What are the Purpose & Types of Business Reports?

Business reports are a staple of the modern workplace. They provide insight into the performance of your business, help you make informed decisions, and track progress.

A business report can range from a simple one-page document summarizing key metrics to a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of market trends. The diversity in business reports stems from the varied nature of business operations and the different objectives they aim to achieve.

But what is a business report? And how can you make one in Excel? Read on to learn how to make various business reports in Excel.

Table of Contents:

1. What is a Business Report?
2. Purpose of Business Report
3. Characteristics of Business Report
4. Types of Business Reports
5. Business Report Examples or Samples
6. How to Make a Business Report in Excel?
7. How to Make a Business Report in Google Sheets?
8. Tips for Effective Business Report Writing
9. FAQs
10. Wrap Up

What is a Business Report?

A business report is a formal document that analyzes a business activity. It conveys information to various audiences, including executives, managers, and investors.

Furthermore, business reports help us make decisions about a business’s future. For example, it can include an analysis of a marketing campaign’s financial performance or effectiveness.

Below is an example of a business report generated from the data shown.

Income Sources	Income	Spending Sources	Spending	Amount
Distributions	Income	Taxes	Federal	991936
Distributions	Income	Taxes	State	295067
Distributions	Income	Savings	Stock	1932447
Distributions	Income	Savings	Bonds	263979
Distributions	Income	Savings	Cash	689532
Salaries	Income	Food & Dining		24448
Salaries	Income	Office		9409
Salaries	Income	Travel		8481
SEP IRA	Income	Fitness		4694
Dividends	Income	Health Insurance		3410
Dividends	Income	Shopping		5329
Interest	Income	Bills & Utilities		4918
Interest	Income	Other Expenses		7665

Insights

• This Sankey Diagram clearly illustrates the business’s financial state, showing income as $4.24M and savings as $2.89M.
• Out of the savings, $1.93M is invested in stocks, $264k in bonds, and $690k in cash.

Purpose of a Business Report

Decision Making

Business reports can provide a detailed analysis of a company’s performance. From this analysis, you can make decisions about future strategies.

Transmitting Information

Companies use business reports to communicate information to shareholders, creditors, lenders, and other stakeholders. Companies can also use them to communicate performance to the public and government agencies.

Recommending Actions

Companies can use information relayed in business reports to recommend actions to help achieve specific objectives. Also, you can use business reports to recommend strategies and policies that will help a company remain competitive.

Interpretation and Explanation

Business reports can be used to interpret and explain data. They can provide insight into the performance of the business and identify trends and patterns.

Controlling

You can use business reports to control operations. You can use them to monitor and manage the performance of the business and ensure smooth operations.

Communicating with Stakeholders

Business reports can provide stakeholders with an overview of the performance of the business. Companies can demonstrate how they’re meeting their goals and show shareholders that their investments are in good hands.

Development of Knowledge Base

Business reports can provide insight into the business’s performance and identify improvement areas.

Characteristics of a Business Report

Business reports have a structured format with a clear purpose and intended audience. Let’s take a look at the characteristics of a business report.

Accuracy

A business report should have no errors. This is essential so that the reader can trust and rely on it.

Simplicity

You should write the report in an easy-to-understand language. To enable the reader to comprehend the report quickly.

Data Driven

Business reports should rely on data to provide accurate and relevant information. This data should be gathered from reliable sources and be up-to-date.

Reliability

The information in the report should be reliable and trustworthy. It helps ensure that the report is used for its intended purpose.

Objectivity

A business report should be objective and free from bias to ensure that the report is fair.

Conciseness

A business report should be concise and to the point. It makes it easier for the reader to understand and digest the information in the report.

Comprehensive

Business reports should be comprehensive and cover all the relevant information. It ensures the reader has all the information they need to make informed decisions.

Types of Business Reports

There are several business reports, each with its purpose and characteristics.

Analytical Reports

Analytical reports are used to analyze data and identify trends. They evaluate current strategies, develop new ones, and track progress. We can also use them to identify potential risks, problems, and opportunities we can exploit.

Analytical reports are comprehensive, providing a thorough analysis of the data. They include graphs, tables, and charts to make the data easier to understand and interpret.

Explanatory Reports

Explanatory reports are used to explain the results of an analysis. They communicate the findings of a study and explain any changes in strategy or policies.

These reports can also provide recommendations for improving performance or addressing potential problems. Also, they can help a company determine its financial performance and position in the market.

Informational Reports

Informational reports are used to provide information to stakeholders. They can communicate performance to stakeholders, the public, and government agencies. Furthermore, you can use informational reports to present a company’s performance positively.

They are essential for public relations, as they can demonstrate a company’s commitment to transparency and accountability.

Research Reports

Research reports are used to provide information about specific topics. We can use them to explore a company’s position in the market and identify potential risks, problems, and opportunities we can exploit.

