ACA

Business Reports
Types
Preparation
Organization
Presentation

Meaning and Classification

of Business Reports
Business Reports Definition.
Business Report is an impartial,
objective, planned presentation of
facts to one or more persons for
specific, significant business purpose.
The report facts could relate to
events, conditions, qualities, progress,
results, products, problems, or
suggested solutions.

Long Formal Report

The length of a long report is not less
than 10 pages, and the report usually
includes the following parts some of
the parts optional
Prefatory Parts:
Cover; title fly; title page; letters of
authorization; acceptance;
approval; transmittal;
acknowledgements; (abstract,
synopsis, executive summary); table
of contents; table of tables.
Report Body:
Introduction, Text or body, Terminal
section.
Supplemental Parts:
Appendix, bibliography or endnotes,
glossary, index.

Business Reports
Classification
Function: informational or analytical.
Subject matter: accounting,
advertising, finance, marketingetc.
Formality: formal or informal, the
formal is long and the informal is short
report.
Formal reports always include some
of or all these prefatory and
supplemental parts:
prefatory parts:
cover; title fly; title page; letters of
authorization; acceptance; approval;
transmittal; acknowledgements;
(abstract, synopsis, or executive
summary); table of contents; table of
tables.
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 Supplemental parts:
appendix, bibliography or endnotes,
glossary, index.
some informal reports may include, in
addition to the body, a title page,
transmittal, endnotes, and appendix.
Origin: authorized or voluntary, private
or public.
Frequency of issue: periodic or
special.
Type or Appearance: influenced by
length and formality.
informal and short reports:
memorandum, letter, a printed form
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Preparation before
Writing Reports
Define the Problem, Purpose, and
Scope
Consider Who will Receive the Report
Determine Ideas to Include
Collect Needed Material
Secondary/ Primary
Sort, Analyze, and Interpret Data
Organize Data and Prepare Final
Outline

Exercise on Report
Different parts of a report were printed out by an
assistant. He forgot to put the page numbers. In
order to please his boss and to gloss over his
mistake, he quickly organized the parts
alphabetically as follows:
Authorization
Background
Conclusions
Data Analysis
Executive Summary
Glossary
Introduction
Limitations
Methodology
Problem
Purpose
Recommendations
Scope
Sources
Table of Contents
Text or body
Can you help him to get the report sorted out before
binding?
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 Text or body:
The longest portion of any report
body, Its title may be Discussion,
Findings or Data.
Terminal section:
It is based on the text discussion no
new material included.
The terminal section for the
informational report is called
Summary.
For analytical report is called
Conclusions or Recommendations
or combination.

Main Parts of the

Report

Introduction:
Authorization,
Plan of presentation (layout)*,
Problem*,
Purpose*,
Scope*,
Methodology*,
Sources*,
Background or (history of the situation
being investigated)*,
Definition of Terms, (introduction, a
glossary at the end, or text)
Limitations,
Brief Statement of the Results or
Recommendation.
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 Text or body:
The longest portion of any report
body, Its title may be Discussion,
Findings or Data.
Terminal section:
It is based on the text discussion no
new material included.
The terminal section for the
informational report is called
Summary.
For analytical report is called
Conclusions or Recommendations
or combination.

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Organization and Outline

of Report Body
when you choose the organizational
plan for the entire report body and text
section, you should consider the
reader, purpose, and subject matter.
Plans for Organizing Report Body:
Two ways to organizing a report body:
deductive and inductive arrangement.

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Deductive Arrangement

1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.

Deductive Arrangement direct is

common way in organizing business
reports.
The three sections may be arranged
in one of these two ways:
Terminal section
Introduction
Text (discussion & explanation)
Or
Introduction
Terminal section
Text (discussion & explanation)

Inductive Arrangement
indirect.
The three sections are arranged as the
following:
1. Introduction
2. Text (discussion & explanation)
3. Terminal section

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Ways to Organize Report

Text Section
By criteria or topics:
This is the most common way.
The main headings could be the
standards, factors, solutions,
benefitsetc.
By order of occurrence. Progress
reports,
By order of location or space.
By procedure or process.
By order of importance or by
alphabetization.
By order of familiarity or simplicity.
By sources.
By problem solution.
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 For example, organizing report text

section by criteria.
The problem is to replace the old PCs
by new PCs.
DISCUSSION
Reliability
Service
Warranty Period
Price
Case Style

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Methods of Outlining
Methods of Outlining
It is becoming your table content.
Before writing the report, the outline helps you
to see the relationship between topics,
compare proportions and headings, check for
loopholes in logical order, and eliminate
overlapping.
you need to consider Types of Heading,
Formats of Outline, and Parallelism in
Heading.
Type of Heading:
For wording heading, you can choose from
four type of heading:
Topic: single words (nouns), a few words, or
short phrases. Globalization
Complete sentence heading: Globalization is
a Syndrome of Process and Activities
Imperative sentence heading: Keep Driving
Record Clear
Variant heading: Improving Employees
17
Productivity

 A good Heading should indicate the

Subject Matter. It is better not to use
more than eight words. If your topic is
one word, make sure that the word
not to be too Broad.

