needed for implementation.

Business Report Back Matter

1. Bibliography: Include all references and end notes.
2. Appendices: Include reprints, addendums, clarifications, exercises and blueprints, with references to the text pages to which they refer.
3. Glossary: Redefine all words defined in the text of your document.
4. Index

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Writing a business report is an opportunity for you to display the findings or outcome of your work. Before beginning, carefully consider the purpose, audience and data. Keep track of the sources of all information in your report and make it brief (yet thorough) and well organized.