They are essential when a company is planning to explore new markets. Furthermore, they are more detailed and comprehensive than other business reports.

Business Report Examples or Samples

Examples help us understand better. Let’s look at some common business report types.

1. Annual Report

An Annual Report is a thorough account of the operations of a corporation for the previous year. Its goal is to inform users, such as shareholders or potential investors, about the business’s activities and financial performance.

By reviewing the annual reports, readers can thoroughly understand the company’s overall performance over the previous year. Note that many Annual Reports differ from traditional reports with much text.

Many businesses frequently include graphics and photographs, creating visually engaging documents. Below is one of our business report examples.

2. Sales and Revenue Report

A Sales and Revenue Report shows a firm’s income from selling its products or rendering services. Accounting often uses sales and revenue interchangeably to refer to the same item. It is crucial to remember that revenue does not always equate to money received.

A Sales and Revenue Report will show how much was paid in cash and credit.

3. Inventory Report

An Inventory Report summarizes a retailer’s current stock. It condenses information about the state and performance of inventory, including specifics like:

• How much stock is available
• Which products are selling the quickest?
• What are the category performance and other statistics?

You can use a variety of inventory report kinds, each with a specific function. Here is a business report template.

4. Website Traffic Report

Gathering and analyzing crucial information about the online traffic to and from your website is known as website traffic reporting. Even though the general rule is that the more visitors, the better, that may not be true, and here is why.

High traffic numbers alone don’t always equate to boosted sales or lead creation. Luckily, you can create pattern models that uncover potential flaws in your online design and guide ongoing development decisions. It is possible when you have access to accurate and immediate website traffic data through a report.

These business report examples show why they play a crucial role in organizations.

How to Make a Business Report in Excel?

Excel is a wonderful tool and is used by billions of people worldwide. It is an amazing tool to handle your data and make reports. However, this tool is becoming harder for the stakeholders to see the reports in the form of data tables.

Even if it allows to creation of visualization but still this tool by default is short of awesome visualizations. To get stunning and presentable visualizations you can install a third-party add-in and enhance the feature of this tool.

How to Install ChartExpo in Excel?

1. To start using ChartExpo, launch your Excel.
2. Once it is open, choose the “Insert” menu and see “My Apps” appear.
3. In the Office Add-ins window, look for ChartExpo in the App Store.
4. Click the “Add” button to install it into your Excel.
5. Alternatively, you can install ChartExpo by clicking the link provided below.

Example to Create Business Report in Excel

Using the quarterly 2022 earnings information of Apple Company, let’s create a graphical presentation of the flow of funds.

Products	Devices revenue	Revenue	Profit & Cost	Profit & Sources	Operations	Outflows	Amount
iPhone	Devices revenue	Revenue	Devices gross profit	Gross profit	Operating profit	Net profit	19.4
iPhone	Devices revenue	Revenue	Devices gross profit	Gross profit	Operating profit	Tax	3.7
iPhone	Devices revenue	Revenue	Services gross profit	Gross profit	Operating expenses	R&D	6.8
iPhone	Devices revenue	Revenue	Services gross profit	Gross profit	Operating expenses	Selling general & admin	6
iPhone	Devices revenue	Revenue	Cost of Revenue	Services			4.8
iMac	Devices revenue	Revenue	Cost of Revenue	Services			0.8
iMac	Devices revenue	Revenue	Cost of Revenue	Devices			6.6
iPad	Devices revenue	Revenue	Cost of Revenue	Devices			7.2
Watch	Devices revenue	Revenue	Cost of Revenue	Devices			8.1
Apple Pay		Revenue	Cost of Revenue	Devices			19.6

i. Upon installing the ChartExpo add-in, locate the Insert menu on Excel, then click on “My Apps”.

ii. A new window will appear in which ChartExpo will be available. You can select it and click on Insert.

iii. Once the ChartExpo add-in has loaded, a list of charts will appear from which you will click the “Sankey Chart”, as this chart is best suited to display the provided data.

iv. Select the data from the sheet, then click “Create Chart From Selection.”

v. It will generate the image below.

vi. If you wish, you can remove the percentages by clicking on the “Edit Chart.” Then click on the highlighted pencil icon, go to “Percentage,” then disable “Show Percentage.”

vii. To add color to the nodes, click the pencil icon at the top of the specific node then click “Node.” Add your desired color and make some changes in other properties, such as adding the heading, then click “Save Changes.”

viii. Below is the customized chart showing the flow of finance from one end to another.

Insights

Apple’s primary income source is from the sale of consumer electronics. Especially the iPhone, which is nearly half of its total earnings from the total revenue of $83.4bn. The iPhones are highly sought after in the United States. They compose around 50 percent of smartphone sales throughout the nation.

