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Project Management

How to write a project report (with steps & templates).

March 21, 2024

Juggling all the different components of a project can be quite a challenge. If that weren’t enough, you also have to write a project status report to update key stakeholders on the project’s progress. The struggle is real.

So where do you start? Fortunately, we have the answer. And that’s precisely why we put together this guide—to walk you through the process so you have a clear path from start to finish.

Learn more about creating project reports and different types of project status reports. Plus, you’ll walk away with five free project report templates, carefully crafted to streamline your project management workflow, save you time, and impress your stakeholders. 🤩

What is a Project Report?

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A project report is a document offering a comprehensive overview of a project’s objectives, progress, team performance, and milestone accomplishments. It also gives an account of the challenges faced during a project’s execution , solutions devised to tackle them, and the lessons learned during the process. 

Project managers create these reports to communicate with other project stakeholders—including team members, sponsors, clients, and other interested parties—to ensure everyone’s on the same page. The document also serves as a foundation for further evaluation and analysis to ensure the project says on track and achieves its goals. 🎯

Creating a project report doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Follow these three simple steps to create your first project report with ease.

Understand the purpose of the report

Before you create a project report, you need to understand the purpose of the report (the “why”) and know your target audience (the “who”). This will guide the content, structure, and tone of your project report.

Gather and organize the relevant information

At this point, you need to gather project information relevant to your project report. Make sure your data is accurate, reliable, and up-to-date. Organize the gathered information in a logical and structured manner.

• Executive summary : As its name suggests, this project summary gives readers a quick overview of the whole report. It’s a snapshot that highlights the most important parts of the project. While it’s placed at the start of the report, it’s often written last. It covers the project’s objectives, methodology, major outcomes, and conclusions. 
• Introduction: This sets the context and expectations of the entire report. It includes the project’s purpose and scope, project schedule, the problems it aims to address, and the methodologies to get there. It also outlines the structure and organization of the rest of the report. 
• Body: Typically, this is the longest part of project management reports because it dives into in-depth details, including project progress, data collection, analysis reports, constraints, and limitations. Remember that whatever you include here should reflect the purpose of your project report and the preferences of your target audience. 
• Conclusions & Recommendations: Based on your findings and analysis, identify opportunities for improvement, suggest strategies for addressing them, or propose avenues for future research. 

Format and proofread the report

Ensure that your project report follows a consistent formatting style—headings, subheadings, and bullet points will make it easier to read. In addition, scan your report for spelling or grammar errors and typos.

Types of Project Reports

Project reports come in diverse formats, with each serving different use cases. Here are nine of the most commonly used types of project reports.

A project status report is a document that gives a snapshot of where your project stands at any given moment. It’s like answering the question, “How’s the project doing?”

But instead of just saying “The project is fine,” you actually dive into the project goals, tasks completed, milestones achieved, challenges faced, lessons learned, potential roadblocks, and next steps. 

Whether it’s a weekly project status report or a monthly status report, this documentation eliminates the need for status meetings while giving stakeholders the most recent status of the project.

A project progress report is slightly similar to a status update report, as they both discuss task progress. However, the progress report is more quantitative and zooms in on individual tasks and project milestones . 

It’s like taking a magnifying glass and examining the progress of each task, one by one. For example, it could include in-depth information on the percentage of completion and current status of each task (completed, on track, delayed, etc.). 

The cost-benefit analysis report is usually prepared before a project is put into motion. Of the various project reports, this one aims to answer a simple question: “Is it worth pursuing this project?”

To answer this question, the report first assesses all project costs like operational expenses, materials, salaries, equipment, and potential risks. 

It then considers the projected benefits, such as increased profit margins, cost savings, improved efficiency, or happier customers. Finally, the report compares the costs to the benefits to determine if it’s time to move forward or explore other options.

A project time-tracking report is a document that records and summarizes time spent on project activities. Each project team member contributes to writing this report—they track and record the amount of time they’ve spent on tasks and submit it to the project manager. ⏰

Thankfully, the rise of project management tools has eliminated the need for paper-based time-tracking submissions. They make it easy for team members to submit accurate and detailed time reports to the project manager—while reducing the administrative burden of manual report compilation. 

Project managers can see how time is spent and the overall productivity of team members. As a result, they’re able to make informed decisions, such as redistributing workload (aka workload management ), reassigning tasks, and providing feedback and support to team members. 

A project resource dashboard offers a bird’s-eye view of how resources (e.g., labor, equipment, materials, budget, etc.) are allocated in a project. Think of it as a comprehensive resource inventory, listing every project task, the responsible party, and the resources being used. 

Project reports like this help project managers keep track of resource availability, identify potential resource constraints or shortages, and make informed decisions about resource allocation and optimization.

A project risk report offers a comprehensive analysis of potential risks, their likelihood of occurrence, their potential impact on the project, and recommended mitigation strategies. 

Rather than waiting for future events to derail the project, project reports like this one allow project managers to take a more proactive approach to risk management—thereby boosting the chances of overall project success.

A project variance report reveals the gaps or deviations between project plans and the actual performance or results achieved. It compares various factors—like budget, time, resources, and scope—and their planned values with their actual values, then computes the differences (or variances). 

By analyzing these variances, project managers and stakeholders can discuss the possible reasons behind them, identify areas that need attention, and take corrective actions where necessary.

A project performance report evaluates the overall performance and achievements of a project against predetermined metrics and objectives. It includes information on project deliverables, key performance indicators (KPIs) , and stakeholder satisfaction.

This report helps project managers assess project success, identify areas for improvement, and communicate the project’s performance to stakeholders.

A project completion report marks the end of a project journey. It summarizes the entire project lifecycle, from initiation to closure. This report contains an overview of the project’s objectives, deliverables, milestones, challenges, and recommendations for future projects.

Writing project reports may initially seem redundant and time-consuming. However, it plays a crucial role in achieving project success. While a few benefits were hinted at earlier, let’s get a better picture of why project reports should not be overlooked.

More clarity

Creating a project report allows you to step back and reflect on the project’s progress. As you record the milestones, successes, and challenges, a wealth of insights begin to unfold—strengths, weaknesses, and areas that need attention.

This holistic view of the project’s health helps you steer it toward the desired outcomes and ensure it stays on track.

Encourages evaluation and analysis

Project reports allow you to evaluate and analyze the different aspects of a project in a systematic way—gathering relevant data, analyzing them, and evaluating their significance. By giving your project a critical analysis, you can uncover valuable insights, identify patterns, draw meaningful conclusions, and take strategic action. 🛠️

Enhances communication and collaboration

Creating a project report challenges you to present the project’s progress and results to stakeholders in a clear and coherent manner. A well-written report promotes project transparency and ensures everyone is on the same page.

It also facilitates collaboration by providing a common reference point for discussions, feedback, and decision-making.

Boosts professionalism and credibility

When you present a comprehensive and well-structured report, it shows that you have conducted thorough research, followed a methodical approach, and can effectively communicate complex information. This, in turn, boosts your reputation, enhances your credibility, and showcases your expertise among peers, colleagues, and potential employers.

Knowledge preservation

A project report serves as a valuable reference for future research or projects. By documenting your process, methodologies, challenges, lessons, and results, you create a resource that can be consulted and built upon by others.

This contributes to the cumulative knowledge in your field and fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation.

Improves Team Alignment

Project reports are instrumental in enhancing team alignment. They provide a clear, concise snapshot of progress, identifying accomplishments, challenges, and next steps. This enables all team members to understand the project’s current status and their respective roles in achieving the overall objectives.

Check out these project report templates for teams:

• Nonprofit Organizations Project Report
• Operations Teams Project Report
• Finance Teams Project Report
• DevOps Teams Project Report
• Agile Teams Project Report
• Sales Teams Project Report

5 Project Report Examples & Templates

Sure, you could write project reports from scratch and spend countless hours formatting and structuring them. But why would you when you can use free project report templates? They provide a structure and format for your report so you can simply plug in your data and customize the design to fit your needs. Not only do project report templates speed up the report creation process, but they also enhance the overall quality of your reports. 

Let’s jump right in to explore our top five project report templates. 📈

A final project report is the perfect finishing touch to conclude a project and highlight its achievements. ClickUp’s Final Project Report Template provides a solid structure to help you put it together with the following key sections:

• Planned vs. Actual: A quantitative breakdown of how the project deviated from the original plan with regard to its start date, completion date, duration, and budget
• Management Effectiveness: A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis evaluating how the project was managed
• Project Learnings : Share the important project lessons learned by the team throughout the lifespan of the project
• Contract Terms Checklist : A simple table listing the various contract terms, whether they were completed, and any remarks you have 
• Overall Performance rating: A 1 out of 5 rating of the different aspects of the project, from planning and execution to leadership and communication

This template is built in ClickUp Docs , which means you have unlimited flexibility for customization—add extra sections and tweak the appearance to suit your taste. And guess what? The table of content updates in real-time as you add, edit, or delete multiple headers.

If you want to wow your team and clients, this project status report template will help you get the job done. 

Writing a project status report is fairly straightforward. But staring at a blank document and worrying about crafting perfectly manicured sentences can make this process last a lot longer than it should. 

Thankfully, ClickUp’s Project Status Report Template is here to save the day! Built inside ClickUp Whiteboards, this template provides a hassle-free method to quickly capture key project details in a visually engaging way.

• General information: Cover general project details (e.g., project name, objectives, project timeline , reporting period, etc.) which you’ll need to fill in only once
• Progress details: Use color-coding to share in-progress, at-risk, delayed, and completed tasks
• Support and resources: List out assets (e.g., labor, money, etc.) needed for a smooth operation 
• Highlights and takeaways: Share key lessons learned and other noteworthy highlights
• What went well/What needs improvement: Use this opportunity to reflect on the project’s progress and share the areas that performed well and what needs attention
• Next steps: Highlight the key action items that need to get done to keep the project on track

Enter the details under each of these sections onto sticky notes, which’ll help you quickly pour down your thoughts without worrying about writing perfect sentences. It’s also very helpful for stakeholders as the information on sticky notes is short and straight to the point. 

This template removes the pressure of creating a status report and saves valuable time—all while keeping key stakeholders informed and up to date.

After running a digital marketing campaign project, you need to gather key metrics from the campaign and present it to key stakeholders for evaluation, performance analysis, and notes for future improvements. 

Sharing this info across multiple digital channels can get overwhelming but there’s no need to worry. ClickUp’s Digital Marketing Report Template has you covered with everything you need. Plus, it’s neatly broken down into the following sections:

• Digital Marketing Performance: This section lets you summarize the overall performance of your campaign by capturing key details like project budget allocations, actual expenses, cost per acquisition, total impressions, and total clicks across multiple campaigns
• Web Analytics Report: This section analyzes website performance during and after the project’s completion. It captures metrics like page views, bounce rate, traffic sources, and overall conversion rate
• Social Media Campaign Performance: This section analyzes social media performance by measuring metrics like impressions, followers, and engagement rate—all in a simple table for each social media platform 

Use this template to present the performance of your digital marketing project in a simple and visually engaging way. This makes it easy to identify trends, analyze the impact of your campaign, and make informed decisions regarding future marketing initiatives.

A key way to stay on track and guarantee overall project success is to engage team members in the process.

The Employee Daily Activity Report Template by ClickUp has a simple tabular layout that makes it easy for team members to record and keep track of: 

• Completed tasks and the time spent on each
• Ongoing tasks and their due dates
• Upcoming tasks and any support they’ll need

This template encourages each team member to get work done and ask for support when needed—while allowing you to keep the project on track by providing support and maximizing team performance.

Remember the Digital Marketing Report Template we looked at earlier? You can choose to further analyze the marketing performance section, with elements from this Campaign Report Template by ClickUp . 

Dive deeper into how each marketing channel contributed to overall ad cost, ad revenue, and ad conversion rate. You can further break down each channel’s performance by analyzing the metrics from each individual campaign on that channel.

There you have it—your secret sauce for creating an effective project report in a fraction of the time. And that’s only scratching the surface … working inside ClickUp unlocks a lot more perks. 

Not only does ClickUp make project reporting easy and quick, but it also gives you access to free project management templates to enhance your workflow. Quickly assign tasks to your team, keep track of progress, discuss updates, and collaborate on documents and whiteboards—all in one place. ✨

Did we mention the integrations? ClickUp plays nicely with other apps, allowing you to seamlessly connect your favorite tools to supercharge your team’s productivity. And let’s not forget about the time you’ll save using ClickUp’s automations—a feature that lets you breeze through repetitive tasks that used to eat up valuable time across project management reports.

