Business Reporting

What is business reporting?

Business reporting is the gathering, analysing and presenting of information related to a business or organisation. This accurate information allows businesses to make informed strategic decisions about their own performance and next steps.

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Data-driven business reporting should be used to track performance, identify trends and make decisions to impact the business and keep them competitive and ahead of the curve. For businesses to remain competitive, they must have an effective business reporting framework that works for their needs.

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What are the different types of business reporting?

Financial reporting is presenting financial information. They include sharing data related to economic health, budgets, financing options, annual reports, revenue, expenses, profits, losses and regulatory filings. Following established frameworks for these reports will help them be consistent, accurate and comparable across different periods.

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Operational reporting shares potential opportunities and provides long-term growth strategies. These reports are tailored to the needs of the industry the business belongs to. They include sharing sales performance reports, maintenance and repairs reports and asset management reports.

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Performance reporting gives a picture of the company’s performance. It provides information that can be used to adjust for the future. They include financial results, customer satisfaction results, employee satisfaction results, profit ratios and cash flow analysis.

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What are the different types of business reports?

Business reports can be internal or external. Internal reports include sales reports, inventory reports and employee performance reports. External reports include annual reports.

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Sales reports give data-driven insights into the sales of a company's products and services. It can include information about demand and customer preferences.

Inventory reports help businesses track the items they have in stock.

Employee performance reports help to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement.

Annual reports are an overview of the business's financial performance over a year. These are designed to meet regulatory requirements.

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What should a good business report format include?

A good business report format should include the following:

Clear and concise information
Accuracy and objectivity
A user-friendly format and structure that works for the business
Relevance to the target audience

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They should also be shared promptly. Sharing reports quickly allows businesses to react to the findings and impact future growth.

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Technology in business reporting

Business reports can be complex documents that include a lot of information from a variety of data sources. Using automation tools streamlines the process and makes it less likely that errors will be made. Used well, technology simplifies your reporting process with automated workflows helping you gain valuable insights into your business.

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What is business intelligence reporting?

Business intelligence is the strategies and technologies used by businesses to internally manage data and business information. Business intelligence reporting tools include dashboards and visualisations. Most website platforms have analytics dashboards supporting real-time business reporting.

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What is a Google Analytics UTM report?

Your Google Analytics 4 Campaigns report and standard Acquisition reports show a comprehensive list of your UTM-tagged traffic sources. This allows you to know how many people clicked on a specific link, for example on a specific social media post, which lets you measure the effectiveness of different campaigns.

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UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module. This is a snippet of text that is added to the end of a URL to track the metrics and performance of digital marketing campaigns. Use our UTM tracking link builder tool to create your own.

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