Reports are management tools. Their purpose is to help you quickly grasp the essential elements and relationships found in raw data, to help you make effective decisions. For a report to be effective, it has to present the correct data in a logical way. If it presents the wrong data, or if it presents the right data in a haphazard manner, the report may slow the decision-making process or may even encourage incorrect decisions.
A good starting place in the development of a report is to write out the purpose of the report in a sentence or two. The purpose statement helps you focus on your primary needs, and it gives the report both a starting point and a goal.
Here are some examples of purpose statements.
The purpose of this report is to show monthly and year-to-date sales by sales representatives, compare this year's numbers to last year's, and flag representatives whose sales figures do not meet company standards.
The purpose of this report is to show sales activity for each item in inventory, and to suggest reorder quantities based on that activity.
The purpose of this report is to calculate bowling averages and handicaps for each member of the bowling league.
Defining the purpose of the report before you start is a critical step in the overall process.