Just imagine what you can do with those extra hours—maybe enjoy a cup of coffee or catch up with your team about how best you can support them. Make project reporting a blast with ClickUp and boost your chances of a successful project. 

Get started by signing up for free on ClickUp today … Ready? Set? Report!

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How to Write a Business Report: A Step By Step Guide with Examples

Table of contents

To see what Databox can do for you, including how it helps you track and visualize your performance data in real-time, check out our home page. Click here .

With so much experience under your belt, you already know a lot about business reporting.

So, we don’t want to waste your time pointing out the obvious because we know what you need.

Secrets. Tricks. Best practices.sales rep drilldown business report

The answer to how to write a mind-blowing business report that you don’t need to spend hours and days writing.

A business report that will immediately allow you to identify your strengths and weaknesses.

A report that’ll help you learn more about your business and do more accurate forecasting and planning for the future.

We believe we have just that right here.

With this comprehensive guide, you’ll create effective sales, analytical, and informative business reports (and business dashboards ) that will help you improve your strategies, achieve your goals, and grow your business.

So, let’s dive in.

What Is a Business Report?

Importance of creating business reports, types of business reports, what should be included in a business report, how to write a business report: an 11-step guide.

• Business Report Examples

Although there’s a variety of business reports that differ in many aspects, in short, a business report definition would be the following:

A business report is an informative document that contains important data such as facts, analyses, research findings, and statistics about a business with the goal to make this information accessible to people within a company.

Their main purpose is to facilitate the decision-making process related to the future of the business, as well as to maintain effective communication between people who create the reports and those they report to.

A good business report is concise and well-organized, looks professional, and displays the relevant data you can act on. The point is to reflect upon what you’ve achieved so far (typically, over the past month, quarter or year) and to use the data to create a new strategy or adjust the current one to reach even more business goals.

Business reports should be objective and based on the data. When stating the facts, people rely on numbers rather than giving descriptions. For instance, instead of saying “our conversion rate skyrocketed”, you would display the exact percentages that back up that claim.

Business reporting matters for several reasons, among which the most important ones are:

Recognizing Opportunities to Grow

Detecting issues and solving them quickly, evaluating a potential partner, having a paper trail, keeping things transparent for the stakeholders, setting new company goals.

In fact, over half of the companies that contributed to Databox’s state of business reporting research confirmed that regular monitoring and reporting brought them significant concrete benefits.

If you never look back at what you’ve achieved, you can’t figure out what you’ve done well and what you can leverage in the future for even better results.

When you analyze a specific aspect of your business over a specific time period and present the data you gathered in a report, you can detect an opportunity to grow more easily because you have all the information in one place and organized neatly.

Is it time to introduce new products or services? Is there a way to enhance your marketing strategy? Prepare a report. Can you optimize your finances? Write a financial business report . Whatever decision you need to make, it’s easier when you base it on a report.

Reports are essential for crisis management because they can introduce a sense of calmness into your team. Putting everything on paper makes it easier to encompass all the relevant information and when you know all the facts, you can make a more accurate and effective decision about what to do next.

Writing business reports regularly will also help you identify potential issues or risks and act timely to prevent damage and stop it from escalating. That’s why monthly reporting is better than doing it only once a year.

Having an insight into your finances , operations and other business aspects more regularly allows you to have better control over them and mitigate potential risks more effectively.

Different types of business reports may be accessible to the general public. And if they’re not, specific situations may require a company to send them over to the person requesting them. That may happen if you’re considering a partnership with another company. Before making the final decision, you should learn about their financial health as every partnership poses a certain risk for your finances and/or reputation. Will this decision be profitable?

Having an insight into a company’s business report helps you establish vital business relationships. And it goes the other way around – any potential partner can request that you pull a business report for them to see, so writing business reports can help you prove you’re a suitable business partner.

In business, and especially in large companies, it’s easy to misplace information when it’s communicated verbally. Having a written report about any aspect of your business doesn’t only prevent you from losing important data, but it also helps you keep records so you can return to them at any given moment and use them in the future.

That’s why it’s always good to have a paper trail of anything important you want to share with colleagues, managers, clients, or investors. Nowadays, of course, it doesn’t have to literally be a paper trail, since we keep the data in electronic form.

Writing business reports helps you keep things transparent for the stakeholders, which is the foundation of efficient communication between these two sides.

You typically need to report to different people – sometimes they’re your managers, sometimes they’re a client. But your company’s stakeholders will also require an insight into the performance of your business, and relying on reports will help you maintain favorable business relationships. A business report shows you clearly how your company is performing and there isn’t room for manipulation.

Once you set business goals and the KPIs that help you track your progress towards them, you should remember they’re not set in stone. From time to time, you’ll need to revisit your goals and critical metrics and determine whether they’re still relevant.

When you write a business report and go through it with your team members or managers, you have a chance to do just that and determine if you’re efficient in reaching your goals. Sometimes, new insights will come up while writing these reports and help you identify new objectives that may have emerged.

Depending on your goals and needs, you’ll be writing different types of business reports. Here are five basic types of business reports .

Informational Report

Analytical report, research report, explanatory report, progress report.

Informational reports provide you with strictly objective data without getting into the details, such as explaining why something happened or what the result may be – just pure facts.

An example of this type of business report is a statement where you describe a department within your company: the report contains the list of people working in this department, what their titles are, and what they’re responsible for.

Another example related to a company’s website could look like this Google Analytics website traffic engagement report . As we explained above, this report shows objective data without getting too much into the details, so in this case, just the most important website engagement metrics such as average session duration, bounce rate, sessions, sessions by channel, and so on. Overall, you can use this report to monitor your website traffic, see which keywords are most successful, or how many returning users you have, but without further, in-depth analysis.

Analytical reports help you understand the data you’ve collected and plan for the future based on these insights. You can’t make business decisions based on facts only, so analytical reports are crucial for the decision-making process.

This type of business report is commonly used for sales forecasting. For instance, if you write a report where you identify a drop or an increase in sales, you’ll want to find out why it happened. This HubSpot’s sales analytics report is a good example of what metrics should be included in such a report, like average revenue per new client or average time to close the deal. You can find more web analytics dashboard examples here.

From these business reports, you can find out if you will reach your goals by implementing your current strategy or if you need to make adjustments.

Research is critical when you’re about to introduce a change to your business. Whether it’s a new strategy or a new partner, you need an extensive report to have an overview of all important details. These reports usually analyze new target markets and competition, and contain a lot of statistical data.

While not the same, here is an example of an ecommerce dashboard that could help track each part of a campaign in detail, no matter whether you are launching a new product, testing a new strategy, and similar. Similar to a research report, it contains key data on your audience (target market), shows your top-selling products, conversion rate and more. If you are an online store owner who is using paid ads, you can rely on this report to monitor key online sales stats in line with Facebook Ads and Google Analytics. See more ecommerce dashboards here.

As you might guess from its name, you write the explanatory report when it’s necessary for you to explain a specific situation or a project you’ve done to your team members. It’s important to write this report in a way that everyone will be able to understand.

Explanatory reports include elements like research results, reasons and goals of the research, facts, methodology, and more. While not exactly an explanatory report, this example of a HubSpot marketing drilldown report is the closest thing to it, as it helps marketers drill into an individual landing page performance, and identify how good their best landing pages are at converting, or which ones have the best performance.

A progress report is actually an update for your manager or client – it informs them about where you stand at the moment and how things are going. It’s like a checkpoint on your way towards your goal.

These reports may be the least demanding to write since you don’t need to do comprehensive research before submitting them. You just need to sum up your progress up to the point when the report was requested. This business report may include your current results, the strategy you’re implementing, the obstacles you’ve come across, etc. If this is a marketing progress report you can use marketing report templates to provide a more comprehensive overview.

In many companies, progress reports are done on a weekly or even daily basis. Here is an example of a daily sales report from Databox. HubSpot users can rely on this sales rep drilldown business report to see how individual each sales rep is performing and measure performance against goals. Browse through all our KPI dashboards here.

What does a great business report look like? If you’re not sure what sections your report should have, you’ll learn what to include in the following lines.

Business Report Formatting

Different types of reports require different lengths and structures, so your business report format may depend on what elements your report needs to have. For example, progress reports are typically pretty simple, while analytical or explanatory reports are a different story.

However, most reports will start with a title and a table of contents, so the person reading the report knows what to expect. Then, add a summary and move on to the introduction. After you’ve written the body and the conclusion, don’t forget to include suggestions based on your findings that will help your team create an actionable plan as you move forward.

After that, list the references you used while creating the report, and attach any additional documents or images that can help the person reading the report understand it better.

This outline may vary depending on what kind of report you’re writing. Short business reports may not need a table of contents, and informative reports won’t contain any analyses. Also, less formal reports don’t need to follow a strict structure in every situation.

Business Report Contents

When it comes to the contents of your report, keep in mind the person who’s going to read it and try to balance between including all the relevant information, but not overwhelming the reader with too many details.

• The introduction to the report should state the reason why you’re writing it, and what its main goal is. Also, mention what methodology and reporting software you’ve used, if applicable.
• The body of the report is where you’ll expose all your key findings, explain your methodology, share the important data and statistics, and present your results and conclusion.
• The conclusion , similarly to the summary you’ll add at the beginning of the report, briefly singles out the most important points and findings of the report.

If you decide to include more sections like recommendations, this is where you’ll suggest the next steps your team or the company may want to take to improve the results or take advantage of them if they’re favorable.

PRO TIP: Are You Tracking the Right Metrics for Your SaaS Company?

As a SaaS business leader, there’s no shortage of metrics you could be monitoring, but the real question is, which metrics should you be paying most attention to? To monitor the health of your SaaS business, you want to identify any obstacles to growth and determine which elements of your growth strategy require improvements. To do that, you can track the following key metrics in a convenient dashboard with data from Profitwell:

• Recurring Revenue. See the portion of your company’s revenue that is expected to grow month-over-month.
• MRR overview. View the different contributions to and losses from MRR from different kinds of customer engagements.
• Customer overview . View the total number of clients your company has at any given point in time and the gains and losses from different customer transactions.
• Growth Overview . Summarize all of the different kinds of customer transactions and their impact on revenue growth.
• Churn overview. Measure the number and percentage of customers or subscribers you lost during a given time period.

If you want to track these in ProfitWell, you can do it easily by building a plug-and-play dashboard that takes your customer data from ProfitWell and automatically visualizes the right metrics to allow you to monitor your SaaS revenue performance at a glance.

You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.

To set up the dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Get the template 

Step 2: Connect your Profitwell account with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

Note : Other than text, make sure you include images, graphs, charts, and tables. These elements will make your report more readable and illustrate your points.

Whether you’re writing a specific type of business report for the first time or you simply want to improve the quality of your reports, make sure you follow this comprehensive guide to writing an effective business report.

• Do Your Research
• Create an Outline
• Determine Formatting Guidelines
• Think of an Engaging Title
• Write the Introduction
• Divide the Body of the Report into Sections
• Choose Illustrations
• Conclude Effectively
• Gather Additional Documentation
• Add a Summary
• Proofread Your Work

Step 1: Do Your Research

A well-planned report is a job half done. That means you need to do research before you start writing: you need to know who you’re writing for and how much they know about the topic of your report. You need to explore the best business dashboard software and templates you can use for your report.

Also, if you believe you will need additional resources and documents to add in the appendix, you should do it during this phase of report writing.

Step 2: Create an Outline

Once you’ve gathered the resources, it’s time to plan the report. Before you start writing, create an outline that will help you stick to the right structure. A business report is complex writing in which you can get lost very easily if you don’t have a clear plan.

Moreover, the report shouldn’t be complicated to read, so sticking to a plan will allow you to keep it concise and clear, without straying from the topic.

Step 3: Determine Formatting Guidelines

Most companies have their in-house formatting that every official document has to follow. If you’re not sure if such rules exist in your company, it’s time you checked with your managers.

If there arent’ any guidelines regarding formatting, make sure you set your own rules to make the report look professional. Choose a simple and readable format and make sure it supports all the symbols you may need to use in the report. Set up proper headings, spacing, and all the other elements you may need in Word or Google Docs.

Pro tip: Google Docs may be easier to share with people who are supposed to read your business report.

Step 4: Think of an Engaging Title

Even if you’re writing a formal business report, the title should be clear and engaging. Reports are typically considered dull as they’re a part of official business documentation, but there’s no reason why you can’t make them interesting to read. Your title should suit the report topic and be in different font size so the reader can recognize it’s a title. Underneath the title, you should add the name of the author of the report.

Step 5: Write the Introduction

A good introductory paragraph for a business report should explain to the reader why you’ve written the report. Use the introduction to provide a bit of background on the report’s topic and mention the past results if there’s been a significant improvement since your last report.

