What is a report?

Report is generally understood as an oral or written description of any events. Business report is
the statement of anything related to business. The following definitions of the business report
would give a fair understanding of the business report:

Betty R. Rick and Key F. Gow(1989) define, “A report is a written or oral message presenting
information that will help a decision maker to solve a business problem”.

Little field and others define, “A report is a statement prepared to present facts relating to
planning, coordinating ”

A report is a clearly structured document in which the writer identifies and examines issues,
events, or findings of an investigation. Information obtained from research or from undertaking a
project is delivered in a precise, concise writing style organized under a set of headings and sub-
headings, which enable the reader to find data quickly. Graphs and tables can also be used to
present data in the body of the report. Rather than commenting upon, comparing or evaluating
ideas, as an essay does, a report frequently offers recommendations for action based on the
information it has presented.

Types of reports

Reports are written for different purposes. They therefore contain different information and
structures, including headings and subheadings, and these form the outline of the report. The table
below shows the sections commonly found in these types of reports.

Short report
 Title page
 Introduction
 Discussion
 Recommendations
 References

Science report
 Title page
 Introduction
 Method & materials
 Results
 Discussion
 Conclusion
 Appendices
 References
 Business report
 Title page
 Executive summary
 Table of contents
 Introduction
 Discussion
 Conclusion
 Recommendations
 Appendices
 References

Engineering report
 Title page
 Executive summary (optional)
 Introduction
 Objectives
 Analysis
 Discussion
 Recommendations & action plan
 Conclusion
 Appendices
 References

Research report
 Title page
 Executive summary
 Introduction
 Method / methodology
 Results / findings
 Discussion
 Conclusions
 Recommendations
 Appendices
 Bibliography
Components of Formal Reports
Formal reports are divided into many parts to make information comprehensible and accessible.
Although there are many different kinds of formal reports, the only distinction to make is the
different methods to place the information on the page (APA, MLA), and some optional extra
components for long formal reports. You will see the best components of business formal reports
below, and also several different samples of each part that will assist you in the progress of your
report.

1. Cover page

 A professional, finished appearance

 Binders imprinted with name and logo

 A cut-out window or applied with an adhesive label

2. Title page

 Begin with a name of the report

 Presented to whom or submitted to whom and the name, title and organization of the
individual receiving the report

 Prepared by whom and author’s name(any necessary identification

 Date

3. Letter or memo of transmittal

 Announces the topic of the report and tells how it was authorized

 Briefly describes the project

 Highlights the report’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations

 Closes with appreciation for the assignment, instruction for the readers

4. Table of contents

 Show the headings in a report and their page numbers

 Do it after you completed the report.

 Short report--- include all headings

5. List of figures

 Same page as the table of contents

  Page number

6. Executive summary

 Do it when you finish the other parts of the formal report

 Key points
Important points including the purpose of report, the problem addressed, and the findings,
conclusions, and recommendations

 Look for strategic words and sentences

Pay attention to first and last sentences of paragraphs, which often contain summary
statements.

 Prepare an outline with headings

Include headings for the purpose, findings, and conclusions/recommendations.

 Fill in your outline

You can cut and paste important parts of the text or create new sentences.

 Begin with the purpose

Begin with a sentence like” The purpose of this report is to….”

 Follow the report order

 Eliminate nonessential details

Include only main points

 Control the length

10 percent of the original document

7. Introduction

 Background
Describe events leading up to the problem or need.
Many report writers make the mistake of giving too much background. Include only the
information needed to put the report in perspective. If explaining the reasons for the
report, a total history is rarely needed. Focus on those conditions that have influenced the
purpose and design of the report. If you do have to include a lot of material, you should
probably have a separate section on background.
  Problem or purpose
Explain the report topic and specify the problem or need that motivated the report.

 Significance
Tell why the topic is important. You may wish to quote experts or cite newspapers,
journals, books, and other secondary sources to establish the importance of the topic.

 Scope
Here you define the topic precisely and reveal any assumptions you have made affecting
the direction or boundaries of your investigation. If there are constraints or difficulties
that limit the study in some way, say what they are. By doing so, you will help forestall
criticisms that you didn’t cover the area properly.

 Method
If your findings are based on a questionnaire or survey of some sort, outline the steps you
took. Reports with a heavy scientific emphasis often include an explanation of the
technical processes used in the investigation. The process of information-gathering is
especially relevant when the data is “soft”—that is, open to dispute. Again, if the
explanation is lengthy, consider putting it as a separate section.

