The Importance of Reporting (2024)

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Mario Courchesne The Importance of Reporting (1)

Mario Courchesne

ProCC Consultant Inc

Published Jan 2, 2023

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The main purpose of this post is to share some personal observations, ideas, tips and tricks for reporting that works well for me. Through my years I realised that I enjoyed doing reports.

Since I am closer to reaching four (4) decades of experience, I was exposed to a very wide varieties of reports from OoM, PFS, FS, technical, surveys, construction, mechanical assessments, weekly, monthly, flash, visits, claims, audits and due diligence. They came from various sources such as engineering firms, consulting firms, suppliers, contractors, consultants and or research facilities. I also have had the opportunities to collaborate and lead many of them as well.I have witnessed the entire spectrum of reports from poorly done to high quality and excellent. Reports are important since they can decide a project future, highlight recommendations, shown options, highlights results, attract investors looking to invest in your project and or keep stakeholders informed on progress.

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After all of these years I observed that not everybody is skilled or have the talent for properly write and or lead a report. The following are some of the few items that are important to consider;

  • Enjoying report writing is the first key to success of a comprehensive and good report.
  • Google translate can be used for bulk translate but some extensive time need to be dedicated after to ensure the details and technical meaning are carried properly.
  • Good reporting is a blend of various elements starting with good writing skills, a sense of artistic talent for presenting photos and graphics. Choosing fonts, colors and sizes are important to balance the visuals.
  • Never forget that you write a report for a specific audience and various people that won’t be familiar with all the details of the project. Some readers will just focus on a particular section, or the Executive Summary or just look at a particular appendix detail.
  • A proper Table of Contents is a key to ensure a proper flow and good logic to ensure the report goals are met.
  • Developing the Table of Contents, the flow of presentation and the list of appendices are the critical steps prior to doing anything. It fixes the deliverables that need to be produced to support the report. Then use that list to distribute the work to develop these deliverables and set the expectations for the level of deepness required for each of them.
  • Have your client and sponsor approval and support before starting. Too often I have seen clients or the end users disappointed of the report because they were not involved and they were expecting something else. Avoid burning all your budget ahead writing something that will need to be redone later.
  • Proof reading is crucial. I have seen a lot of report with a lot of errors, typo and not formatted properly. A report poorly written leave a bad impression and may not bring your project forward or get proper traction.
  • Have a person totally not familiar with the project read it to see if he understands the report objectives and the clarity. This is a very wise thing to do.
  • Have your report proof read by various people with various skills. I observed that not everybody has the talent to write an executive summary, in a corporate language, or have the ability to summarised concisely the information to a management level.
  • I have tried various formulas such as several people writing a different section in one (1) single document. That ends up in lack of writing uniformity and most of the time the formatting is hard to fixed. I also delegated them to various engineers to lead reports without assessing their skills. Most of the time these reports need to be redone and create a lot of frustrations and unwanted delays. This also created dissatisfaction from sponsors.
  • A report should be visually attractive with proper font selection and uniformity of fonts across the entire report. Proper size of photos and alignment, proper choice of colors is also important when doing graphics, clear scanned documents proper indenting and left-right justification. I have witnessed a lot of excel sheets poorly done, not formatted, stretched logos, nothing justified or centered.
  • A good report will always have a higher impact, maximise the chance of your project to move forward, provide confident that the home work have been done and will capture the attention of your audience.

Hoping this will help some of you in the future.

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Kevin Bolger

Manager Site General Services @ Rio Tinto | Inclusive Leadership, Coaching

1y

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Great article Mario! I can attest to Mario's quality of reports. Detailed with photos to simplify.

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Aymerie Lefebvre

Looking forward working with Bradken's customers and provide them with customized wear, mechanical and operation solutions for their mill liners.

1y

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Great points Mario! Very interesting topic!👏🏾👏🏾

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Capt. John Pace

CEO & Principal Consultant, PMC Ltd.

1y

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A very useful summmary of things to consider when writing a technical report to which I would add the importance of including a comprehensive ‘Executive Summary’.