Step 6: Divide the Body of the Report into Sections

As this will be the most comprehensive part of your report, make sure you separate the data into logical sections. Your report is supposed to tell a story about your business, and these sections (such as methodology, hypothesis, survey, findings, and more) will help the data look well-organized and easy to read.

Step 7: Choose Illustrations

Of course, each of these sections should be followed with charts, graphs, tables, or other illustrations that help you make a point. Survey results are typically best displayed in pie charts and graphs, and these enable the reader to visualize the data better. From the formatting point of view, breaking the long text sections with illustrations makes the report more readable.

Pro tip: Using centralized dashboard solutions like Databox can bring your reporting game to the next level. Sign up for a forever-free trial now to see how you can use Databox to track and visualize performance easier than ever before .

Step 8: Conclude Effectively

Finish your report with a to-the-point conclusion that will highlight all the main data from the report. Make sure it’s not too long, as it’s supposed to be a summary of the body of the report. In case you don’t want to add a specific section for recommendations, this is where you can include them, along with your assessments.

Step 9: Gather Additional Documentation

If you’ve determined what additional documents, images, surveys, or other attachments you may need for your report, now is the time to collect them. Request access to those you may not be able to get on time, so you have everything you need by the deadline. Copy the documents you can use in the original form, and scan the documents you need in electronic format.

Step 10: Add a Summary

The summary is usually at the top of the report, but it’s actually something you should write after your report is completed. Only then will you know exactly what your most relevant information and findings are, so you can include them in this brief paragraph that summarizes your report’s main points.

The summary should tell the reader about the objective of the report, the methodology used, and even mention some of the key findings and conclusions.

Step 11: Proofread Your Work

It may seem like common sense, but this final step of the process is often overlooked. Proofreading your work is how you make sure your report will look professional because errors can ruin the overall impression the reader will form about your work, no matter how great the report is.

Look for any spelling or grammatical mistakes you can fix, and if you’re not sure about specific expressions or terminology, use Google to double-check it. Make sure your writing is to-the-point and clear, especially if you’re writing for people who may not know the industry so well. Also, double-check the facts and numbers you’ve included in the report before you send it out or start your reporting meeting.

Business Report Examples (with Ready-to-Use Templates)

Here, we’re sharing a few business reporting examples that you can copy, along with ready-to-use and free-to-download templates. If you don’t know where to start and what to include in different types of business reports, these business report examples are a great way to get started or at least get some inspiration to create yours.

Activity Report Example

Annual report example, project status report example, financial report example, sales report example, marketing report example.

Note : Each of the business report templates shared below can be customized to fit your individual needs with our DIY Dashboard Designer . No coding or design skills are necessary.

For reporting on sales activity, HubSpot users can rely this streamlined sales activity report that includes key sales metrics, such as calls, meetings, or emails logged by owner. This way, you can easily track the number of calls, meetings, and emails for each sales rep and identify potential leaks in your sales funnel. Check all our sales team activity dashboards here. Or if you are looking for dashboards that track general sales performance, browse through all Databox sales dashboards here.

If you’re preparing for annual reporting, you will benefit from choosing this HubSpot annual performance report . It contains all the relevant metrics, such as email and landing page performance, new contacts, top blog posts by page views, and more. See all our performance dashboard templates here.

Project status reports can be very similar to progress reports. If you’re in need of one of those, here’s an example of a Project overview dashboard from Harvest that shows that can help you create simple, but well-organized report based on metrics that matter: hours tracked, billable hours, billable amount split by team members., and more. Check out more project management dashboard templates we offer here.

Are you creating a financial report? You will find this QuickBooks + HubSpot integration a great choice for a financial performance dashboard that makes creating a report simple. This dashboard focuses on the essential financial report

ting metrics and answers all your revenue-related questions. See all Databox financial dashboards here.

If you’re tracking your sales team’s monthly performance, this sales report template will help you prepare an outstanding report. Check out all the vital productivity KPIs, track your progress towards your goals, and understand well how your current sales pipeline is performing. See all sales performance dashboards we have available here.

Marketing reports can be easily prepared by using this monthly marketing report template . With HubSpot’s reporting, you can determine where your website traffic is coming from, how your landing pages and specific blog posts are performing, and how successful your email campaigns are. Browse all Databox marketing dashboards or marketing report examples here.

Create a Professional Business Report in No Time with Databox

Does creating a business report still sound like a daunting task? It doesn’t have to be with Databox.

In times when we’re all trying to save our time and energy for things that matter rather than scattering valuable resources on tedious, repetitive tasks, it’s critical to optimize your business process. And we want to help you do just that.

Using a business reporting dashboard enables you to track data from all the different tools you’re using – but in one place. With Databox, you can monitor and report on performance in a single dashboard that is optimized for all your favorite devices and you can create streamlined and beautiful dashboards even if you are not that tech-savvy. (no coding or design skills are required).

Automating business reporting has never been easier. And with Databox, you can do exactly that in just a few clicks. Sign up now and get your first 3 business dashboards for free.

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How to Write a Project Report In 5 Easy Steps (Template Included)

Written by samantha ferguson.

Last updated on 9th May 2024

The reasons why projects fail are plentiful but it typically comes back to poor planning or a lack of organisation. 

A solid project report can eliminate these issues and ensure you stay on track to complete your goals.

So, let’s take a look at how to write a project report in 5 easy steps…

What is a project report?

A project report is a document that contains helpful information so that teams can ensure their project stays on track, runs successfully, and completes on time. 

There are different types of project reports that are used at different periods throughout a project’s lifespan, but they all contain similar data that covers things like progress, tasks, roadblocks, stakeholders, and financial information. 

Why is a project report important?

Project reports are important for many reasons. A project report gives your project a sense of direction that can help you maintain consistency throughout the project, even as it passes between different people and teams. Your project report will also be a great document to refer back to if things get difficult, so you can stay on track. 

Even in the first instance, before your project kicks off, a project report can help you to manage your budget, workload, and any foreseen risks. It can also give stakeholders insight into the specifics of the project to help manage expectations from the start. 

Types of project report

There are many different types of project reports that will help you manage different aspects of your project. For example, a resource report will help you to understand the resources you’ll need for the project, how much resource you have at your disposal, and will also help you to predict when your resources will need to be replenished. Other examples include:

Now, let’s dive into 3 of the biggest, most important types of project reports.

1. General project report

This is your first project report. It should cover predictions and plans for how you expect the project to go, and give you a clear sense of direction when it comes to things like budget , timelines, and everything else you need to keep track of in order for your project to be considered a success. 

2. Progress report

A progress report – as you may have guessed – comes in the middle and helps you document your progress. It’s important to keep reassessing your project to see if you are where you expect to be and to help you make adjustments along the way. 

3. Project completion report

As you wrap up your project, a project completion report can be a great way to reflect on what went well and what went wrong. This can not only help you wrap up the current project neatly, it can also inform future projects and ensure you don’t make the same mistakes twice.

How to write a project report in only 5 steps

There are many different types of project reports. So, of course, the writing of each one will differ slightly depending on who they are aimed at and what the content of the project report is. 

However, there are still some core steps to follow for each. Let’s take a look at how to write a project report in 5 steps. 

1. Start with the basics

At the very top of your project report should be a simple table that includes all of the core information for the project. Here’s an example: 

The table for your project will probably vary slightly to this, but hopefully this gives you an idea of the most important top-level information to include. 

Underneath this table you should have a short summary of the project. This can be just a couple of sentences that sum up the objectives and goals. Think of this kind of like an elevator pitch for the project. 

2. Cover your objectives

Now it’s time to go into more detail. List out each objective for the project, including what you need to do to achieve each one. 

For example, let’s pretend our project is to create a brand video. There are many objectives, such as: 

Each objective will need to be completed in order to go on to the next. And each objective requires different resources and skill sets. All of this should be recorded, in detail, in your project report. 

3. List your obstacles

Next, list any predicted obstacles or risks. This may feel like a waste of time because of course you’re going to be avoiding risks and obstacles as often as you can. However, it’s important to be aware of the potential roadblocks that might appear so that you are prepared to handle them without slowing down. 

Some example obstacles for the brand video project could be: 

Next to each obstacle, jot down a quick plan for how you would solve this issue if it happened. For example, for “weather ruins a shoot” your potential solution could be to “choose a backup location”.

4. Create a project timeline

With any project, it’s important to know how long everything’s going to take. This is the best way to estimate how much time, money, and resource is required. 

A project timeline will help plot a path forward. To create a project timeline all you need to do is break down each objective into tasks and add a deadline for each task. It also helps to add an owner to each task, so you know who the point of contact is for each section of the timeline. 

This can be tricky to manage but becomes so much easier with a project management tool, like Project.co . When you create a project on Project.co, all of your clients and team members can see everything that goes on with the project in one centralised place. This includes tasks that can be allocated to team members, assigned a date, and a status – so everyone involved in the project can see how it’s progressing: 

You can also add comments, attachments, priority tags, and more. 

Plus, it’s easy to keep track of several tasks at once by using the calendar view: 

Other views available are kanban, list, and scheduler. 

5. Cover project communication

Somewhere on your project report you should include a link to your communication guidelines . This will help everyone involved on the project to understand what’s expected of them when it comes to communication, for example what tools to use and how to communicate. 

This can help your project run more smoothly and create a better result for everyone. According to our Communication Statistics 2022 , 94% of people feel that the businesses they deal with could improve when it comes to communication and project management . 

Writing a project report: 7 top tips 

1. be clear.

The perfect project report is clear and concise. Try your best to leave no room for errors or misunderstandings, and write in short definitive sentences. 

Being clear is especially important when it comes to timelines and targets. It can be helpful to plot out your tasks in a visual way, like a kanban view . This will make your project timeline easy to scan and understand.  

2. Be thorough

While it’s important to be clear and concise, it’s equally important to be thorough. Try to include as much relevant information in your project reports as possible.

One of the main functions of project reports, particularly project status reports, is to inform stakeholders on the progress of the project. So the more thorough you can be, the better. 

3. Be appropriate

A project report is an internal document that’s likely going to be shared between many different departments or teams in your business, so it’s important to make sure your language is appropriate. 

Keep the culture of the business in mind when writing your report. Use the same kind of tone and language that you would in other internal communication documents. This is especially important when you consider more than a third (35%) of businesses have lost an employee because of poor internal communication . 

4. Be honest

Your project report is not the place to sugarcoat anything. You should be honest, and brutally so. This means giving accurate and realistic figures, deliverables and deadlines. 

A project report should be a factual account so that everyone has a clear understanding of the data and knows exactly what to expect from the project. 

5. Be quick

It may seem contradictory to tell you to be thorough and quick with your project reports, but this just means don’t overload people with unnecessary information. Be succinct and to-the-point with every aspect of the report, from points of contact to resources and any potential roadblocks. 

The idea is for your project reports to be as easy to digest as possible, especially if you’re supplying busy stakeholders with a steady stream of ongoing status reports. 

6. Be prepared

No project runs perfectly, so it can be helpful to be prepared for bumps in the road. You might want to leave an ‘other’ or ‘notes’ section at the bottom of your report where you can jot down anything that’s changed along the way. 

It can also help to leave room for slight adjustments in your timeline. Just a couple of buffer days here and there can really reduce stress for your teams, and also help ensure your deadlines are more realistic. 

7. Be proud

When you’re carefully documenting things like risks and problems, your project report can become pretty gloomy. So it’s important to even it out by also celebrating your team’s achievements. 

Every project has ups and downs, and by giving as much attention to the ‘ups’ as you do the ‘downs’ you can boost team morale and this can be reflected back on your project. 

Free project report template

As promised, here is your free project report template ! 

Final thoughts

A solid project report can act almost like a map that clearly directs you towards your end goal, helping you to avoid risks along the way and take the best route to success.

In addition to a project report, a project management platform can also help you to maintain your focus and manage your project with ease, thanks to centralised communication and complete visibility of all your work. Click here to get started for free .

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How to Write a Project Management Report (+ Templates)

Written by: Unenabasi Ekeruke

Managing a project is tough work. With lots of tasks to oversee, it can be daunting for you to keep up and provide updates on project status.

That's where project management reports come in handy. They provide clear direction, help you make the right decisions and increase your chances of success.

Not sure how to create a project management report? You've come to the right place.

This article will show you everything you need to know about writing a project management report and templates to help you create one right away.

Let's get to it.

Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit project management report templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

Table of Contents

What is a project management report, why is project reporting important, project management report use cases, what to include in a project management report, how to create a project management report in 6 steps, 10 project management templates to use now, project reporting tips & best practices, your turn: create stunning project management reports with visme.