8. Body(findings and discussion)

 Discuss, analyze, interpret, and evaluate the research findings or solution to the initial
problem

 Show the evidence that justify your conclusions

 Contain clear headings that explain each major section.

 Headings may be functional or talking.

This is the largest section in most formal reports, and discusses the details of your investigation,
the facts on which you have based your conclusions or recommendations. It should be
subdivided, with numbered and descriptive subheadings. (It may be possible to give the section
itself a more specific heading than “Discussion” or “Findings.”)

In choosing the best arrangement for findings, remember that the most effective order is the one
that most easily leads the reader to the conclusions or recommendations. As with informal
reports, you can arrange findings by category or topic, by geographic or chronological order, or
by order of importance.
How many subsections should a report have? It’s a matter of judgment. Don’t have so many that
the section is more like a long shopping list than a discussion. On the other hand, don’t have so
few that there’s a thicket of information in each one.

9. Conclusions and/or Recommendation

 Tell what the findings mean

 Long report—summary of findings

 Evolve from the findings and conclusions

 No new information

 Require an appropriate introductory sentence

 Number them and phrase each as a command

 If there are several recommendations or conclusions, separate them in a list or in

subsections.

10. Appendix

Tables, technical information, and other complicated or detailed supporting evidence are often put
in appendices so that the reader can quickly cover essential information in the report itself .

11. Work cited, references, or bibliography

 The two most common methods of documentation are:

1. The American Psychological Association (APA) style
2. The Modern Language Association of America (MLA) style

Characteristics of a good business report:

Business report has got some distinct features or characteristics that make it different. The
following is the elaborate description of such features:
 An orderly communication: Business communication is prepared with special care and
manner. It is systematically prepared with a well-defined format. It sequentially states
facts in a chronological manner. Therefore it is different from casual, routine exchange of
information that continually occurs in business.

 An objective communication :Business report follows an unbiased approach to the facts

presented. The report seeks truth, regardless of the consequences. Objectivity in reports
involves everything regarding aspects of ethics. Looking at facts in an unbiased way,
deriving logical meaning from them, and presenting ideas clearly and fairly to others
represent a highly sophisticated form of ethical thinking. A business report is, thus, an
objective presentation of facts with utmost neutrality.

 A communication: A business report is in all respect a communication. It takes all the

ways of transmitting meaning to the other party who requires the report to take a decision
about certain event.

 A factual information: A business report is a presentation of factual information. It means

it presents events, records, and the various forms of data that are communicated to the
conduct of business.

 It serves some business purpose: All reports are not business report. Only a report that
serves the purpose of business is a business report. It means that business report is
prepared for solving a business problem or for strengthening business operations.
Therefore, to call a report a business report, it must help solving issues related to
business.

 It handles large quantity of data: Business report involves with some business situation
that represent a large amount of facts, figures, interpretation and inferences. Hence, every
business report requires handling a large quantity of data to grasp a business problem
accurately and to communicate the facts in a right manner.

 A chronological description of facts: Business report contains many facts involved with
the concerned problem upon which the investigation is undertaken. It takes a
chronological description of facts so that the managers can develop a concrete idea about
the events that form the problem.

 An assigned job: Business communication is not a spontaneously taken job. It is

obviously assigned by a superior body or person upon a subordinate person of body to
conduct the investigation and report to the superior person.

 An upward communication: Business report is always an upward communication. It is

prepared by a subordinate person and submitted to the superior person.

 It is signed and dated: Business report is a specifically assigned responsibility to a person

or a body of persons. It is prepared by those assigned people with their own comments
and opinions. S. the business report is should be signed by the person or persons prepared
the report.
 It uses past tense and first person: Business report is prepare d on a particular event
happened in the organization or outside the organization but affects the business
operations. Therefore, it is written in past tense and in first person.

 A set format: Business report has a set format with specific structure and writing style. It
may be short and long. Whenever one writes a business report, he or she must follow
either of the formats. The format is conventionalized over the practices of business
people or communication experts throughout the world.

Importance of business report :

Business report is a vital document to the management. Business report is an indispensable

for every organizations irrespective their size and operations. The following will show the
importance of the business report:

 Helps decision making: Business report helps management taking decisions in various
multivariate matters by giving all relevant information about the involved issues to them
on time. It collects facts about the problem-issue that the management wants to resolve in
an effective manner. Only right information on right time would help such situation.
Business report does it and makes the management equipped with to take right decision
on right time.

 Provide inside information about an event :Business report is always an investigative

report. It searches into the events under scrutiny of management and assembles inside
information about such event. It, then, provides those to the management in a
synchronized manner so that management can use that in decision making.

