Business: Short and Sales Reports

Short Reports

• An organized and practical presentation of relevant data that a company or agency tracks in its operations.
• Writing short reports demonstrates work ethic, professionalism, and reliability.
• Common types include periodic, sales, progress, employee activity/performance, trip/travel, test, and incident reports.
• Essential guidelines: anticipate audience use, research thoroughly, be objective/ethical, organize carefully, write clearly/concisely, design for the reader, use visuals when needed, and choose the appropriate format.

Periodic Sales Reports

• Regularly provides information at scheduled intervals such as daily, weekly, or bimonthly.
• This helps monitor service quantity/quality and work done by employees.
• Managers can use this to plan schedules (hire, train, assign, reassign staff), budget funds, determine needs and goals, and fulfill corporate missions.

Sales Reports

• Provides businesses with a continuous record of accounts, online/mail purchases, losses, and profits over a specific time.
• Aids in assessing past performance, planning for the future, showing gains/losses, comparing two quarters' sales, and making short/long-range plans.

Progress Reports

• Informs readers on the status, amount, and type of work completed on an ongoing project with details on dates, people involved, performance, and job completion status.
• Intended for external stakeholders needing to coordinate with your activities.
• Its length depends on audience and project complexity; can be a short email, memo, or text.
• Progress Reports should specify accomplishments, schedule adherence, budget, technology use, assignments, problem identification, adjustments, remaining work, and efficient/correct completion.
• Frequency varies, even annually, based on job and employer needs.
• Consists of work done, current work, and planned work.
• Can be started with a brief intro citing the report’s purpose, project details/dates, and job recall.
• Initial reports should provide background info, while later reports should reference the previous report's conclusion and the starting point of the current report.
• Should be realistic and tentative, provide end duties/submission timetable including targeted completion date.
• Should include cost, material, HR and timeline stage details that omit typical info while emphasizing completed vs false ones plus obstacles encountered.

Employee Activity/Performance Reports

• Report informs supervisors of activities within a specified timeframe.
• Should explain time management and fulfillment of job requirements.
• Indicates employee performance and impacts performance assessments/promotions.
• Managers expect details on accomplished tasks with amounts, timelines, and involvement in ongoing projects.
• Crucial guidelines: use prescribed formats, honesty, objectivity, accuracy, describe major accomplishments consistent with job description and include training details etc.
• Highlight benefits to the company and community.
• Prepared to use supporting documents.

Trip/Travel Reports

• Documents trip activities, informing how they affect ongoing/future business, enhancing job understanding and networking.
• Best written promptly after events when memories are current, and should be technical/factual.
• Should address trip specifics like location, contacts, purpose, findings, actions taken, problems, and financial benefits, including recommendations.
• Common are field, site inspection, home health/social work, and sales/customer visit reports.
• Preparation includes gathering contacts, researching, obtaining documents, bringing equipment, getting directions, and listing appointments.
• Upon return, report promptly, detail stay specifics, exclude irrelevant info, stay objective, answer potential reader questions, and include financial details.

Test Reports

• Involve collecting and documenting objective/accurate results, using standard symbols and abbreviations.
• Types include experiment, investigation, laboratory, and operations reports.
• Reports should explain the test's purpose, performance (circumstances, controls, procedures, equipment), outcomes, and implications/recommendations (learnings, discoveries, confirmations, rejections).

Incident Reports

• Submitted after unexpected negative workplace events that disrupt work, damage property, or cause injury.
• Intended for internal and external audiences to prevent recurrence, improve job effectiveness/safety, and are completed by field personnel.
• Events that may require include an accident, IT breakdown, injury or delay and other dangerous offense’s. A virus or entry is also a cause.
• Contain identification, incident type, timing/location, detailed description, actions post-incident, explanations for the cause, and suggested recommendations.
• Ensure legality by submission is on time with a signature alongside checked spelling/math and include completeness with objectivity.
• Should give only facts without the inclusion of options and professional responsibilities must be adhered to.
• Can be official legal records, often concerning health and property.