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Formats of Outline:
After choosing your organizational
plan and the wording of your main
headings, you next choose a way to
show levels degrees) for various
items in your outline.
For long report, three ways to number
heading degrees.
Numeral-Letter Combination: it is
used in business.
Decimal System: it is used in scientific
and technical reports.
Letter- Numeral Combination: it is
used by those who prefer letters
before main heading and they do not
need the additional degree that is
possible with Roman numerals.
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Degree of Heading

Introduction

Text/
Discussion

Numeral-Letter Combination:

1st
2d
2d
2d

I.
A.
B.
C.

1st
2d
3d
3d
2d
3d
3d
4th

II.
A.
1.
2.
B.
1.
2.

a.

4th
5th

b.

(1)

5th

(2)
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Text/
Discussion

1st
2d
3d
3d
2d
3d
3d
1st
2d
3dh

III.
A.
1.
2.
B.
1.
2.
IV.
A.

1.

3d
2d
3d
3d
Terminal

2.
B.
1.
2.

1st
2d

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Five Important Cautions

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Place the most important ideas (Criteria) in

the highest degrees of heading, considering
report length, subject matter, and reader.
Try to balance the sections as well as
possible. For example, if section II.A, had 12
subheading and section II.B had no
subheading, the proportion would be
lopsided. Then try to narrow the scope of
heading II.A (by rewarding it and by
rearranging facts) and broaden II.B.
Have at least two subheading if you divide
any topic; for example, A.1 and A.2 never
ever only A.1.
The number of section headings neither too
many nor too few. Usually three to seven
main sections are desirable.
Do not consider the report title as a section
heading, and do not begin the first sentence
with exactly the same words as the heading.
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Parallelism in
Heading:
For parallel, consistent, and construction all
headings of the same degree within any part
of an outline should be parallel to each other.
They should have the same grammatical
form- all nouns, all phrases, or all sentences.
For example, the following headings should
be parallel to each other:

I, II, III, IV, V.

A, B, C under I.

1, 2, 3 under II.A

1 and 2 under II.B

a and b under II.B.2etc. However,

subheadings 1, 2, 3 under II.A need not be
parallel with subheadings 1 and 2 under II. B,
and other third-degree subheadings in other
sections.

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Visual Aids
To improve both readability and appearance
of a report, you should use heading and when
desirable also graphic materials.
Heading and Subheading as Directional
Signs:
The headings you have selected for your final
outline will be directional signs for the reader
of the finished report. Headings help direct
the reader through the entire presentation.

System of styling the headings:

FIRST-DEGREE HEADINGS
(Centred and in all capitals-caps)
Second- Degree Headings
( Centred, caps and lowercase, underlined)
Third-Degree Headings
(left margin, caps and lowercase, underlined)
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 Fourth-degree headings. -- (Indented,

underlined, lowercase; paragraph
begins on same line).
Fifth-degree headings (Indented,
underlined; sentence begins with the
heading).

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Sample Graphics for

Quantitative and Other
Data

Tables
Bar Graphs
Pie Charts
Line Graphs
Area Graph
Pictogramsetc.

26

Cover Design and Wording

of Title
Wording Title Includes:

Who: the company

What: the subject matter

When: the year

Where: the country

Why: the objective

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How to Make References

Author Name (Year) Title, PP. (2-5).

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Essential Components of a
Report
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Covering letter
Title Page
Title Fly
Internal Title
Abstract/ Executive Summary
Table of Contents
Table of Figures/ Charts
Table of Tables
Introduction/ Background
Problem Analysis and
Identification

Essential Components of a
Report
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.

Methodology
Data Analysis
Conclusions
Recommendations
Bibliography/ References
Footnotes and Endnotes
Appendix/ Annexures
Glossary
Index

Assignment
You have to prepare a report on a company.
Assume that you are working for a consulting
firm. An NRI wants to invest several million
dollars in one or two companies from one
industry sector with a long term
perspective.
1.
You have to select a sector.
2.
Study top 5 companies in the sector and
then
3.
recommend in which company (ies) your
client should invest and what amounts
giving an approximate ROI over next five
years.
4.
The length of the report should be around
80 pages only.

Guidelines and rules

All secondary data should be
referenced and verifiable.
All primary data can be imaginary.
Report should be electronically
submitted to ynkaushal@gmail.com
Report should be in PDF format.
Report file should be named as Roll
No. Name Report Company Name.pdf
Collaboration and Plagiarism will
attract 0 (zero) marks