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Serge Rodrigue NENKAM

Ph.D | PfMP | PMP | MCTS

1y

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Thank you for sharing, Mario. Good lesson learned and experience. If I may comment, I will humbly add that project reporting is specially a "Must" in the context of big projects since it supports decision-making at any stage of the project. Keeping reports simple and effective helps to avoid "bureaucraty" and paperwork. HNY

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The Importance of Reporting (2024)

FAQs

What is the importance of a report answer? ›

Reports present adequate information on various aspects of the business. All the skills and the knowledge of the professionals are communicated through reports. Reports help the top line in decision making. A rule and balanced report also helps in problem solving.

Why is reporting so important? ›

Reports and analytical assessments that answer relevant business questions serve as the foundation for companies to make fact-based decisions about their path forward. They help companies grow and increase profit and value. Reporting delivers mission-critical information and raises important questions.

What is the most important thing in reporting? ›

Know your audience. Understand who the report is for, why they need the information and what you want them to do after reading it. Knowing your audience will help you guide the style of your report and ensure you communicate your information efficiently. Proofread carefully.

Why reporting is very important for decision-making? ›

Effective reporting ensures that decision-makers have access to accurate and timely information, which is crucial for making informed and strategic decisions. Additionally, clear and comprehensive reporting can facilitate transparency, accountability, and alignment within an organization.

What is the purpose of reporting? ›

By definition, reporting is primarily the means and measures to collect, process, store and present information within a company. Reporting is also about reducing the complex to the essential. Thus making data accessible in a simplified way for specific target groups and stakeholders.

Why is a report effective? ›

Well-written Reports facilitate informed decision-making, problem-solving, and knowledge dissemination within organisations, making them invaluable tools for conveying critical information and contributing to the overall success of various endeavours.

What is the advantage of reporting? ›

Good quality reporting can help you to:

Strengthen relationships: stakeholders can gain a source of reliable information to understand and judge your company's performance. Enhance credibility: customers, suppliers and wider society can understand the company's values, brand, operations and products.

How can reporting help you? ›

Report Writing acts as a decision-making tool that can assist you in making decisions based on facts and evidence. For example, if you are a student, you can write a Report to support your arguments or opinions with data and sources in an essay or a debate.

Why is it important to report things? ›

If you don't report incidents that happen, the same type of incident might happen again. The opportunity to analyse what happened, how, why, what could have stopped it and the root causes and factors involved are all lost if the full details of the incident are not recorded.

What is the point of reporting? ›

Reports may be formal or informal, informative or analytical. They may be intended to provide updates, influence action, provide information, and/or offer different perspectives important in an organization's discussion of an issue.

Why information reports are important? ›

What is an information report? This type of report is meant to provide readers with information on a given topic by supplying them with facts. It is not intended to persuade a reader one way or the other. Rather, the main goal of an information report is to inform readers about a topic using verifiable facts.

How to do effective reporting? ›

10 steps to improve your report writing
  1. Find a good role model or mentor. ...
  2. Decide what you're going to say. ...
  3. Plan the structure of your report. ...
  4. Gather & sift any source information. ...
  5. Respect intellectual property rights. ...
  6. Create a draft report. ...
  7. Engage readers by using writing techniques. ...
  8. Assess & review your draft.
Feb 5, 2024

What is the importance of good reporting? ›

Reports are important since they can decide a project future, highlight recommendations, shown options, highlights results, attract investors looking to invest in your project and or keep stakeholders informed on progress.

Why is true reporting important? ›

Accurate reporting also implies that journalists should verify their sources, check their facts, and correct their errors. By doing so, journalists can uphold their credibility, integrity, and public trust. Accurate reporting is essential for informing the public, fostering democracy, and promoting social justice.

Why is regular reporting important? ›

Business leaders need accurate, timely and relevant information to make smart business decisions. Regular reporting backed with actionable insights helps your decision makers to come up with logical solutions for business concerns.

What is the importance of the report form? ›

Report forms are used to summarize and present information in a structured and organized way. They help to provide clarity and insight into complex data, making it easier to communicate important information to stakeholders, make informed decisions, and identify areas for improvement.

What is necessary for writing a report answer? ›

The format and elements comprises of the title page, table of content, summary, the main body, conclusion, and recommendations. These factors together forms an ideal format of report writing. Also, it is important to follow some rules while writing a report, that will make the report more precise and accurate.

What is one purpose of a report? ›

The purpose of a report is to clearly show:

The reason for an experiment, project, or piece of research. The aim of the experiment, project, or piece of research.

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