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A project management report is a document that provides information on the project's progress, performance and overall status. It serves as a key instrument for projects of all types and is used by key stakeholders, including:

• Project sponsors
• Top-level executives
• Project managers
• Team members

The report visualizes your project's realities, peculiarities and performance during the project life cycle . Depending on the project size and complexity, you submit it weekly, monthly or quarterly.

Your report could be a one-page document with links and appendices. You can also decide to make your report more detailed. It's entirely up to how much your stakeholders want to see.

Manage your projects in style

• Create professional branded documents , from project timelines to budgets
• Visualize important project metrics with engaging charts and infographics
• Allow your team to comment , collaborate and move from draft to final format in no time

Sign up. It’s free.

Project reports increase visibility and give you a complete insight into how your project is performing. But that's the tip of the iceberg regarding the benefits of creating one.

Let's take a look at the benefits of creating project management reports.

•  Project management reports enables managers and stakeholders to create realistic schedules, track progress and measure it against the original project plan .
• It helps you pinpoint potential risks and bottlenecks during a project and address them. You can decide to stop what is not working, continue doing what is working or review the entire process.
• Reporting puts you in charge of your project. You can easily keep an eye on team members' performance, quality of work and the progression, stagnation, or regression of certain aspects.
• Project reports provide a source of learning and clearer insights for current and future decision-making.
• The report makes it easier for you to develop accurate budgets, monitor your expenditure, control cost and manage your budget.

Project management involves many different layers and activities. As a result, there are many use cases for project management reports.

• Project status reports provide complete and timely updates about individual tasks, progress and the project's overall health.
• Project baseline reports compare the current project timeline with your original timeline, allowing you to learn from experience as you plan future projects.
• Time management reports contain every detail about the time your resources spent on the project. You can assess the budget each task consumes and the time used to schedule and make adjustments.
• Risk assessment reports categorize and prioritize predicted and current project risks. You can easily mitigate risk before it sabotages your project's success.
• Financial reports compare initial estimates of expenses, budgets, or projected profits to the actual numbers required. Each of these reports makes up the overall project management reports. And together, they help you plan, monitor and execute your project successfully.

There's no one-size-fits-all structure and content for project management reports. The report content may vary depending on your company, project type and project management requirements.

However, no matter the business, industry, project type, your report should contain these key elements listed below.

1. General Project Details

This section should include special identifiers like:

• Project name, reference number and date
• Name of the project manager
• Project sponsor, client's name and other key stakeholders
• Project start and expected end dates

2. Executive Summary

This section should summarize the project's purpose, scope, activities, timelines and milestones, anticipated obstacles and more.

3. Project Scope and Deliverables

Create a detailed list of project activities and tasks (pending, completed and upcoming). Also, visualize task dependencies to enable readers to track the relationship between different tasks.

4. Project Timelines and Milestones

Record timelines for each activity and the project start and end dates. If you're in the middle of a project, include data about the milestones completed and what's left.

5. Project Resources

The reader should understand who's responsible for certain deliverables and which aspects are being outsourced. Describe the tools, staffing and other resources used to achieve the project goals.

Mention which people or departments are in charge of various aspects of the project and the equipment, systems and programs they use.

6. Risk and Bottlenecks

Your project may run into anticipated risks or unexpected setbacks. These challenges may include scope creep, delays, technical failure, equipment breakdown, or insufficient funding.

Describe how you plan to mitigate these risks or remedy these challenges.

7. Project Change Management

Discuss whether or not a client, internal team or department has requested a change to the processes or deliverables. Provide updates on pending and approved project change requests.

8. Quality Assurance

Discuss the actions taken to ensure the project results are error-free or meet the expected requirements and standards.

9. Financial Information

Provide details about the projected or allotted budget and how funds are spent. Explain whether the projected budget covers the project resources. Also, mention whether or not the project will be completed within the allocated budget.

10. Overall Project Health and Well-being

Give a brief overview of the project's overall health. You can either write it or use visual aids like stoplight charts.

The goal of project reporting is to compile and present relevant information in a clear and concise format. You want stakeholders to glean valuable insights and use them to achieve success.

Here's how to create effective project management reports.

Step 1: Identify Your Project Report Objective

This step is paramount for every successful project management report. Consider the purpose of your project report.

Are you creating new tasks or dependencies? Have you identified new risks or do you want to explain project delays? Are you creating project change requests or updating the project scope? Or are you looking to convince sponsors to pump additional funds into the project?

Why is it critical to clearly state your objective? The answer is simple. It provides clear direction for the rest of the report, making it easy for readers to understand.

Step 2: Pinpoint Your Audience and Understand Their Expectations

The next step is to identify who will be reading the report and what they want to learn from it. Identifying your audience from the outset will give direction for your content.

Some details may be irrelevant to some audiences. Others might require more specific information. For example, top executives and investors may not have time to dive into the finer details. For this type of audience, visual aids like the one below are your best bet.

On the flip side, team members may be unable to get much out of a report showing only charts, numbers and notes.

Meet with your client or supervisor to understand what they expect from the report. They may have a specific report writing format , length, details and areas of interest they want you to include. Try to gather as much information as possible to make your report useful.

Some audiences may be unfamiliar with your profession's language, terms and jargon. Avoid using industry jargon that’s hard to explain. Instead, write in a tone that clearly explains your project information. Tailor your content, tone, language, structure, communication style and graphics to your reader.

Step 3: Gather Valuable Data for your Report

Solidify your reports with accurate data and facts from stakeholders and departments involved in the project.

Looking for financial data? Your accounting software is a great place to start. Or you can get information about resource utilization from your project management tool.

If you're looking to capture the true situation of things, don't just rely on qualitative data alone. Double down on qualitative data like ideas, behaviors and opinions as well. They provide more context and explain the stories behind the quantitative data.

For example, let's say quantitative data shows project delays and missed deadlines. You can gather qualitative data to uncover the root cause and how to mitigate it.

Step 4: Write Your Report

We have already shared what needs to be in your project management report. Now It's time to write it. Use pre-made templates with an organized structure like the one below to make it visually appealing.

Why does it matter? Well, no one wants to read reports in a jumbled and disorganized format. So you want to organize data and facts to make them easily digestible.

Start with a stunning cover page followed by a table of contents . Then move on to the executive summary and the body, which includes the key details. Finally, you can round off your report with a summary.

To make your report actionable, summarize it with key takeaways, action points and expectations.

Not sure how to get started? Visme has you covered. Our report maker is intuitive and easy to use, making report writing a breeze. You can start from scratch or use professionally-designed templates to create reports like:

• Project management reports
• Status update reports
• Marketing reports
• Dashboards and much more

In the latter part of this article, we'll discuss how to make the most of Visme templates.

Step 5. Edit and Review Your Reports

Proofread and revise your content to make it worth the read. Don't be tempted to leave out this step no matter what happens.

Look out for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors, inconsistent data, cluttered designs and other flaws. Eliminate irrelevant details, replace missing data and revise the report until it is error-free. Otherwise, your report will look sloppy and unprofessional.

Check with your team to ensure you aren't missing out on extra updates or last-minute changes. They also offer an extra pair of eyes to spot errors and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

With Visme, you can collaborate and revise your project with team members. Simply share your report with a link and password. You can set permissions to allow your team members to view, comment and edit the report. When anyone edits the file, you can track changes and anyone with the link will see the changes too.

Step 6: Share Your Report With Relevant Stakeholders

Once you've incorporated contributions from team members, you can share the report with your readers.

From your Visme dashboard, you can invite people via email to view, comment or edit the report. Or copy and share the report link with your audience. You can also download the report in PDF format and share it via email or the cloud.

Remember to ask your readers to confirm they've received the report and can view it.

Crafting a project management report worth reading can be challenging. But there's no doubt that Visme's report maker can make the process a breeze.

The software has an easy-to-use design editor, a rich library of templates , icons, stock images, videos and much more. Feel free to tailor these templates to your unique needs. You can replace the content, add or remove pages, upload logos and images, change fonts, colors and other elements.

Here are ten stunning Visme templates to help you get started.

1. Complete Project Report

Get stakeholder eyes on your project management reports with this attractive template. The cover and adjoining pages have an exquisite design and other elements that create a solid impression.

This template covers everything you need to effectively report your project's progress. It features an executive summary and summary of compelling figures, timelines, comparison of targets and outcomes, budget and expenditures.

Notice how this report uses charts, graphs, icons and images to visualize key project data. You can find and use all of these elements and more in Visme.

2. Landing Page Project Status Report

If you're struggling to communicate your project status, this template is a life-saver. This vibrant template has an elegant design and elements that attract the reader's attention.

You can easily capture project goals and status, inter-department KPIs, contributor APIs, upcoming tasks and more. Go ahead and add or edit the content, upload your logo and images to make this template your own.

3. Budget Report Template

With this template, you can keep budgets and expenditures in check. The template uses data visualization features ( charts, graphs and widgets) to reflect financial data.

In Visme, you'll find different visual aids and interactive elements to bring your information to life. At a glance, your stakeholders can also understand how much various items and projects cost and how profitable they may be in the future. You can customize this report for any unique business and project needs.

4. Simple Annual Report

Are you looking to show investors how your business has performed in the past year? This annual report template is the best tool to help you get cracking.

The template is characterized by a minimalistic design and a cool color scheme. You'll find beautiful images, charts, icons and other design elements that make it stand out.

Once you're done customizing your report, you can easily share it online via a link. You can also embed it on your website or blog or download it for offline use in various formats, like PDF and HTML5.

5. Simple Monthly Report

This template is perfect for updating stakeholders about project progress, business processes and activities. Notice how the design utilizes whitespace, classy typography and cool colors to produce an alluring design.

The table of content design shifts from the conventional list format. And the rest of the pages contain images, tables, charts and icons that increase visual impact. Feel free to add or subtract pages and replace the content with yours.

6. Annual Marketing Report Template

You've invested time, effort and resources into different marketing projects during the year. How do you convince the board that you're smashing your goals?

You need a template like this to show what you've been up to. It captures key aspects of your marketing project, like:

• Marketing activities and initiatives
• Strategic plans and future goals
• Financial highlights and more

The template has a captivating theme with customized content blocks, borders, icons, images and vector icons. You can get all of these design assets and more in Visme.

7. Corporate Project Status Reports

Not sure how to present timely updates about your project's overall progress? This professionally-designed status report template is the perfect tool to jumpstart your creativity.

It details each step of the project's execution and the most critical task in progress. The project's budget, milestones, upcoming tasks, potential risks and roadblocks and overall project health are also included.

This template uses a pie chart to capture team performance (KPIs), while the progress bar visualizes the project's health. No matter your business size, scope or niche, you can tweak this template to fit your business or project needs.

8. Creative Monthly Report

Use this template to clearly depict how various aspects of your business or project are performing. It gives you a closer look at what's working and what's not.

You can customize it to include the key elements that make up a project management report, including:

• The project overview
• Project scope
• Status or Project milestones and timelines

Jazz up your reports and draw attention to key data points using pie charts, bar graphs, timelines and interactive maps.

9. Weekly Project Status Report Template

This project management report template is suitable for businesses that want to gauge their progress against specific goals.

It has sections listing pending and completed tasks and how they impact the overall plan. Search through our vast library of vibrant, isometric, flat and outline images to find the best fit for your report.

10. Creative Annual Report

Our last pick is a visual-rich report template that focuses on the bigger picture. Gauge your company or project's health with this annual report template.

We recommend using this template for top management and stakeholders who may be unable to dive into finer details. To grab their attention, spice up your report with data and visual aids that communicate these things:

• What's been done
• What needs to be done
• Who's responsible for different tasks
• When each task will be completed
• The financial implications and so on

To get started, input your project data and change the fonts, color and logo to reflect your brand.

Ready to create project management reports that boost stakeholders' confidence in your project? Here are some tips and best practices you should have up your sleeve.

Make Your Report Brief and Data Rich

When writing a project management report, be concise. Make sure every word counts. Don't dwell on details your readers don't need to know. Otherwise, you'll lose your reader's attention.

Readers want to look through the report and grasp the action points and next steps as quickly as possible. Keep sentences short and to the point. Rather than long paragraphs, use bullet points to present information.

For example, you can list tasks or deliverables rather than describe them in detail.

Be Specific and Provide Context

Write your report in a way that makes the reader understand the true situation of things. Stakeholders need to know how significant the problem truly is.

For example, don't just say the deliverable is behind schedule or there's an urgent risk to be addressed. Instead, start by establishing the root causes of the delay. Is it due to scope creep, equipment failure, labor or financial shortages or acts of God?