How to Make a Business Report in Google Sheets?

Google Sheets is also liked by a plethora of people. No doubt, this tool is amazing for handling data and providing visualization but still, you will not find such amazing visualization which sometimes especially meets the requirement of data to be displayed properly.

For this purpose, the ChartExpo extension needs to be installed in Google Sheets. Once it is installed you can access all the charts available in this library and create your stunning business reports.

How to Install ChartExpo in Google Sheets?

1. Open Google Sheets.
2. Choose the “Extensions” menu, and you should see “Add-ons” appear.
3. Click “Add-ons,” then “Get Add-ons,” and look for ChartExpo in the Google Workspace Marketplace.
4. Click the “ChartExpo” add-on to install it into your Google Sheets.

Example to Create Business Report in Google Sheets

Let’s use the data below to create an analytical report to analyze the performance of your digital campaign. You want to analyze the data on how clicks on the advertisement are doing as compared to the previous and current month.

Period	State	Clicks
Previous	Chicago, Illinois, US	14
Previous	Dallas, Texas, US	7
Previous	Houston, Texas, US	12
Previous	Austin, Texas, US	14
Previous	Albany, New York, US	31
Previous	Trenton, New Jersey, US	24
Previous	Newark, New Jersey, US	22
Previous	Helena, Montana, US	8
Previous	San Antonio, Texas, US	7
Current	Chicago, Illinois, US	21
Current	Dallas, Texas, US	27
Current	Houston, Texas, US	30
Current	Austin, Texas, US	69
Current	Albany, New York, US	21
Current	Trenton, New Jersey, US	34
Current	Newark, New Jersey, US	21
Current	Helena, Montana, US	21
Current	San Antonio, Texas, US	28

1. Once ChartExpo is installed, open your Google Sheets and click on “Extensions.
2. “Find and click “Charts, Graphs & Visualizations by ChartExpo.” Then click the “Open” button.
3. Insert your data into the sheet, then Click on “Add new chart.”
4. From the list of charts, in this example let’s select “Slope Chart.”
5. Select the Sheet name, click on Add new metric, and select the column containing numerical values in this example “Clicks”
6. Then click on add new dimension, select the “Period” column, then click add new dimension again to add the “State” column.

You can edit the properties of this chart and put headings on top of the chart or make other changes according to your needs. Eventually, you can have the final look as shown below:

Insights

• Clicks from customers in Albany have decreased in comparison to the past.
• The highest-achieving spot right now is in Austin, Texas, but Newark, New Jersey, has the poorest performance.

Tips for Effective Business Report Writing

Creating a business report in Excel and Google Sheets requires planning and attention to detail. Here are some tips for writing an effective business report in Excel:

Be Clear and Concise

Clarity is crucial. Use simple language. Avoid jargon and complex words.

Keep sentences short. Break up long paragraphs. This helps the reader follow along easily.

Focus on the main points. Avoid unnecessary details. This keeps the report clean and to the point.

Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience is important. Are they managers, executives, or team members?

Tailor your report to their needs. Use language they understand. Highlight information they care about.

This makes your report more effective. It ensures your message gets across clearly.

Use Visual Aids

Visual aids like charts and graphs are helpful. They make data easier to understand.

Include visuals to support your points. Use them to highlight key information.

Keep visuals simple. Avoid clutter. This makes them more effective and easier to read.

FAQs

What role does a feasibility report play in business planning?

A feasibility report assesses the practicality and potential success of a proposed project or business idea. It examines factors like technical feasibility, market viability, financial implications, and risk analysis, helping decision-makers determine whether to proceed with the initiative.

How does a financial report differ from a marketing report?

A financial report focuses on the company’s financial performance, including income, expenses, profits, and losses. In contrast, a marketing report analyzes marketing efforts, such as campaign effectiveness, customer engagement, and market research outcomes.

In what ways can a sales report contribute to business growth?

A sales report tracks sales performance, highlighting trends, high-performing products, and sales team effectiveness. By analyzing this data, businesses can identify growth opportunities, optimize sales strategies, and improve revenue.

Wrap Up

Business reports are an essential tool in the modern workplace. They provide insight into the performance of your business, help you make informed decisions, and track progress. Creating various types of business reports in Excel and Google Sheets is a great way to analyze data, communicate information, and recommend actions.

Creating a business report in Excel & Google Sheets is relatively straightforward. First, gather relevant data and input it into the spreadsheet.

Then, use the various features of tools to create charts and graphs to visualize the data. Finally, you can use formulas and filters to analyze the data and draw meaningful conclusions.

With ChartExpo, you can create the best business report in Excel and Google Sheets. It is an add-in that provides a simple dashboard to manage, analyze, and visualize data.

You can create charts and graphs with minimal effort. This way, you can transform your business report into something more engaging, educational, and impactful.