We all receive or produce business reports on a weekly or monthly basis. But, the important thing that matters is whether the reports provide useful information on updates. Let's face it; the reports are only meaningful if it has important and relevant information. Otherwise, the report serves no purpose at all! So as a report creator, how would you ensure you provide the right report to your bosses or audience? Here are the 12 best practices to design effective business reports that you should know.
The 12 best practices to design effective business reports that you should know.
1. Good Report Structure
2. Guide Your Readers With Clear Data Flow
3. Attractive Layout
4. Keep Information Simple
5. Enhance Your Report with Images
6. Use Callouts Cards
7. Simplify Data Visualizations
8. Organize Information By Hierarchy
9. Keep Text To Minimum
10. Use interactive data-driven reports
11. Standardized Your Report Style
12. Have Plenty of Whitespaces
1. Good Report Structure
Structuring your business report is important to contribute to the report's success. If your ideas are not structured logically, it will not make your report as effective.
It would help if you considered applying the top-down approach or the bottom-up one to organize your report. For example, if you prefer to state the main point at once, the report should break down in detail on another page, then use the top-down approach. On the other hand, if you include some data visuals first and the key points at the end, then the bottom-up approach is your choice.
2. Guide Your Readers With Clear Data Flow
Another important point in your business report is navigation. You will help your readers get the report's main ideas. Add navigation aids like subheads or section titles, page numbers and appendices.
A table of contents may be useful if the report is rather long. Then, they may click on the links and go to the necessary part of the report.
Your readers might be managers or executives who probably want a bottom line quickly. To facilitate this, start with identifying the most crucial pieces of information.
Starting with a headline and then working your way down into a paragraph is a form of basic content hierarchy, translating well into a report. You can add data visuals to make it more actionable.
It is best if you aim to have a clear data flow for your report. For example, please don't put too much information until it is impossible to understand at a glance. Instead, you want to educate your readers and draw their attention to interesting insights.
The clearer your report design, the better the information will flow and communicate.
Your company must have a team of data analytics experts to help extract complete datasets to do any financial and data related reports. The data analytic experts can also help streamline all the data flows that would help you build a better analysis of your reports. Suppose you need to migrate or import some important data to enhance your report insights. See my previous article on Steps to a successful data migration project.
3. Attractive Layout
Do not underestimate the layout of the business report. A carefully considered layout can guide readers to understand better the information presented. But, first, it is advisable to set appropriate margins, considering how your report is submitted or demonstrated.
What is more, please pay attention to the individual elements and keep them together. Data visuals should be accurately spaced and aligned with each other. It is better to use white space and deliberately align the elements with increasing page balance.
As a result, it is easy for your recipients to get your report's main ideas.
4. Keep Information Simple
We always think that the more information we include, the better our report is. Thus, we prepare huge text blocks with many details that are difficult to grasp and unnecessary. You should include only one main thought in one paragraph.
Start a new paragraph if you have more than one. It is also important to consider the space between various texts and visuals. The visual cues, such as numbered lists or bullets, will make the text easier to understand.
If you want to impress with a professional report, it is your choice!
5. Enhance Your Report with Images
The images should contribute to processing the information presented in the report. In addition, the informative images may persuade the readers to pay more attention to the data you are showing. Therefore, they should be relevant to the report:
- Try to use authentic images. Non-traditional images like stylized text or basic images will also do good.
- The size and resolution are significant points to take into consideration.
- It is worth selecting vector images rather than non-vectored ones, as they have better resolution.
You can also use data visualization to make it easy to digest the important information you want to share within your reports.
6. Use Callouts Cards
The main purpose of data visualization is insights. Use Callouts Cards to highlight important information. No one will remember every data point you mention in your report. So you need to write your report effectively and design it in a way that it becomes actionable.
When preparing a marketing, sales analysis, or annual budget report, you want to present the most relevant information in an easy to digestible format. In addition, it will facilitate the readers to draw valuable conclusions faster.
Using a callouts card emphasizes the important key points of a report. You can add callouts cards to direct the reader's attention to make it easier for them to visualize and retain the information in the report.
I recommend keeping your callouts minimalistic. That way, your reports will look more professional and clearer.
The idea of callouts cards is to supplement your visuals, not distract the focus away from them. So avoid arrows or other heavy graphics that draw too much attention away from the main element to keep callouts simple and effective.
If your report has too many components that occupy a lot of visual space can distract your readers from obtaining key information at a glance. Instead, if you have one or two specific highlights, channel the readers into those highlights right away so you don't lose their interest.
7. Simplify Data Visualizations
Human brains process visuals faster than text, so using visuals for presentation is more effective than using text and numbers in your report.