Discuss how the situation will impact the entire project. Will you require additional resources, a supplementary budget or an adjustment in timelines? Do you need approval for a change request?

Be upfront about the solution or steps being taken to address it? If you need clients or other stakeholders to take action, clearly state who is responsible. Highlight what they are responsible for and when to do it.

Make It Visual

Top executives and project sponsors receive different types of reports daily. Hence the need to incorporate visuals like charts, graphs, maps, tables, diagrams, pictures, animations and video.

Visual aids break up text and make even lengthy reports easy to digest. But there's a caveat!

Don't just slam your audience with dull and pixelated visuals that don't add value to your report. Rather, make it eye-catching and visually pleasing to capture readers' attention.

Tables are perfect for communicating numbers like budget, timelines, percentage completed and more. Kanban boards give a general overview of the projects and help spot potential bottlenecks.

Use stoplight color-coded charts to indicate project health. Green shows the activities are on schedule and yellow indicates the project has risks or bottlenecks. Red shows the project has veered off track.

You can use infographics, flowcharts and process diagrams to depict the flow of work or document processes .

Graphs, bar charts and pie charts work magic for visualizing data like budgets, expenditures and income.

Animations, photos, videos, screenshots, samples, models and prototypes are suitable for showing your project in progress. For example, suppose you're building a website or app. In that case, you can share a demo video of the project at different phases.

You're probably wondering how to get your hands on all the visual aids mentioned above. Keep calm; Visme has got you. We have a rich library of 10,000+ images, videos, charts, vector icons and any other visual aid you can think of. You can pick and customize your visuals within minutes without professional help.

Keep Your Report on Brand

You need to do more than just add visuals to make your report shine. We recommend customizing your report to showcase your brand identity. The goal is to leave a solid impression on your audience.

With Visme, keeping your report on brand is a piece of cake, even if you're new to report design . After picking a template, you can add fonts and colors to different elements of your report. Feel free to add icons, illustrations and animations to make your report interactive.

Visme's Brand Design Tool helps you maintain design consistency. With a few clicks, you can customize and save your design elements and apply them to future projects.

Want to learn more about choosing the right color theme for your document? Read our article on color psychology in marketing or watch the video below.

Be Open To Constructive Feedback and Communication

After submitting your message project management report, your job isn't done just yet. Don't be in a hurry to close the communication channel with stakeholders. Go ahead and invite further questions and feedback on your reports.

We get it. This might be daunting considering the time spent on putting together your report. But try to be receptive to critique and suggestions.

The good part is that it ensures everyone is on the same page regarding the project collaboration. Also, acting on the feedback and suggestions can help steer the project in the right direction.

Project management reports provide a high-level overview of what's happening with your project. And having one that ticks all the right boxes plays a pivotal role in the project's success.

With Visme's report maker , you no longer have to outsource your design project. The tool makes it easy for anyone, regardless of skill level, to create documents they can be proud of. Browse our library of project report templates to find the right fit for your project.

Easily create project management report in Visme within minutes

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How to write a project report: [templates + guide] 

Writing a project report is an essential but often overlooked contributor to your project’s health.  However, without the use of automation and templates, it can be a little time-consuming to collect and organize the relevant data that the project generates.

In this post, we’ll explore the basics of project reporting. We’ve included some useful templates and tips to create clear and helpful project reports in less time.

If you want to start creating better project reports using monday.com, sign up today.

What is a project report?

A project report is a document where you share details about different areas of your project. Depending on the report type , your audience, and your intention, the details you showcase might differ.

Project reports can be broken down by time— daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly— or a number of other factors like risk, budget, and project management style. Bottom line? They simplify the process of gathering and disseminating information about key information on the project. For instance, a typical report might include:

• Resources you’ve used so far
• How project time is being spent
• How you’re doing against key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Workload and team availability

What is the purpose of project reporting?

Reporting gives you, your team, and your stakeholders the ability to track project progress against the original plan. The main goal of a project report is to improve decision-making, to help you make sense of your project data, and decide what your next steps should be. This in turn can impact your budget, timeliness, and project success.

It also plays a vital role in your stakeholder engagement strategy, as it keeps everyone informed on the progress of projects they’re interested in. Those are just a few of the reasons why project reporting has become the most common activity among PMOs (Project Management Offices).

( Image Source )

5 steps to create a useful project report

Project reports can be useful – or they can end up as a 20-page PDF that lives in a drawer somewhere. To put together a report that your project stakeholders can use to gain insights, make decisions and optimize processes, take the following systematic approach to writing your project reports:

1. Define the purpose and scope: Clearly establish the goals, objectives, target audience, and information needs of your project report. 2. Gather and organize data: Collect and organize all relevant data, ensuring its accuracy and reliability. 3. Structure and outline: Create a clear and logical structure for your report and outline the key points you want to cover. 4. Present information effectively: Use clear and concise language and visual aids like graphs or charts to present the information in an easily understandable, visually appealing manner. 5. Review and revise: Proofread your report for any errors or inconsistencies, ensure that it addresses the defined purpose and scope, and revise as necessary to improve clarity.

The different types of project management reports [with templates]

You can split project reports into different types and categories. Here are five different types of project mangement reports, with monday.com templates you can customize for your unique project and team set-up.

1. Project status report

Probably the most frequently used, a project status report offers a general overview of the current status of your projects. A project status report answers the question: “How likely is it that we’ll complete this project on time without overrunning costs?”

These reports analyze whether you’re meeting project goals and key performance indicators. With our single project template , creating a status report is easier than ever.

2. Resource workload report

Resource workload reports help you visualize what your team’s working on, when they’re working on it, and how much work is left. These also reports help you understand how your assets are being used and make sure your actions are aligned with the overall objective.

Our resource management template helps you organize all your assets, locations, and people into one place and track every action with accuracy. You can also manage your resource allocation initiatives and make sure you don’t assign the same resource twice in multiple tasks.

3. Portfolio report

Portfolio reports take a look at all your projects and consolidate all the data into a single document. These reports capture high-level milestones, status, progress, and highlights of your portfolio strategy.

With our portfolio management template , you can track unlimited projects on a single board and get a quick snapshot of their health and profitability.

4. Task list/Time-tracking report

Time-tracking reports, also known as timesheets, help you measure how your team is spending their time and spot potential bottlenecks.

With our team task list template , you can bring in your entire organization, assign tasks to peers, track time and measure the project progress at a glance.

5. Expense report

A project might seem healthy – until everyone starts reporting expenses  at the end of the time period. With our expense tracking template , you can proactively manage your cash flow regardless of your accounting skills (or lack thereof!)

Want to try out these templates – and much more? Check out monday.com today.

FAQs about Project Reports

What are the benefits of a project report.

A project report provides a comprehensive overview of a project’s objectives, progress, and outcomes, serving as a valuable documentation and communication tool. It allows stakeholders to assess your project’s effectiveness, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions based on reliable data.

What are the main types of project reports?

The most commonly used types of project reports include:

• Progress reports
• Resource management reports
• Project portfolio reports
• Time-tracking reports
• Evaluation reports
• Final reports

What are the main components of a project report?

This will depend on the project and the type of report you’re using, but project reports might include:

• Project objective
• Project scope
• Project milestones
• Project expenses or budget
• Project schedule and timeline
• Project progress
• Resource management
• Risk assessment
• Stakeholder communication
• Financial summary

How to create insightful project reports with monday.com

monday.com makes it easy to create effective project reports. Try it for yourself and see:

Here’s why monday.com can make your project reporting better:

• Track project data in a centralized location, so you have all the information you need to make useful reports.
• Use monday.com’s customized visualization tools to visualize and summarize project data the way you want to see it.
• Set up dashboards to see all of your projects at a glance.
• Take advantage of monday.com’s reporting functionality . You can choose between built-in report templates or customized reports if you have more specific requirements.
• Share your reports with project stakeholders , team members, or even clients directly from monday.com.
• Our embedded communication tools let you collaborate on your reports in real-time, gather feedback, and address any questions or concerns.

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How to Write a Project Report (with Best Practices Templates for Microsoft 365)

Key Take Aways

What you’ll learn:

• How AI can enhance project reports with predictive analysis and actionable insights
• A 7-step checklist for making sure that your project reports are easily accessible and consumable by stakeholder
• The importance of using project management software for streamlining project reporting, especially in the age of remote working
• Why you should use the Microsoft 365 platform for project reporting and some out of the box examples from BrightWork 365

By: Shubhangi Pandey | Published on: Jun 5, 2024 | Categories: BrightWork 365 , Microsoft 365 , Project Reporting | 0 comments

In an age where remote work is becoming the new every day and data-driven decision-making is more crucial than ever, project reporting has become more than a managerial obligation. It’s an art and a science that combines traditional project tracking with modern metrics and advanced data visualization.

This guide will walk you through seven essential steps to craft a project report that informs and engages your stakeholders. We’ll explore the role of AI in project management, delve into the importance of remote work metrics, and discuss cutting-edge data visualization tools that can make your reports more insightful.

Whether you’re a seasoned project manager or just getting started with project management basics , these steps will help you write a project report that adds value to your organization’s knowledge base for future projects.

Why are Project Management Tools Vital for Report Writing?

The importance of robust project management tools for effective report writing cannot be overstated. Here’s why:

• Centralization : Project management tools are a central hub for all your project data, streamlining project management and reporting processes.
• Efficient Tracking : These tools make it easier to monitor work progress during the monitoring phase of project management , helping you stay on top of tasks and milestones.
• Risk Identification : Advanced features enable you to spot potential risks early, allowing for proactive management.
• Stakeholder Communication : Keep all stakeholders in the loop with real-time updates and comprehensive reports.
• Data Visualization : Utilize features like Power BI to transform raw data into insightful visuals, aiding in better decision-making.
• Custom Reports : Depending on organizational needs, create specialized reports that offer in-depth analysis and recommendations upon project completion.

The Evolution of AI in Project Management Tools for Report Writing

When crafting an impactful project report, your tools can be a game-changer. And let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Artificial Intelligence. AI is no longer just a buzzword – it’s a reality transforming project management and reporting.

According to a systematic literature review published in MDPI , AI’s role in project management is increasingly significant, offering advanced capabilities like predictive analytics and risk assessment.

The Power of Predictive Analytics

These advanced AI tools centralize your project data and offer predictive analytics, risk assessment, and automated insights that can be invaluable for your report. Like Power BI revolutionized data visualization, AI algorithms can sift through massive amounts of data to highlight trends, predict risks, and recommend actions.

Making AI Accessible for Every Project Manager

Imagine reporting on what has happened and providing stakeholders with insights into what could happen. It’s like giving your project report a crystal ball. And don’t worry – embracing AI doesn’t mean you have to be a tech wizard. Many modern project management tools benefit from built-in AI features. 

A thesis from DiVA portal explores the implementation of AI in project management and its impact on working personnel, indicating that AI is becoming more accessible and user-friendly.

The Future of Data-Driven Decision Making

AI’s capabilities equip stakeholders with data-driven insights for strategic decisions. It’s not just about tracking work and identifying risks anymore – it’s about forecasting them and offering actionable solutions. Welcome to the future of project reporting.

Types of Project Reports and Their Formats

Understanding the types of project reports you need to create is crucial. Whether it’s a project summary report, a project health report, or a project completion report, each serves a unique purpose and audience.

Knowing the format, whether a pie chart, bar chart, or complete chart, can also help present the data effectively. Writing a report is a valuable opportunity to evaluate the project, document lessons learned, and add to your organization’s knowledge base for future projects.

Data Visualization: Modern Tools and Techniques

Data visualization has come a long way from simple pie charts and bar graphs. With the advent of AI, we now have tools that can display and interpret data. Think of AI-powered heat maps that can show project bottlenecks or predictive line graphs that forecast project completion based on current trends.

Techniques for Effective Data Presentation

Modern data visualization techniques like interactive dashboards, real-time data streams, and even augmented reality (AR) representations are making it easier than ever to understand complex project metrics. These aren’t just for show; they offer actionable insights that can significantly impact project outcomes.

Making Data Visualization Accessible

The best part? These advanced visualization tools are becoming increasingly user-friendly. You don’t need to be a data scientist to use them. Most project management software now integrates seamlessly with these tools, making it easier than ever to incorporate advanced data visualization into your regular reporting.

The New Normal of Remote Work

In today’s digital age, remote work is becoming the new normal. As project managers, adapting our reporting techniques to this changing landscape is crucial.