 Helps management to study any event critically: Business report discovers all issues
involve with a certain event. It systematically arranges those and provides management in
a structured manner. Thus, management becomes able to study an event critically and
comes into know all entangled issues clearly.

 Presents facts neutrally: Business report assembles information that it finds in the field
through investigation. It presents facts neutrally to the management without any twisting
or any bias. It provides management an insight into the matter in hand and leads to fair
decisions.

 Helps management planning, coordinating and controlling: Business report provides

information past, present and future. It involves with current on-going affairs in the
various functional departments, historical facts and future expected events that may have
relevance with a particular business.

 Helps integration of past and present events: Business report provides investigative
information an event that it discovered through research. Management takes decision in
 light of such information about the current issues. In this manner, business report helps
integration of past and present events of the business.

 Helps reduce administrative costs: Business report feeds management with past, present
and future prospective information. It helps management taking effective decisions that
reduce administrative costs significantly.

 Helps assessing opinion of involved persons: Business report is prepared with facts and
opinions of concerned parties of an issue. So, management comes to know the opinions
of parties or persons involved with a particular issue. It gives management an opportunity
to assess opinions of involves persons and to take right conclusion.

 Helps publishing facts: Business report is a document of facts and figures of a matter. It
thus helps management publishing facts for the outside interested parties and preserving
it as a permanent record.

 Gives documents: Business report provides documents of facts involves with a Particular
event of the business. These documentary evidences are also legally tenable.

 Helps obtaining new business or funding: Business reports are used by external
interested bodies to assess financial and managerial capabilities of a firm. Feasibility
report, audit report, technical report etc help people to understand the viability of a
project and motivate them to invest money in the project. Market report is used to decide
upon expanding market.

 Helps maintaining legal obligations: business report helps management to maintain some
legal obligations. Statutory reports like audit report, annual report etc are prepared to
fulfill the mandatory legal requirements.

Objectives of Business report

Business report is prepared for certain purpose of business. A report is a basic management tool
used in decision making. However, the following are the specific objectives of a business report:

 To inform: The primary objective of the business report is to inform the management
about a particular event or issue that management wants to know. Business report
presents the discovered information from investigation into a situation that has a bearing
upon the welfare and profit of the business.

 To recommend action: Business report has a purpose to recommend course of action to

be taken to handle concerned problem effectively. The person investigated the matter
comes to know the involved issues and their nature. Therefore, the investigator can
rightly suggest the right path of action to resolve the problem.
  To analyze facts and situations: Another objective of business report is to analyze facts
and situations related to particular business situation. The intention is to go into the
problem to unveil the root elements involved with it.

 To present detailed account of an event : Business report is an investigative report. It

contains detailed account of an event taken for investigation. Thus, a business report
presents comprehensive statement of the involved issues of an event so that management
can get a full picture of an event.

 To provide documents of an event: A critical objective of a business report is to provide

documentary evidence of the event investigated. This will enable management to take
action effectively about the matter. The evidence also can be preserved for future
reference.

 To measure performance: Measuring performance of the incumbents requires field

information. Managers will make their comment on the standard of performance on the
basis of performance report. Business report is prepared to measure the actual
performance of the human resource of the organization.

 To help combating changes: One of the objectives of business report is to help

management combating changes in a favorable manner.

 To help coordinating organizational works: Another objective of the business report is to

help management coordinating organizational works. It is done through providing
information about the process of the works of various departments of the organization.
These progress reports would be the basic documents for the coordination of tasks.

 To help inter- firm comparison: Inter-firm comparison would enable a business firm to
evaluate its performance in order to ascertain the desirability of its results. Business
report is oriented to help management with basic data about other competing firms in the
economy. This will enable the management to compare firm’s performance with other
firms and to take improvement measure.

 To help designing strategies: Business report helps management to design various

strategies to sustain in the competitive environment. Information about past, present and
future trends of macro-micro environments are used to set such strategies.

Role of a company secretary

A Company Secretary is a senior position in a private sector company or public sector

organization, normally in the form of a managerial position or above. In large American and
Canadian publicly listed corporations, a company secretary is typically named a Corporate
Secretary or Secretary.
Despite the name, the role is not a clerical or secretarial one in the usual sense. The company
secretary ensures that an organization complies with relevant legislation and regulation, and
keeps board members informed of their legal responsibilities. Company secretaries are the
company’s named representative on legal documents, and it is their responsibility to ensure that
the company and its directors operate within the law. It is also their responsibility to register and
communicate with shareholders, to ensure that dividends are paid and to maintain company
records, such as lists of directors and shareholders, and annual accounts.
In many countries, private companies have traditionally been required by law to appoint one
person as a company secretary, and this person will also usually be a senior board member.

