Business Reports
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Types
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Preparation
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Organization
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presentation
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Meaning and Classification of Business Reports
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Business Reports Definition.
Business Report is an impartial, objective, planned presentation of
facts to one or more persons for specific, significant business
purpose.
The report facts could relate to events, conditions, qualities, progress,
results, products, problems, or suggested solutions.
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Long Formal Report
The length of a long report is not less than 10 pages, and the report usually
includes the following parts “some of the parts optional”

Prefatory Parts:
Cover; title fly; title page; letters of authorization; acceptance;
approval; transmittal; acknowledgements; (abstract, synopsis,
executive summary); table of contents; table of tables.
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Report Body:
Introduction, Text or body, Terminal section.

Supplemental Parts:
Appendix, bibliography or endnotes, glossary, index.
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Business Reports Classification
.
 Function: informational or analytical.
 Subject matter: accounting, advertising, finance, marketing…etc.
 Formality: formal or informal, the formal is long and the informal
is short report.
Formal reports always include some of or all these prefatory and
supplemental parts:
–
prefatory parts:
cover; title fly; title page; letters of authorization; acceptance; approval;
transmittal; acknowledgements; (abstract, synopsis, or executive
summary); table of contents; table of tables.
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– Supplemental parts:
appendix, bibliography or endnotes, glossary, index.
some informal reports may include ,in addition to the body, a title page,
transmittal, endnotes, and appendix.
 Origin: authorized or voluntary, private or public.
 Frequency of issue: periodic or special.
 Type or Appearance: influenced by length and formality.
informal and short reports: memorandum, letter, a printed form
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Preparation before Writing Reports
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Define the Problem, Purpose, and Scope
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Consider Who will Receive the Report
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Determine Ideas to Include
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Collect Needed Material
Secondary/ Primary
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Sort, Analyze, and Interpret Data
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Organize Data and Prepare Final Outline
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Main Parts of the Report
I.
Introduction:
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–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Authorization,
Plan of presentation (layout)*,
Problem*,
Purpose*,
Scope*,
Methodology*,
Sources*,
Background or (history of the situation being investigated)*,
Definition of Terms, (introduction, a glossary at the end, or text)
Limitations,
Brief Statement of the Results or Recommendation.
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I. Text or body:
The longest portion of any report body, Its title may be “Discussion”,
“Findings” or “Data”.
I. Terminal section:
It is based on the text discussion no new material included.
The terminal section for the informational report is called “Summary”.
For analytical report is called “Conclusions” or “Recommendations”.
or combination.
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Organization and Outline of Report Body
when you choose the organizational plan for the entire report body and text section,
you should consider the reader, purpose, and subject matter.
●
Plans for Organizing Report Body:
Two ways to organizing a report body: deductive and inductive arrangement.
•
Deductive Arrangement “ direct” is common way in organizing business reports.
The three sections may be arranged in one of these two ways:
Terminal section
Introduction
Introduction
or
Terminal section
Text (discussion & explanation)
Text (discussion &
explanation)
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1. Inductive Arrangement “indirect”.
The three sections are arranged as the following:
Introduction
Text (discussion & explanation)
Terminal section
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Ways to Organize Report Text Section
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•
•
•
•
•
•
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By criteria or topics:
This is the most common way.
The main headings could be the standards, factors, solutions,
benefits…etc.
By order of occurrence. “Progress reports,
By order of location or space.
By procedure or process.
By order of importance or by alphabetization.
By order of familiarity or simplicity.
By sources.
By problem solution.
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For example, organizing report text section by criteria.
The problem is to replace the old PCs by new PCs.
•
DISCUSSION
•
Reliability
•
Service
•
Warranty Period
•
Price
•
Case Style
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Methods of Outlining
● Methods of Outlining
It is becoming your table content.
Before writing the report, the outline helps you to see the relationship between topics,
compare proportions and headings, check for loopholes in logical order, and
eliminate overlapping.
you need to consider Types of Heading, Formats of Outline, and Parallelism in
Heading.