Critical Metrics for Remote Teams

When it comes to remote teams, some metrics become even more critical. Think along the lines of ‘Remote Engagement Rate,’ ‘Digital Communication Effectiveness,’ and ‘Virtual Team Collaboration.’ These KPIs offer a more nuanced understanding of how remote teams are performing.

Tools for Tracking Remote Work Metrics

Fortunately, modern project management tools have features specifically designed to track these remote work metrics. From time-tracking software to virtual “water cooler” moments captured for team morale, these tools make remote work measurable in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago.

Project Timeline and Milestones

A well-defined project timeline and key milestones are essential for any project. They not only help in keeping the project on track but also provide a basis for decision-making. 

Project management software can automate this process, ensuring that reports are always up-to-date. Try the steps outlined below for writing better project reports.

Manage Projects with Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Teams

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How to Write a Project Report in 7 Steps

Writing an effective project report is crucial for evaluating the project’s health, keeping stakeholders informed, and setting the stage for future projects. Here are seven steps to guide you through the process.

Step 1. Decide the Objective

Take some time during the project management initiation phase to think about the purpose of the report. Do you need to describe, explain, recommend, or persuade? Having a clear goal from the outset ensures that you stay focused, making engaging your reader easier.

Understanding the objective is the cornerstone of effective project reporting. Whether crafting a project summary report or a detailed project performance report, aligning your content with the aim will make your report more coherent and actionable.

This is also the stage where you decide the key milestones and metrics to highlight in the report.

Step 2. Understand Your Audience

Understanding your audience is crucial for crafting a report that resonates. Whether you’re writing for stakeholders or team members, the language, data, and visuals should be tailored to their preferences and needs.

• Language & Tone : Consider the communication style of your audience. Is a formal or informal tone more appropriate? Tailoring your language can build rapport and make your message more impactful.
• Data & Graphics : Choose the types of data and visual aids that will most effectively convey your message to your specific audience.
• Personal Preferences : Pay attention to how your audience typically communicates, whether in emails or other documents and try to mirror that style.
• Report Format : Different stakeholders may require different levels of detail. A project manager may want an in-depth analysis, while a sponsor only needs an executive summary.
• Audience Personas : Utilize audience personas to guide the tone, style, and content, ensuring your report caters to the diverse needs of all project stakeholders.

Step 3. Report Format and Type

Before you start, check the report format and type. Do you need to submit a written report or deliver a presentation? Do you need to craft a formal, informal, financial, annual, technical, fact-finding, or problem-solving report?

You should also confirm if any project management templates are available within the organization.

Checking these details can save time later on!

Different types of project reports serve other purposes. A project status report provides a snapshot of where the project is, while a project health report dives deeper into metrics. 

Make sure to consider the medium – will this report be a PDF, a slideshow, or an interactive dashboard? The format can significantly impact how the information is received.

Sep 4. Gather the Facts and Data

Including engaging facts and data will solidify your argument. Start with your collaborative project site and work out as needed. Remember to cite sources such as articles, case studies, and interviews.

To build a compelling case in your report, start mining your collaborative project site for crucial metrics like project milestones, resource utilization, and project health. Supplement this with additional data from external sources like articles and case studies. 

Utilize data visualization tools like pie charts or bar graphs to make complex information easily digestible. Ensure the data is current to maintain the report’s credibility and remember to cite your sources for added reliability.

Step 5. Structure the Report

How you arrange your report is pivotal in how well your audience can digest the material. A logically organized report improves readability and amplifies its impact in delivering the core message.

Your report should have a natural progression, leading the reader from one point to the next until a decisive conclusion is reached. Generally, a report is segmented into four key components:

• Opening Overview: This is the first thing your reader will see, and it’s usually crafted after the rest of the report is complete. Make this section compelling, as it often influences whether the reader will delve deeper into the report.
• Introduction: This section sets the stage by offering background information and outlining the report’s cover. Make sure to specify the report’s scope and any methodologies employed.
• Body: Here’s where your writing prowess comes into play. This is the meat of the report, filled with background, analyses, discussions, and actionable recommendations. Utilize data and visual aids to bolster your arguments.
• Final Thoughts: This is where you tie all the report’s elements together in a neat bow. Clearly state the following steps and any actions the reader should consider.

Step 6. Readability

Spend some time making the report accessible and enjoyable to read. If working in Word, the Navigation pane is a great way to help your reader work through the document. Use formatting, visuals, and lists to break up long text sections.

Readability is not just about the text but also about the visual elements like pie charts, bar colors, and even the background color of the report. Use these elements to break the monotony and make the report more engaging. Also, consider adding a table of contents for longer reports to improve navigation.

Step 7. Edit

The first draft of the report is rarely perfect, so you will need to edit and revise the content. If possible, set the document aside for a few days before reviewing it or ask a colleague to review it.

Editing is not just about correcting grammatical errors – it’s also about ensuring that the report aligns with its initial objectives and is tailored to its audience. Use this stage to refine the report’s structure, clarify its key points, and eliminate any unnecessary jargon or technical terms to the reader’s understanding.

Automate and Streamline Project Reporting with Microsoft 365

Project reporting can often be a laborious and time-consuming task. Especially on a project where there are so many moving parts and different people involved, getting a clear picture of what’s going on can be pretty tricky.

That is why we recommend moving to a cloud-based solution for project management and reporting – and you might have guessed it: we recommend Microsoft 365! If you’re considering SharePoint, check out our build vs buy guide.

Why use Microsoft 365 for project reporting?

There are many benefits to using Microsoft 365 as the platform for your project management reporting, including:

• Centralizing your project management and reporting on Microsoft 365 brings your project information into one place, so you can automate reporting and save time. If you’re still using excel for project management , here’s why you should consider switching.
• You can access configurable and filterable reports based on the audience by leveraging the available reporting mechanisms in Power Apps, Power BI, and Excel. Everyone can see the information in the way they need.
• Linked into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, reports can appear in Power Apps, Power BI, exported to Excel, emailed in Outlook, or seen in MS Teams, so reports are available wherever the audience is working.
• Having project data maintained in a single platform means that project reports are always up to date. No more chasing up PMs or team members for the latest document version!

5 Ways you can use BrightWork 365 for Project and Portfolio Reporting

BrightWork 365 is a project and portfolio management solution for Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform. Here are five ways you can leverage BrightWork 365 and Microsoft 365 for more efficient project reporting:

1. Capture Project Status Reports in a few minutes

BrightWork project sites have a “Status” tab where the project manager can capture what is happening. This is not a status report but a place for the PM to log the current status.

It is not a snapshot, as it will change regularly, but the info here will become part of the status report once the PM creates one. once the PM chooses to create one.

The Status Reports tab is where you can capture a snapshot of the project status at a point in time. It will bring in all the info from the “Status” tab, but you have the ability to add comments.

2. Track the project schedule with Gantt

3. Get High-Level Visibility into Programs and Portfolios

BrightWork 365 enables a hierarchy for your project management – with Portfolios being the highest level. For example, a portfolio may house all the projects in a company.

4. Surface Risks and Issues across all projects

One of the most critical elements for senior executives and project stakeholders is being aware of the project risks, especially understanding any issues that arise quickly.

5. Leverage Visual and Interactive Reports

The type and format of a report often depends on the audience. For example, senior executives often want the high-level details of a project. That’s where BrightWork 365 Power BI Dashboards come in.

Spend less time on your project reports with BrightWork 365

Streamline your project reporting process with BrightWork 365, a tool to centralize and automate your project data. Whether you prefer real-time dashboards or scheduled email reports, BrightWork 365 adapts to your needs, eliminating the tedious aspects of project reporting. Consider the following:

• Centralization : BrightWork 365 consolidates all project information into a single platform, making it easier to manage and report.
• Real-Time Reporting : As data is updated, reports are generated in real-time, ensuring you always have the most current information.
• Flexible Access : Reports can be accessed through various methods, including logging in to view customizable dashboards or receiving scheduled email summaries.
• Efficiency : The tool automates the reporting process, freeing time and reducing manual effort.

Conclusion: The Future of Project Reporting

Project reporting has undergone a significant transformation, thanks partly to technological advancements like Microsoft 365 and BrightWork 365 . As we’ve discussed, it’s not just about tracking tasks and milestones anymore. 

Today’s project reports are data-rich, AI-enhanced documents that offer predictive analytics and actionable insights. They also cater to the unique challenges and KPIs relevant to remote teams.

As we look to the future, we can expect even more advancements in project reporting technology. However, the core principles of clear objectives, a deep understanding of your audience, and a well-structured format will remain constant. 

By adhering to the steps outlined in this guide, you’ll be well-equipped to adapt to new tools and technologies, ensuring that your project reports remain valuable for decision-making and strategic planning.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2016 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness

Image credit 

Shubhangi Pandey

BrightWork Content Marketer

Shubhangi is a product marketing enthusiast, who enjoys testing and sharing the BrightWork 365 project portfolio management solution capabilities with Microsoft 365 users. You can see her take on the experience of the template-driven BrightWork 365 solution, its unique project management success approach, and other personalized services across the site and social channels. Beyond BrightWork, Shubhangi loves to hunt for the newest Chai Latte-serving café, where she can read and write for hours.

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Blog Marketing 50+ Essential Business Report Examples with Templates

50+ Essential Business Report Examples with Templates

Written by: Sara McGuire May 29, 2023

Reports may not be the most exciting communication format. But they’re important.

To make smart decisions about budgeting, marketing strategies, product development and growth strategies, you can’t rely on gut feeling alone.

And if you’re trying to sway stakeholders, creating a report with a simple, elegant design and creative data visualizations is guaranteed to impress.

This guide will deliver the most essential business report templates you can edit with Venngage, plus design tips and best practices.

Top business report templates (click to jump ahead):

What is a business report?

• Annual reports
• Project status reports
• Budget reports
• Sales reports
• Marketing reports
• Case studies
• White papers
• How to create a business report in 6 steps
• What are the types of business reports
• Business report template FAQs

A business report is a document that delivers important information about a company’s performance, financial health, a particular project, or other aspects that influence its decision-making process. 

Business reports come in various formats, such as PowerPoint presentations and online dashboards, offering more than just traditional files and spreadsheets.

They are crucial for organizations as they provide vital details that guide decision-making for business owners and managers.

They act as GPS, highlighting essential aspects like customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and financial figures. Business reports serve different audiences and purposes, delivering information in a clear and engaging format for both internal and external stakeholders.

Want a quick rundown of some of the business report templates in this blog? Check out this video tutorial:

1. Annual Report Templates

An annual report is an all-encompassing document that allows you to reflect on your company’s past year, including:

• Your company’s mission statement
• Your company’s growth (financially, product-wise, culture-wise)
• Your statement of income and cash flow
• Your various business segments
• Information about the company’s directors and executive officers
• Information about your company’s stock and dividends
• Wins and success stories

A lot of that sounds pretty dry, doesn’t it?

There’s actually a lot to be excited about in that list. You’re talking about how your company has grown, your wins (and maybe a few losses), and what’s on the horizon for the coming year.

You can bring that story to life in your annual report design  and we have business report samples to inspire you.

This annual business report example uses a variety of charts and unique sections like “program highlights” to tell the agency’s story:

Think about how you can represent your company visually:

• Are there photos you can include of your business in action?
• What fonts and colors reflect your business’s personality?
• Are there icons you can use to illustrate certain concepts?

The below annual report design uses an energizing orange and yellow color scheme and cute icons. The format is highly visual and modern. All this reflects a dynamic company that’s optimistic about the future.

This company annual report template uses a mountain motif to reflect the company’s ambitious goals. Take a look at how the different sections of the report (“Strategy”, “Finance” and “Performance”) are color-coded to make the report easier to scan:

In the business report example below, the sleek, modern design with bold color accents reflects design trends in the games industry, which would appeal to stakeholders.

The same design ideas can be applied to an annual report presentation.

Take this annual report presentation for a coffee shop company. The whole design reflects the coziness of a coffee shop, from the softly filtered photos to the old-fashioned font:

A few annual report best practices:

• Create an eye-catching cover for your report
• Tell your company’s story in your annual report design by using thematic visuals, like background images and icons
• Pick a decorative font for headers and pair it with a more minimalist font for body text
• Look for opportunities to visualize data using infographics , charts and pictograms

Related : Our blog post with 55+ annual report templates , plus design tips and best practices.

2. Project Status Report Templates

Communication is central in any project. Consultants, agencies and freelancers especially want to be as transparent as possible. That is why a project status report template is one of the business report examples we are sharing in the article.

A project status report is crucial for communicating updates on what you’ve accomplished and what’s still pending. It also helps you flag any issues, either current or on the horizon. This helps build trust with the client.

The project status report template below communicates key information in an easy-to-understand format.

