by Kate Flaxx

Created on: November 20, 2010   Last Updated: November 21, 2010

A business report can be written on several topics. Perhaps your boss or manager wants you do perform a comparison of interest rates or a report outlining market trends within your industry. Whatever the reason for the report, you need to compile information and present your report in the correct manner, both to your own satisfaction and more importantly to the satisfaction of your boss, manager or the person that needs the report.

A report can contain many different types of information. The use of tables, graphs and numbers can become part of the important data contained in a report as well as the written information, which is as equally and if not more important.

A report is made up of many parts and when these parts are put together, a report for a simple comparison can end up being a lengthy document. A business report may be written according to the following structure;

• The title page

• Table of contents

• The letter of transmittal

• Acknowledgments

• Executive Summary

• The Introduction

• The report body

•  Conclusions / Recommendations

• References

• Glossary

• Appendices

• The title page

The report should have a title, a tile page should appeal to the person enough to make them want to pick it up and read it. A title page usually contains a name for the report followed by who the report was written for, the date and name of the person who prepared the report.

• Table of contents

The table of contents contains relevant information followed by the page numbers. The table of contents for a report is best done when the report is near completion. This way, there is less chance of making an error with page numbers.

• The letter of transmittal

A letter of transmittal is usually a short letter to the person who asked for the report to be prepared. A letter of transmittal hands the report over to that person and gives a short explanation of what the report is about. A letter of transmittal also expresses a ‘thank you for allowing me to compile this report’.

• Acknowledgments

The acknowledgements section of a report outlines the people who have directed contributed to the preparation of the report usually by supplying direct information that is contained within the document. This section can be omitted if you have prepared the report alone using secondary information with no other person involved in the preparation.

• Executive Summary

The executive summary is

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>