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Learn the types of reports you must create to nurture and grow business relationships with investors and stakeholders and impact long-term business success.
Reports are the unsung heroes of business communication. They bridge the gap between businesses and their external stakeholders, providing a platform for transparency, trust, and informed decision-making.
Reports are more than just a collection of data and facts. Contrary to its name a report is not meant to simply report.
Reports should be a narrative of the message a business wants to tell its stakeholders. The goal is not to convey information but to bring about an understanding that encourages action.
Business reports provide a comprehensive view of a company's performance, its challenges, and its future prospects.
They are a tool for businesses to showcase their achievements, demonstrate their commitment to their values, and outline their plans for the future. But above all, build authority and nurture long-standing professional relationships.
Different stakeholders have different needs and interests. A well-crafted report addresses these diverse needs, providing each stakeholder with the information they need in a format they can understand.
What stakeholders care about:
There are several types of reports used in external business communications, each serving a specific purpose and audience.
These include investor reports, annual and quarterly reports, ESG and sustainability reports, impact reports, partnership reports, client reports, and donor reports
Investor reports are like a business's financial health card. They provide investors with a snapshot of the company's financial performance and its future prospects.
An investor report is a document that provides detailed information about a company's financial performance.
It includes information about the company's revenue, profits, assets, liabilities, and cash flow. It also includes information about the company's business strategy, market trends, and future plans.
Investor reports play a crucial role in building trust with investors and showcasing financial performance.
Trust is the foundation of any investment decision. By providing transparent and accurate information about their financial performance, businesses can build trust with their investors.
This trust is crucial for attracting new investors and retaining existing ones.
Investor reports are also a platform for businesses to showcase their financial performance.
By highlighting their financial achievements, businesses can demonstrate their financial health and growth potential to their investors.
An investor report typically includes the following components:
Executive Summary: A brief overview of the company's performance and key highlights.
Financial Statements: Detailed information about the company's financial performance, including its income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.
Management Discussion and Analysis: An analysis of the company's financial performance and future prospects, including an explanation of any significant changes in the company's financial performance.
Risk Factors: A discussion of the risks that could affect the company's future performance.
Future Outlook: A discussion of the company's future plans and growth prospects.
Investor reports are a valuable tool for making investment decisions.
By providing detailed and accurate information about a company's financial performance and future prospects, they enable investors to make informed decisions about whether to invest in the company.
Annual and quarterly reports provide a comprehensive overview of a company's performance over a specific period.
They are a key tool for businesses to communicate their performance and plans to their stakeholders.
The role of annual reports
Annual reports are a key communication tool for businesses. They provide a comprehensive overview of a company's performance over the past year, including its financial performance, operational achievements, and strategic initiatives.
An annual report typically includes the following sections:
Reading and interpreting an annual report requires a basic understanding of financial statements and business operations.
Key things to look for include trends in revenue and profits, changes in assets and liabilities, and the company's strategic initiatives and future plans.
Quarterly reports provide a snapshot of a company's performance over a three-month period. They are a key tool for businesses to keep their stakeholders informed about their performance and plans on a more frequent basis.
A quarterly report typically includes the following sections:
Analyzing a quarterly report involves looking at the company's financial performance during the quarter, its business update, and its future outlook.
Key things to look for include trends in revenue and profits, changes in assets and liabilities, and the company's strategic initiatives and future plans.
ESG and sustainability reports are a key tool for businesses to demonstrate their commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. They provide detailed information about a company's ESG performance and initiatives.
ESG reporting is becoming increasingly important as investors, customers, and other stakeholders are demanding more transparency and accountability on ESG issues.
By providing detailed and accurate information about their ESG performance, businesses can build trust with their stakeholders, enhance their reputation, and attract investment.
An ESG report typically includes the following components:
Best practices for ESG reporting include aligning the report with recognized ESG reporting standards, providing detailed and accurate information, and engaging with stakeholders to understand their ESG expectations and concerns.
Sustainability reports are a key tool for businesses to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. They provide detailed information about a company's sustainability performance and initiatives.
A sustainability report is a report published by a company about the environmental and social impacts caused by its everyday activities.
It shows a company's performance measured against sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals.
A sustainability report typically includes the following components:
Sustainability reporting can help businesses improve their reputation, increase customer loyalty, and attract investment.
It can also help businesses identify risks and opportunities related to sustainability, and develop strategies to address them.
Impact reports are a key tool for businesses to showcase their social and environmental impact. They provide detailed information about a company's impact initiatives and their outcomes.
An impact report is a document that outlines the social and environmental impact a company has made through its operations and initiatives. It's a way for companies to showcase their commitment to making a positive impact on society and the environment.
An impact report typically includes the following components:
Impact reporting can help businesses build trust with their stakeholders, enhance their reputation, and attract investment.
It can also help businesses identify opportunities to create more impact and develop strategies to achieve their impact goals.
Partnership reports are a key tool for businesses to strengthen their relationships with their partners. They provide detailed information about the partnership's performance and plans.
A partnership report is a document that outlines the performance of a business partnership. It provides detailed information about the partnership's achievements, challenges, and future plans.
A partnership report typically includes the following components:
Partnership reporting can help businesses strengthen their relationships with their partners, improve their partnership performance, and attract new partners.
It can also help businesses identify opportunities and challenges related to the partnership, and develop strategies to address them.
Client reports are a key tool for businesses to deliver value to their clients and build trust. They provide detailed information about the services provided to the client and their outcomes.
A client report is a document that outlines the services provided to a client and their outcomes. It provides detailed information about the service delivery process, the client's feedback, and the service provider's performance.
A client report typically includes the following components:
Client reporting can help businesses deliver value to their clients, build trust, and improve their service delivery. It can also help businesses identify opportunities and challenges related to their services, and develop strategies to address them.
Donor reports are a key tool for nonprofits to steward the generosity of their donors. They provide detailed information about the use of donor funds and their impact.
A donor report is a document that outlines the use of donor funds by a nonprofit. It provides detailed information about the projects funded by the donors, their outcomes, and the nonprofit's financial performance.
A donor report typically includes the following components:
Donor reporting can help nonprofits steward the generosity of their donors, build trust, and attract more donations.
It can also help nonprofits demonstrate their impact and financial sustainability, and communicate their mission and values to their donors.
Effective reporting is a powerful tool for businesses to communicate with their stakeholders, build trust, and drive informed decision-making. It's not just about providing information, but about telling a story that engages, informs, and inspires.
By providing detailed, accurate, and timely information, businesses can demonstrate their accountability, enhance their credibility, and foster trust with their stakeholders.
This trust is crucial for building strong and sustainable relationships with stakeholders, and for driving the success of the business.
Business reports are commonly designed in 3 ways:
Take into consideration that making a report as an online resource is vastly superior to the static PDF or Powerpoint formats.
That's because a web document can include multimedia and interactive content that makes your reports come to life.
Either way designing a report is expensive and time-consuming. Designing a report in PDF or PowerPoint normally requires the involvement of a design agency or an in-house design team.
But creating a report on your website requires not just your design team but also your web development team.
Even though, now there's a simpler more cost-effective way to make interactive reports with a dedicated interactive report maker in a fraction of the cost and in hours rather than weeks.
We’ve brought you here some interactive report templates you can test your next report on.
Any report you make with Storydoc comes with out-of-the-box analytics that lets you get instant insight into how your stakeholders are interacting or engaging with your deck with your report.
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