The above template lets you alert the client if the project is:

• Suffering from budget or scope creep
• On track in terms of schedule
• Healthy or not i.e. milestones completed on schedule, issues resolved

You can add bullet points on the second page to quickly flag key issues that are impacting project success.

Related : Our post on how to write a project management plan .

Simple Project Status Report Templates

Avoid ad-hoc emails or meetings. Use a simple project status report template to present your latest work and keep everyone on the same page, without endless back and forth.

The project status report below would work well for weekly updates.

This template lets you quickly provide an overview to busy stakeholders, who’ll be able to spot key project issues and progress  at a glance.

Project Status Report Template PPT

Big updates might require consultants to communicate the status of a project in person. The below presentation template uses charts and data visualization to get your key points across immediately.

Clients or other stakeholders can see what’s been accomplished and when, while the last slide leaves room for what’s still pending.

A few project status report best practices:

• Include a summary of all important tasks currently in progress. If you have a weekly meeting with the client, this section will probably serve as the jumping-off point for your conversation.
• Stakeholders should be able to tell at a glance if the project is way off schedule or there are too many unresolved issues.
• Document all outstanding problems and concerns. It’s important to have a record in case you run into issues with the client later on.

Related : Our post with 30+  project plan examples plus design tips.

3. Budget Report Templates

This is Business 101: on a quarterly or yearly basis, you should be analyzing your budget, expenses and revenue.

A budget report typically breaks down:

• The different categories of your budget
• The last year or quarter’s spending for each category of your budget
• Areas where you may need to cut or increase spending
• Forecasts for the coming year or quarter

Business Monthly Expenses Template

A full budget report is a bit too dense to pass around a room during a meeting.

But, a visually engaging presentation or one-page summary, like the business report example below, is perfect for keeping your team and stakeholders up to speed.

You can provide an overview of the last period’s spending by category, and highlight the amount you saved or exceeded the budget by.

For example, take a look at this summary budget report slide that uses a thematic background image to make it more engaging:

A quick summary page is also the perfect opportunity to creatively visualize data.

While tables are certainly efficient for comparing amounts spent, you could also use a more unusual visual like a bubble chart. This is because unique visuals make memorable business report examples.

Forecast Budget Template

A forecast is an essential business report that shows where a business is headed financially. It’s not a plan for the future, but rather its current short-term direction .

Use this forecast template to project your businesses’ revenue, and take appropriate action.

A few budget report best practices:

• Clearly label the period the report covers (monthly, quarterly, yearly)
• Provide a brief description of each section of your report, to highlight important insights
• Use a table to compare amounts of money saved vs. spent
• Use bar charts, pie charts and bubble charts to visualize budget allotment
• Highlight important insights using contrasting colors, bold fonts and icons

4. Sales Report Templates

If you aren’t tracking your sales on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis, it’s time to start.

Creating a sales report for different time periods can help you identify trends, as well as an opportunity for growth. Regularly reporting on your sales can also help your team stay focused on your goals.

What should be included in a sales report?

A sales report typically covers any of the following data:

• An overview of sales goals and whether or not those goals are being met
• Revenue and expenses
• Sales forecasts for the upcoming periods (month, quarter, year)
• Products and services that are selling the most and ones that are lagging
• Number of leads and conversion rates for a given period
• Any challenges or roadblocks

Weekly sales report template

Consider making  sales reporting  a segment of your weekly team meetings. You may want to provide a quick update for company-wide meetings and a more in-depth report for sales and marketing team meetings.

Here’s an example of what a quick weekly sales report could look like:

The slide simply covers the total sales for the week and compares them to previous weeks to highlight growth.

While this sales report presentation digs deeper into KPIs (key performance indicators) and conversions :

Monthly sales report template

For a monthly, quarterly or yearly sales report, you will probably want to go more in-depth into your metrics as you plan for upcoming periods.

That said, you don’t want to produce a 62-page text-heavy document no one will read. Surprise your client or boss with a fresh new way of doing things that are engaging and concise. You’ll differentiate yourself as an innovator.

For example, the following monthly sales report template uses a variety of charts and tables to keep the data fresh:

The below sales report template will help you visualize key sales metrics using pie charts, bar graphs and tables. The weighted text and icons help organize information in an easily digestible way.

Making your sales report easily accessible will help build your reputation as someone who’s transparent and trustworthy.

A few sales report best practices:

• Clearly identify the time period you are reporting on
• Use descriptive section headers and include descriptions for any charts or tables that need more clarification
• Provide context for readers, explain any major trends they should be aware of, any challenges your team encountered, and how the goals have been impacted
• Use line charts and bar graphs to show changes over time and highlight trends
• Emphasize key metrics in big, bold fonts (for example, the total sales for a given week)
• Use contrasting colors to emphasize keywords or one point on a graph

Related :  5 ways to host a more successful sales demo  by using images.

5. Digital Marketing Report Templates

If you’re a SaaS or e-commerce business , I don’t have to tell you how important digital marketing is. It’s the thing that can make or break many small businesses.

In order to scale and grow your business , it’s important to make informed, deliberate digital marketing decisions.

That means always looking for ways to improve your search rankings, grow your social media engagement, and optimize your ad campaigns.

A ‘ digital marketing report ‘ is a pretty broad term for a report that could be an overview of all your digital marketing channels or one particular channel.

A digital marketing report that covers all your main marketing channels  could include any (or all) of the following data:

• An overview of your current digital marketing strategy
• Your main marketing goals and whether or not they are being met
• An overview of your conversion metrics, including the number of leads, paid vs. organic leads, and your cost per conversion
• An overview of your traffic metrics, organized by channel
• An SEO overview , including any chhttps://growthbarseo.com/anges in rankings for target keywords
• An overview of PPC campaigns you’re running, including clickthrough rate, ROI and cost per click
• An overview of your social media channels, including engagement metrics and leads from specific channels

For example, take a look at this digital marketing report template that dedicates one page to each channel. Note how the company’s branding has also been incorporated into the design by using the brand’s colors and visuals that reflect the computer theme:

In a digital marketing report that focuses on one specific marketing channel, you will probably want to go more in-depth into each metric.

For example, in a social media report, you should cover:

• A comparison of your performance on specific social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (you could try visualizing it with a  comparison infographic )
• Specific engagement metrics like impressions, clicks, subscriber count, likes and comments
• An overview of your followers, including demographic information like age, gender and profession
• Conversion metrics from each specific social media channel

The below social media report visualizes some of these key metrics.

As a consultant, you may be gifted in social media marketing but totally flummoxed by all things design. Look better than you are by using the above template. It’ll help you present your findings in a way that’s effective and professional, while still managing to be playful and engaging.

If you’re concerned about organizing information by channel, here’s an example of a social media marketing report presentation that uses colored columns to make it easy to scan for a specific channel’s metrics:

A few digital marketing report best practices:

• Provide an overview of the performance of all your channels, or a particular channel
• Organize your report by channel (“Organic Search”, “Social Media”, “PPC”) or by specific campaigns/projects
• If your report is long enough, include a table of content to make it easier for readers to navigate your report
• Use bar charts and tables to compare your performance on different marketing channels
• Use icons to emphasize key information and visualize different channels (for example, different social media networks)
• Try to communicate your information concisely and focus on only one topic per page or slide

Related : Our post on what is a marketing plan and how to write and design one for maximum effectiveness.

6. Competitor Analysis Templates

Get the attention of marketers with a competitor analysis report. The best reports show exactly what a company must face off (and beat) to be successful.

A competitor analysis report usually has the following sections:

• Product summary
• Competitor strengths and weaknesses
• Competitor strategies and objectives
• Outlook: is the market growing? Flat? Splintering into niche segments?

The following competitor analysis template neatly organizes these categories into compact sections and highlights important stats. Stakeholders can quickly compare them with their own company’s numbers and get an immediate sense of how they measure up.

Using a pre-designed competitor analysis template is also a great idea for consultants who want to set themselves apart from big consulting firms or boutiques. Visualizing data is a way to set yourself apart as numbers-focused, unique and innovative, as in this business report example.

A few competitor analysis report best practices:

• If you’re listing all competitors, add those entering the market in the next year as well as indirect competitors who sell to the same customers as yours.
• Find customer satisfaction surveys for competitors (usually carried out by trade press) and include their findings.
• Talk to the sales department to get a sense of the competitor’s customers.
• Do informal research on the competitor’s strengths and weaknesses. Talk to journalists who cover this specific industry. Don’t just rely on online information.

Related : Our post on how to create a competitor analysis report (with templates).

7. Case Study Templates

One of the business report examples on our list is the business case study. Though not a report exactly, a case study analyzes a particular aspect of a company or a situation it faced. A consultant may need to write one as part of a corporate training program they’re developing.

Case studies usually focus on one of these situations:

• Startup or early-stage venture
• Merger, joint venture, acquisition
• Market entry or expansion
• New project or product
• Pricing optimization
• Profitability
• Industry landscape
• Growth strategy

What makes case studies unique is how they tell a story. They include background information on the company, a protagonist or key players, the situation and outcomes.

The below case study template has plenty of space for this narrative while using icons and numbers to highlight key details.

Make sure to include a conclusion that contains your key findings. Why did the protagonist make the decisions she made? What were the outcomes? What can we learn from this? Circle back to the key question the case study raises and answer it.

Business case study template

Business case studies are usually teaching tools to show how real companies approached a particular scenario or problem. The case study usually reflects a business theory and demonstrates its real-life application.

For example, the following business case study template shows how a crafts retailer uses earned media to drive engagement-heavy traffic.

This is another version of the above case study. Notice the changes in branding in this business report example that sets it apart from the previous template.

Marketing case study template

Case studies are a powerful form of marketing as they show a potential customer how existing customers are already using your product or service to meet their goals.

For example, this social media marketing case study illustrates how Toy Crates used content marketing to radically increase their sales:

A few case study best practices:

• Outline any constraints and challenges the protagonist of the case study faced that affected her decision (such as a tight deadline).
• Attach supporting documentation, such as financial statements.
• Include an original title, such as “Design Thinking and Innovation at Apple.” The title should mention the company and the subject of the case study.

Related : Our post on how to write and design a case study .

8. Growth Strategy Templates

Setting goals for your business might seem easy in theory… but setting ambitious yet realistic goals can actually be quite challenging.

At Venngage, we follow these 5 steps to set our goals:

• Identifying and set high-level goals.
• Understand which inputs and outputs impact those goals.
• Run experiments to impact those inputs.
• Validate those experiments.
• Foster accountability for the results within the team.

For a more in-depth look at this process read our  growth strategy guide .

For example, if you’re a SaaS company, your high-level goals would probably be a specific number for revenue, a number of daily active users or employee count, like in the business report template below:

Once you’ve identified your high-level goals, the next step is to identify your OKRs (Objective Key Results), the metrics that impact your goals. Generally, you will probably want to break down your OKRs by channel.

So, if one of your goals is to hit a certain number of daily active users, your OKRs could be organized by:

• Acquisition OKRs, like organic traffic and paid traffic
• Conversion OKRs, like conversion rate
• Retention OKRs, like retention rate

Once you’ve identified your OKRs, you can come up with experiments to run that will impact those OKRs.

At Venngage, we use a weekly sprint to plan, execute and analyze our growth experiments. But I know other companies that use longer sprints, like two-week or month-long sprints.

Before you run an experiment, you should validate that it’s an experiment worth running. You can do that by identifying which goal it impacts, what resources the experiment will require, and how much effort you anticipate it will take to run the experiment.

This is the exact marketing sprint validator template that our marketing team uses when we schedule growth experiments:

After you’ve run a growth experiment, it’s extremely important to track your results.

At the end of every sprint, take a good chunk of time to analyze your experiments to see what learnings you can take from them. Then, classify an experiment as a “Winner” or “Loser” based on whether or not the results lined up with your hypothesis.

You can use your results from the sprint that just ended to inform your experiments in the upcoming print.

Here’s an example of a sprint release and results template that you could use. Note how each experiment is owned by a team member to foster accountability for the process and results:

A few growth strategy report best practices:

• Divide your growth strategy reports into color-coded columns based on goals, OKRs, or stages in a sprint
• Use icons like checkmarks and x’s to identify winning experiments and losing experiments
• Include brief descriptions on each template, to make it easy to understand
• Attribute each growth experiment to a team member, to foster accountability for the process and results
• Use your company colors, fonts and logo to maintain consistent branding across all of your communications

Related : Our complete guide to developing a growth strategy checklist.

9. Market Research Report Templates

Even after you’ve launched your business, it’s a good idea to do regular market research. You can use your research to plan and refine your marketing strategies, to identify new prospective customers and product plan.