When preparing business reports, the main purpose is to summarize important data obtained in the work process. Nothing supports statements presented in any document better than using the visual evidence supported by numbers. Using data visuals to engage the readers, you add credibility to your report. In addition, the reports should be easy to compare, analyze and synthesize.
Suppose you're creating a financial review report for your department. It would include a lot of complex financials, including expenses, budgets, statistics, financial ratios, etc. It can be unclear to see massive data spread across documents and screenshots if you present.
In this case, you will create informative charts that will increase your message's impact on the recipients. Using data visuals is a better way to summarize the data. Within 10 seconds, it can tell the reader what's important. In addition, data visuals like charts, graphs, and more add a component to your report that text cannot: speed.
When using data visualization, do not crumple up all the graphics together. In addition, you can make the data charts in various forms and colours. And try to use no more than three (3) main colours.
8. Organize Information By Hierarchy
You must organize content in your report to reflect the nature and display important information by Hierarchy. In addition, you need to arrange the content in contextual order to flow logically.
Hierarchies are helpful because they allow you to drill down into the specifics of your data instead of only seeing the data at a high level.
If you want to highlight one section on a page in your report, use size and details to show the Hierarchy. It will help you ensure that you can lead the reader's attention to where you want them to.
One of the best ways to use hierarchies in business reports is to use a business intelligence system that can support the details of the summarised information. For these instances, you may want to consider using power BI for this type of reporting presentation. See my previous article on The Top 10 Reasons for Advancing Business Intelligence with Power BI.
9. Keep Text To Minimum
As a reader, you don't want to consume paragraphs of text. Instead, you want to take in information with the most precise data in the least amount of time. So bear in to keep your text as minimal as possible.
A good report design does not use walls of text mainly because the readers prefer to take in the information visually. And prefer not to read between the lines.
A short, clear and actionable text tends to resonate with readers. Simplify content by creating more paragraphs and including relevant imagery so that your content is easy to digest.
By combining well-chosen data visuals with many whitespaces and concise sentences, you can make your report's content incredibly easy to understand.
10. Use interactive data-driven reports
Using interactive elements is powerful and user-friendly that can make a big impact on your report. Whether creating financial or non-financial reports, it can help create a great user and presentation experience if your reports are interactive.
For example, the interactive function in Power BI is that the data visuals can interact with one another during your presentation. For example, by selecting one visual, other visuals can reflect the same selection. Similarly, you can use interactive UI components that create a responsive experience, including animations and gestures.
The interactive report should be able to give good insights directly to the reader.
11. Standardized Your Report Style
Consistency is always the key principle of the design. It helps make the interface more intuitive. In short, when all elements have a consistent look, usability and learnability can improve for the reader.
Please keep it simple by having a consistent design flow throughout your report to eliminate confusion. Define your report's typography, colours, space, size, and positions. With a strong visual hierarchy, you can deliver a smooth experience to the reader and make it even easier to retain critical information.
Creating a defined grid allows you to arrange different elements of your report nicely and aesthetically. For example, try using the same colour theme across the report. And make sure all the padding and margins are consistent.
And try to incorporate your company's branding into your reports. Using brand elements such as logo, colour palette, and text from start to finish makes the design more cohesive.
12. Have Plenty of Whitespaces
Adding more whitespace around elements can make your visuals stand out clearly. For example, it is crucial that when you're putting together a report, you have whitespaces to make your data visuals stand out.
Using whitespace to balance other elements can help organize content better to improve the report structure, data flow, and communication experience.
Remember, the main goal of your report should be to highlight the key points and add context to that information with data visuals. Suppose your report's layout has information all cramped up in one section. In that case, your reader will find it difficult to digest what your report is conveying. Use the whitespace to enable the highlight of important key points of your report.
Using whitespace does not mean you need to make your background colour white. A solid background colour that makes the front elements pop and stand out is good enough.
Now, start improving your reports by using a few data visuals and good whitespace.
Conclusion
Writing and presenting a business report is never easy. But with a little bit of practice and using some of the tips given above, I hope you can improvise the reports you are currently using.
Did I miss any points?
Need help improving your business report presentation?
Contact me for more information.
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About Author
Jacinta Thein is a Certified Trainer and a Chartered Accountant registered with the Malaysian Institute of Accountants since 2004. She is also a Microsoft Certified Data Analyst Associate. Jacinta has more than 24 years of experience in management consulting data analytics, management reporting, and financial data analysis from multinational companies. Jacinta has worked in the retail, manufacturing, education, shared services, venture capitalist, and advertising industries. She has in-depth knowledge in data and financial analysis, business intelligence, financial reporting, and system implementation.