Description

This implementation guide is for all managers who, from time to time, need to prepare a report. It contains guidelines, rules, and E-templates to get your report over the line.  Enhancing your career and your job satisfaction. There are over 20 E-templates to help you get the rubber on the road.  The implementation guide is based around the wisdom and better practices of many report writers, consultants and authors I have come across.

This PDF whitepaper is updated at the time of purchase by David Parmenter ensuring that it contains his latest thinking.  The E-templates are emailed with the paper.

Look Inside

Please click here to look inside the whitepaper.

 

Reports should be designed to encourage action to take place, on a timely basis, in the right direction. They need to be:

Timely	Be a combination of daily/weekly/monthly reporting
	Be prompt – within 3 working days is better practice from month-end, next day for daily reports
Structured	Be planned so they are structured with the reader’s decision in mind (especially written reports).
	Utilise business writing best practice such as the guidelines in Mary Munter’s “Guide to Managerial Communication”.[i]
Avoid unnecessary detail	Report meaningful numbers. Is it necessary to report Sales of $23,456,327? Surely $23.5 million is much easier to read and relate to.
Best practice graphics	Follow the guidelines of Stephen Few, an expert on data visualization.
	Contain a ‘Florence Nightingale graphic’ to wow them and to live on past the life of the report.
Consistent, concise and error free	Have consistent formatting and  judgement calls.
	Be presented in a true and fair view
	Be concise – be a merging of numbers, graphs and comments on the one page where possible
	Be free of inconsistent numbers within the report, spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.

[i] Mary Munter, Guide to Managerial Communication: Effective Business Writing and Speaking

Why you need this guide:

• You haven’t received any formal training on report writing and do not the time to disseminate all the  better practices – I have spent the last 25 years doing this for you…
• Easy to use E-templates
• Expose yourself to the latest thinking on report structure, research, selling change, the quality assurance processes that make it look good
• Be introduced to Stephen Few’s brilliant work on graphics and dashboard design – the leading thought leaders on data visualization
• Blow the CEO and the Board away with great report formats

This guide will answer the following questions:

1. What is the best structure for my report?
2. What are the good design features of a one-page report?
3. What are the rules for good graph design?
4. How often should we report against strategy implementation?
5. What should a board dashboard look like?
6. What quality assurance steps should we take?