ROLE AND DUTIES OF A COMPANY SECRETARY:

Companies law requires only a listed company to have a whole time secretary and a single
member company (any company that is not a public company) to have a secretary.
The secretary to be appointed by a listed company shall be a member of a recognized body of
professional accountants, or a member of a recognized body of corporate / chartered secretaries or
a person holding a masters degree in Business Administration or Commerce or is a Law graduate
from a university recognized and having relevant experience. However, the company secretary of
a single member company shall be a person holding a bachelor degree from a university
recognized.
The duties of a company secretary are usually contained in an “employment contract”. However,
the company secretary generally performs the following functions:-

Functions of secretary:
(1). Secretarial functions:

 To ensure compliance of the provisions of Companies Law and rules made there-under
and other statutes and bye-laws of the company.
 To ensure that business of the company is conducted in accordance with its objects as
contained in its memorandum of association.
 To ensure that affairs of the company are managed in accordance with its objects
contained in the articles of association and the provisions of the Companies Law.
 To prepare the agenda in consultation with the Chairman and the other documents for all
the meetings of the board of directors.
 To arrange with and to call and hold meetings of the board and to prepare a correct record
of proceedings.
 To attend the broad meetings in order to ensure that the legal requirements are fulfilled,
and provide such information as are necessary.
 To prepare, in consultation with the chairman, the agenda and other documents for the
general meetings.
 To arrange with the consultation of chairman the annual and extraordinary general
meetings of the company and to attend such meetings in order to ensure compliance with
the legal requirements and to make correct record thereof.
  To carry out all matters concerned with the allotment of shares, and issuance of share
certificates including maintenance of statutory Share Register and conducting the
appropriate activities connected with share transfers.
 To prepare, approve, sign and seal agreements leases, legal forms, and other official
documents on the company’s behalf, when authorized by the broad of the directors or the
executive responsible.
 To advise, in conjunctions with the company’s solicitors, the chief executive or other
executive, in respect of the legal matters, as required.
 To engage legal advisors and defend the rights of the company in Courts of Law.
 To have custody of the seal of the company.

(2). Legal obligations of secretary:

 Filling of various documents/returns as required under the provisions of the Companies

Law.
 Proper maintenance of books and registers of the company as required under the
provisions of the Companies Law.
 To see whether legal requirements of the allotment, issuance and transfer of share
certificates, mortgages and charges, have been complied with.
 To convene/arrange the meetings of directors, on their advise.
 To issue notice and agenda of board meetings to every director of the company.
 To carry on correspondence with the directors of the company on various matters.
 To record the minutes of the proceedings of the meetings of the directors.
 To implement the policies formulated by the directors.
 To deal with all correspondence between the company and the shareholders.
 To issues notice and agenda of the general meetings to the shareholders.
 To keep the record of the proceedings of all general meetings.
 To make arrangement for the payment of the dividend within prescribed period as
provided under the provisions of the Companies Law.

(3). To maintain the following statutory books:

 the register of transfer of shares;

 the register of buy-backed shares by a company;
 the register of mortgages, charges etc.;
 the register of members and index thereof;
 the register of debenture-holders;
  the register of directors and other officers;
 the register of contracts;
 the register of directors' shareholdings and debentures;
 the register of local members, directors and officers, in case of a foreign company;
 Minute books;
 Proxy register;
 Register of beneficial ownership;
 Register of deposits;
 Register of director’s share holding; and
 Register of contracts, arrangements and appointments in which directors etc are
interested.

(4). Other duties:

The company secretary usually undertakes the following duties:
(a) Ensuring that statutory forms are filed promptly.
(b) Providing members and auditors with notice of meeting.
(c) Filing of copy of special resolutions on prescribed form within the specified time period.

5). Supplying a copy of the accounts to every member of the company, every debenture holder
and every person who is entitled to receive notice of general meetings. You must send annual
audited accounts.

(6). Keeping or arranging for the having of minutes of directors' meetings and general meetings.
Apart from monitoring the Directors and Members minutes books, copies of the minutes of board
meetings should also be provided to every director.

(7). Ensuring that people entitled to do so, can inspect company records. For example, members
of the company are entitled to a copy of the company's register of members, and to inspect the
minutes of its general meetings and to have copies of these minutes.

(8). Custody and use of the common seal. Companies are required to have a common seal.