● Type of Heading:
For wording heading, you can choose from four type of heading:
Topic: single words (nouns), a few words, or short phrases. Globalization
Complete sentence heading: Globalization is a Syndrome of Process and
Activities
Imperative sentence heading: Keep Driving Record Clear
Variant heading: Improving Employees’ Productivity
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A good “Heading” should indicate the “Subject Matter”. It is better not to use
more than eight words. If your topic is one word, make sure that the word not
to be too “Broad”.
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Formats of Outline:
After choosing your organizational plan and the wording of your main
headings, you next choose a way to show levels “degrees) for various items
in your outline.
For long report, three ways to number heading degrees.
● Numeral-Letter Combination: it is used in business.
● Decimal System: it is used in scientific and technical reports.
● Letter- Numeral Combination: it is used by those who prefer letters before
main heading and they do not need the
additional degree that is possible with
Roman numerals.
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● Degree of Heading
1st
Introduction 2d
2d
2d
Text/
Discussion
1st
2d
3d
3d
2d
3d
3d
4th
4th
5th
5th
Numeral-Letter Combination:
I.
A.
B.
C.
II.
A.
1.
2.
B.
1.
2.
a.
b.
(1)
(2)
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Text/
Discussion
1st
2d
3d
3d
2d
3d
3d
1st
2d
3dh
3d
2d
3d
3d
Terminal
III.
A.
1.
2.
B.
1.
2.
IV.
A.
1.
2.
B.
1.
2.
1st
2d
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Five Important Cautions:
1.
2.
1.
2.
3.
Place the most important ideas (Criteria) in the highest degrees of heading,
considering report length, subject matter, and reader.
Try to balance the sections as well as possible.
For example, if section II.A, had 12 subheading and section II.B had no
subheading, the proportion would be lopsided. Then try to narrow the scope of
heading II.A (by rewarding it and by rearranging facts) and broaden II.B.
Have at least two subheading if you divide any topic; for example, A.1 and A.2
never ever only A.1.
The number of section headings neither too many nor too few. Usually three to
seven main sections are desirable.
Do not consider the report title as a section heading, and do not begin the first
sentence with exactly the same words as the heading.
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Parallelism in Heading:
• For parallel, consistent, and construction all headings of the same degree within any
part of an outline should be parallel to each other. They should have the same
grammatical form- all nouns, all phrases, or all sentences. For example, the
following headings should be parallel to each other:
I, II, III, IV, V.
A, B, C under I.
1, 2, 3 under II.A
1 and 2 under II.B
a and b under II.B.2…etc. However, subheadings 1, 2, 3 under II.A need not be
parallel with subheadings 1 and 2 under II. B, and other third-degree
subheadings in other sections.
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Visual Aids
• To improve both readability and appearance of a report, you should use
heading and when desirable also graphic materials.
Heading and Subheading as Directional Signs:
The headings you have selected for your final outline will be directional signs
for the reader of the finished report. Headings help direct the reader through
the entire presentation.
System of styling the headings:
FIRST-DEGREE HEADINGS
(Centred and in all capitals-caps)
Second- Degree Headings
( Centred, caps and lowercase, underlined)
Third-Degree Headings
(left margin, caps and lowercase, underlined)
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Fourth-degree headings. -- (Indented, underlined, lowercase; paragraph
begins on same line).
Fifth-degree headings (Indented, underlined; sentence begins with
the heading).
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Sample Graphics for Quantitative and Other
Data
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Tables
Bar Graphs
Pie Charts
Line Graphs
Area Graph
Pictograms…etc.
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Cover Design and Wording of Title
● Wording Title Includes:
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●
●
●
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Who: the company
What: the subject matter
When: the year
Where: the country
Why: the objective
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How to Make References
1.
Author Name (Year) Title, PP. (2-5).
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