Steps in Writing Business Report – Write a Report in 7 Steps

A successful business report is an essential medium of communicating factual information within and outside the organization. In writing a good report, the writer has to follow some sequential steps. The major steps are as follows:

1. Determination of purpose

The first step in writing a report is to determine the purpose for business report writing. Every report deals with a specific problem and aims towards achieving predefined business goals. Therefore, the business owner should know exactly the nature of report problem. This step includes the answers of what, why, and when to write the report.

2. Developing a working plan

After defining the problem and determining the purpose clearly, a working plan should be developed. The working business plans is used as a basis for outlining and writing an effective business report based on the current situation. Here the writer determines and lists down the scope of work to be done for writing the report in line with business objective.

3. Collecting information

In this step, the writer will select the possible sources of information. Information may be collected from primary and secondary sources. Primary information can be obtained through observation and inquiring. On the other hand, secondary information can be obtained from journals, newspapers, reports, books etc.

4. Organizing and analyzing the information

Here the collected information is organized according to the nature of business objective. In this step, a lot of data will have to be rejected while it may be needed to collect more additional data for making top-notch business decisions. In order to organize and analyze the information, the writer takes help of various statistical techniques for in-depth analysis.

5. Arriving at conclusions

On the ground of data analysis, the reporter arrives at a conclusion. The final pattern of report depends on this conclusion. If the writer fails to draw a correct conclusion, the report will fail to serve its purpose. Therefore, arriving at conclusion is an important aspect of businesses step in report writing.

6. Selecting the method of writing report

Once the writer has arrived at conclusions, the next step is to select the writing method. There are two methods of writing report such as inductive method and deductive method.

1. Inductive method: The inductive method arranges the report contents in the sequence of introduction of background information, discussion and analysis, recommendations and conclusions.
2. Deductive method: The deductive method arranges the contents in the sequence of summary and recommendations, introduction, discussion and analysis.

These two methods are suitable for different situations. After selecting the appropriate method, the writer goes for actual writing. This aspect of writing an entire report and concise report takes the audience into consideration.

7. Writing and submitting the report

The process of solid business report writing ends with submitting the report. Before drafting the final report, the writer develops rough types of business reports for checking, editing and revision. In the rough copy, the writer checks key factors such as the accuracy of writing, writing style, formation of sentences, grammatical accuracy, accuracy in terms and style of presentation, sequence of the contents etc. After all these checking and corrections, the final copy is prepared and business report submission is made to the concerned authority. At the very least, the basic report structure should be followed to letter with the audience in mind.

These are the business report writing process recommended for business owners to follow in delivering the best result for their business situation.