Make your report writing magnetic! #1

I have just been revising my working guide on How to write a report that people read and leads to a "Yes". So, I thought it might be useful to share some of the content and encourage one or two of you to access this working guide.

Many finance reports are not a management tool

Many management reports are not a management tool. They are merely memorandums of information. As a management tool, management reports should encourage timely action in the right direction and report on those activities to the Board, management and staff that they need to focus on.? The adage “what gets measured gets done” is still valid.

Management reporting as a management tool needs to be a combination of monthly and daily/weekly reporting.? It is of little help to tell the C-suite that the horse has bolted halfway through the following month. If management is told immediately “the barn door has been left open”, most will soon remember to “close it”.?

Reports should be designed to encourage action to take place on a timely basis in the right direction.

5 rules for structuring a report

1. Be prompt – Within 3 working days for your month-end report, next day for daily reports.
2. Be planned - So they are structured with the reader’s decision in mind and following the guidelines in Mary Munter’s “Guide to Managerial Communication”.[i]
3. Avoid unnecessary detail - Report meaningful numbers. Is it necessary to report Sales of $23,456,327? Surely, $23.5 million is much easier to read.
4. Use best practice graphics - Follow the guidelines of Stephen Few, an expert on data visualization, and design a ‘Florence Nightingale’ graphic to wow the reader and become part of your organization's folklore.
5. Be consistent, concise, and error-free - Have consistent formatting and judgment calls. Be a merging of numbers, graphs and comments on one page. And be a product of a thorough quality-assurance process (covered in a follow-up article).

Over 10 years ago, I was coming across teams that were producing month-end reports by day two and day three, with the odd team reaching day one reporting, e.g., delivering the month-end report, numbers, and commentary by the end of the first working day.

The full implementation guide includes a 140-page PDF white paper plus e-templates.

[i] Mary Munter, Guide to Managerial Communication: Effective Business Writing and Speaking