A business progress report provides an overall indication of the business health of a company. It analyzes the progress of the outlined business goals and projections made at the start of a year. It commonly presents itself to top management and business investors.
Also, it acts as a medium of communication among units of an organization as it conveys essential information that serves as a basis for coming up with business strategies and critical decisions.
- Business Progress Report: 5 Key PointsPart 1
- Business Progress Report Template Download Part 2
- How to Make Status Reporting 10x Easier Part 3
- Additional Sources Part 4
Part 1
Here are 5 key points in coming up with a business progress report:
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The Organization May Opt to Form a Team to Come up with a Business Progress
A leader may be assigned, and each member may be assigned with a particular indicator to work on. They will be responsible for monitoring the progress of the business based on a given indicator and in gathering information on it for the purposes of reporting.
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Decide on the Major Highlights and Determine Its Overall Objective
Though the business progress report is primarily ready to provide information to its readers. Create an outline of these indicators, so you will know which facts and figures to include. Be as accurate as possible in the report as investors do not necessarily subscribe to generalities.
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Reflect Any Shortcomings
Be transparent in reporting about those areas where progress have been slow to the company. It is important to convey this information to the top management and to the investors to give them a heads up on the real situation of the enterprise.
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Just don’t forget to provide action plans on how the company intends to resolve the issue or improve the situation. -
Make Your Report Easy to Read and Understand
Create clearly-labeled subheadings for each indicator or topics it addresses. Information within the business progress reports should be easy to find as executives and investors may not have time to read the whole length of the report.
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They may also be interested in a single topic only and may need to read it first upon receiving the report. All technical information that needs to be in the report may form part of the appendices found at the last pages of the report. -
If Applicable Ask Someone to Check the Report and Provide Feedback
Make sure that the business progress report is free from any errors. Validate all information and statistics indicated in the report. Accuracy and transparency are two essential elements of any business report. You may want to send a copy of the report to each concerned department and ask them to verify its contents.
Part 2
Business Progress Report: Free Download Section
Click Here to Download Business Progress Report Template DOCX
Free online tools for work:
1. Fluxes.com — Free Project and Task Management Software
2. Status.net — Software for Daily and Weekly Status Reports
Part 3
How to Make Status Reporting 10x Easier
How to configure status reports on status.net:
Step 1:
- Create a “Business Status Report” applet — customize our preset forms or easily create a new form in minutes.
- Setup reminders if you want your team members to receive automatic reminders when their reports are due.
- Configure who will submit reports by choosing the “Participants” tab.
Step 2: Users will click the “Open Submission Form” button to fill in and submit the report.
Data such as the report type, date and name will be added automatically.
As soon as a new status report is added, participants with “View” rights can view it in real time.
Options:
- Set the applet as “Team-wide” if you want all team members to view each other’s status reports.
- Alternatively, you can make every participant to view his/her own reports only. Manager/stakeholders will view all reports.
- Add, remove, and assign new team members at any time.
Step 3 (Optional): Generate a report and export it to PDF.
(Skip this step if you share status reports online and don’t print them.)
Click “Generate Report”.
Done!
Benefits:
- Make reporting easier with auto-fill:
Fields such as date, name, report type, and formatting are inserted automatically by software. - Consolidate reports automatically:
Reports created by your team members can be consolidated easily. - Save time with auto-layout:
No need to spend hours in Word or Excel perfecting the report’s layout because it exports your updates into a beautifully crafted file with a couple of clicks. - Peace of mind with auto-reminders:
No one forgets to fill in their status reports because status.net sends timely reminders according to the schedule you chose. - Decrease time and effort spent on monthly, quarterly, and yearly reporting thanks to powerful filtering and export features.
- Optionally, enrich reports with the latest updates automatically added from web apps your team uses (such as popular free task management software Fluxes.com, and other project management tools, version control systems, support systems, financial applications, etc.) by connecting these apps to your status applet.
- Quick sharing:
Status reports can be either
– exported to files and printed, or sent by email;
– shared with the manager online (in real time);
– shared online (in real-time) as company-wide or team-wide status reports, i.e., all team members share their progress with each other — spend less time on meetings.
Sign up now to make status reporting easier for your team.
Part 4