Market research generally involves gathering information about the needs, problems and wants of your customers. This research can help you come up with your customer personas and specific problems you want to solve with your product or service.

You can conduct market research in two ways:

• Qualitative research (calls, focus groups)
• Survey research

For example, many consultants struggle to get buy-in from various stakeholders. The boss may be constantly changing the scope of the project based on a whim, such as the latest article he’s scoured from the internet! Employees may be set in their ways and resistant to incorporate consultants into their workflow.

One way to get clients on board and build trust is to provide stats and research that support your recommendations.

Here’s a market research business report example that lays out the industry landscape and gives clear guidance on the way forward, all backed up by facts.

This cheerful, icon-heavy market research report should help energize reluctant stakeholders. Packaging new (and sometimes daunting) information in fresh ways can help break through resistance.

You may also want to look at competitor statistics and industry trends. This template includes a competitor case study, including website analytics, and a SWOT analysis :

When it comes to creating your market research report, you may want to do an in-depth overview of all of your market research. Or you may want to focus on one area of your research, such as your survey results.

Survey Report Template

This survey report template helps visualize your findings; the pictogram and chart make the findings easy to understand.

The one-slide market research report identifies the demographics of the survey participants. The report categorizes participants by their jobs, locations, and the topics that they find most engaging. Note how each persona is visualized using an icon:

This business report example highlights how you can give your team and stakeholders a quick overview of your main market and what topics they’re interested in.

One of the purposes of a market research report is to present any conclusions that you came to after analyzing the data.

These could be conclusions about who your target customers are, areas where you can expand your business, and customer needs that aren’t currently being met. The below business report example visualizes this data and also provides space to draw your own conclusions.

Here’s an example of a market research report template that emphasizes key findings in the larger text before providing supporting data:

A few market research report best practices:

• Use icons to illustrate your customer personas
• Use charts and graphs to compare demographic information like customer age, gender, location, and occupations
• Include the main conclusions you came from after analyzing your data
• If your market research report is long enough, include a table of contents
• Include a brief summary of your data collection methods , including the sample size

10. White Paper Templates

White papers are great tools to educate and persuade stakeholders. Consultants can also use them to improve their reputation vis-a-vis big consulting firms and boutique firms or use them as lead magnets  in Facebook ads etc.

As always, a polished design is much more likely to engage senior leaders or potential clients.

A business report template or consulting report template is the fastest way to produce something that’s both attractive and easy to understand.

The below consulting report example has a full page dedicated to visuals. It’s the perfect way to break up the text and let it breathe. It also reinforces the information.

Browse our library of thousands of professional, free stock photos to swap in images that suit your topic best. Or upload your own.

Our editor makes it simple to adapt any of our business and consulting report templates to your needs. Change the text, fonts, photos, icons, colors, anything you want.

The next business report template is perfect for marketers and marketing consultants. It has an inviting and fun (but still professional) cover page that quickly communicates the content marketing process using icons.

Venngage has an extensive library of thousands of custom, modern and diverse icons you can swap into the above consulting report example. For instance, you could add the Twitter or Facebook logo or a “thumbs up” icon.

Then, click on the template’s chart or graph (pages four and five) to add your own data.

Struggling with organizing information in your reports?  It’s important for consultants and marketers to find a way to communicate key takeaways, and not overwhelm your reader with data.

The below consulting report template uses filled text boxes and icons on the third page to highlight top findings.

Different-colored headers also help create a hierarchy of information and add more variety to the design.

A few white paper best practices:

• Create an eye-catching white paper cover page using a background in bold color, photos or icons.
• Add a key takeaways section, with a header and bullet points.
• Visualize data using charts and pictograms in order to highlight key data.
• Incorporate your branding into your white paper template (brand colors and logo).

Related : Our blog post with 20+  white paper examples  for even more templates and design tips.

11. Project Plan Templates

A project plan is the best way to keep a project on track.

But, showcasing the steps towards completing a project and showing how each step is actionable and measurable can be tough. 

This is especially difficult if you’re a consultant and you don’t have company templates to rely on.

The below  project plan template is a simple way to visualize what needs to happen, and when.

The above highly organized project plan template uses bar graphs, icons and color-coding to present information in an accessible way. Once you enter the editor, click on the bar graph to customize the schedule.

The project timeline below also uses icons and color-coding to organize information, though in a slightly different way.

Projects suffer when there’s confusion about deadlines and what’s required at each step. This timeline from a business report sample makes it crystal clear what tasks belong to what step and how long each step should take.

A timeline is a perfect way for your team or client to refer back to the project schedule without having to read through tons of text.

You can also revise your timeline as the project progresses to reflect changes in the schedule.

The below consulting report template has a more traditional format for a project plan. Still, like the timelines, this business report sample relies heavily on visuals to create an easily scannable and understandable project overview.

Scope creep is the enemy of any project’s success (and the bane of many consultant’s existence). That’s why it’s so important to define the project from the very beginning. The consulting report template above has a section to do just that.

Of course, projects change and evolve. The project report below will help you raise any issues as soon as they happen and present solutions. That way, stakeholders can make a decision before the project schedule is seriously derailed.

Check out our blog post with  15+ project plan templates  for even more examples and design tips.

A few project plan best practices:

• Plot your project schedule visually using a timeline.
• Use color to categorize tasks and milestones.
• Use icons to illustrate steps in a process.
• Insert charts to track the duration of each phase of a project.
• Pick a flexible template that you can update as the project progresses and things change.

Related : Our post on the four phases of the project life cycle .

12. Business Proposal Templates

A business proposal  is a document that presents your product or service as the solution to a client’s problem. The goal of a business proposal is to persuade a prospective client to buy your product or service. These proposals can be either solicited or unsolicited.

The contents of a business proposal report will vary depending on the problem. 

Typically, a business proposal will include these sections:

• Information about your company (mission, qualifications, competitive edge)
• A detailed description of your client’s problem 
• The cost of your product/service 
• The methodology of how you propose to solve the client’s problem
• A timeline of your approach to solving the problem

A few business report examples and design tips:

Create an engaging title page for your business proposal. Think of it as the cover of a book or a movie poster. This will be your prospective client’s first impression of your business.

Use a design that tells a story about your company’s mission and the people you serve. For example, the cover for this business proposal template shows a happy team working together:

Meanwhile, this simple business proposal example uses icons to illustrate what the company does. The motif is carried throughout the rest of the proposal design:

Use visuals to highlight the emotion behind the problem

Businesses are made up of people, and people are emotionally charged. When identifying the problem, use imagery to highlight the frustration, confusion, or dissatisfaction behind the problem. This will show empathy towards the people you’re proposing your solution to.

This business report sample page from a business proposal contrasts one image to illustrate the “problem” with a more cheerful image for the “solution”:

This marketing business proposal uses a variety of visuals like icons, bold typography and photos to tell a story:

Related : Our post on  consulting proposal templates or our guide to creating a business proposal .

How to create a business report in 6 steps?

Creating a business report can seem daunting, especially if you’ve never done it before. don’t let the word “business” intimidate you – these steps can be used for writing a report in any field!

Step 1: Define the purpose and scope of your report

Know the purpose of your report. Are you aiming to share the results of a project? Analyze performance? Recommend specific actions? Whatever the goal, keep it in mind as you go through the process. Also, consider the scope of your report. Decide what information you’ll be including, as well as what you can leave out.

Example: Let’s say your boss wants a report on your team’s sales performance during the last quarter. Your purpose might be to analyze the numbers and identify trends, areas for improvement, or opportunities for growth.

Step 2: Gather relevant data and information

Now that you know what you’re aiming for, it’s time to gather the information you’ll need. This might involve pulling data from internal systems, interviewing colleagues, or even conducting your research. Remember, the quality of your report depends on the accuracy and relevance of the information you provide, so double-check your sources and make sure you’ve got everything you need.

Example: For our sales performance report, you’ll need to collect data on product sales, individual and team performance, and any factors that may have influenced sales during the quarter.

Step 3: Organize your content

Next up is organizing all that information into a logical and easy-to-follow structure. This will depend on the specific requirements of your report, but some common components are an introduction, executive summary, main body, conclusion, and recommendations. A clear and logical structure helps readers easily understand and follow your report.

Example: In a sales performance report, you might start with an executive summary highlighting sales growth (or declines), outline individual team member’s performance, and then delve into a more detailed analysis of factors and trends.

Step 4: Write the report

When writing your report, start by developing a clear and concise writing style, avoiding jargon and buzzwords. Keep your audience in mind – make sure your report is easily digestible for your intended readers.

Example: When writing about sales performance, share facts and figures in simple terms that everyone can understand. Instead of saying, “Our sales team demonstrated a 12.3% compound annual growth rate,” say, “Our sales team increased their sales by 12.3% each year.”

Step 5: Add visual aids

To make your report more engaging and easier to understand, consider adding visual aids like graphs, charts, or images. These can help break up large blocks of text and highlight key findings or trends.

Example: For your sales performance report, you might create a bar chart showing sales growth over time or a pie chart displaying individual team members’ contributions.

Step 6: Review and refine

Last but not least, review your report. Does it achieve the purpose you set at the beginning? Are there any gaps in the information? Are there areas that could be clearer or more concise? Address any issues you find and refine your report until it meets your goals and is easy to understand for your target audience.

Example: In your sales performance report, if you find that you haven’t adequately explored the impact of a new product launch on sales, go back and add that analysis to provide a more comprehensive view.

What are the types of business reports?

Different types of business reports cater to various purposes, including monitoring performance, making decisions, and more, offering a range of options beyond standard reports.

1. Informational reports

The primary purpose of informational reports is, well, to inform. These reports provide all the nitty-gritty details of specific aspects of your business without any conclusions or opinions. 

Examples include daily sales reports, inventory levels, or even project updates. This is the essential “just the facts, ma’am” type of report you need to stay in the loop.

2. Analytical reports

Analytical reports give you a more in-depth look at the data to help you make decisions. These reports come with all the bells and whistles – charts, graphs, and recommendations based on thorough analysis. Analytical reports are what you whip out when you need to decide whether to invest in a new project, evaluate your marketing efforts, or diagnose challenges within the company. The goal of such a report is to help you make smarter decisions for the growth and development of your business.

3. Summaries & reviews:

If you’re a little short on time and need a quick overview of your business’s performance, summary reports are your best bet. These reports condense the crucial details from other reports at regular intervals (monthly, quarterly, or annually) and present them in a digestible format. 

4. Research reports

As the name suggests, these in-depth reports dig into specific topics or issues relevant to your business. Research reports are great when exploring new markets, considering new product development, or requiring a detailed evaluation of business practices. These reports act as guides for making major decisions that could significantly impact your company’s direction and success.

5. Progress reports

Let’s say you’ve got a fantastic project idea underway. You’ll need to keep track of every stage of it to ensure it’s smooth sailing ahead. Enter progress reports. They track the achievements, setbacks, and future plans of ongoing projects. These are essential for keeping everyone – from employees to investors – in the loop.

Business report template FAQs

1. what are the best practices for creating a business report.

You could open up Google doc, record your metrics and make a few points of analysis, send it to your team and call it a day. But is that the most effective way to report on your findings?

Many people may not even read those types of reports. Not to mention, a plain old report probably won’t impress stakeholders.

It’s important to brand yourself (and stand out from your competition). And then there’s the ever-important need to create buy-in from stakeholders and convince them of your recommendations.

That’s why it pays to make your reports as engaging as possible. That means visualizing data , processes , and concepts to make them easier to understand and more fun to look at, as you’ve seen from the business report examples in this post.

You can do that easily by getting started with a  business report template  or consulting report template .

There are two big reasons why it’s a good idea to create a highly visual business report:

• You will be able to organize, analyze and summarize your findings .
• You will be able to communicate your reports more effectively with your team, stakeholders and customers.

For example, the below business report template shows four different ways you can visualize information. It’s much more captivating and easily digested than a block of text.

And don’t worry about how time-consuming designing a report might be. If you start with a solid business report template, you can repurpose that template over and over again.

Use the template as a framework, then customize your information and design to fit your specific needs. Then, use a  chart tool  to convert cumbersome data into clear visuals.

Just like in the above business report sample, you’ll have a succinct, powerful (and polished) report that stakeholders can understand at a glance.

2. How do you design a business report template?

Incorporate your branding into the design

Part of building a strong brand is using consistent branding across all of your content, both internal and public-facing. You can incorporate your branding into your business report design by importing your logo and using your brand colors and fonts.

Our My Brand Kit feature automatically imports company logos and fonts from any website. You can then apply them to your design with one click.

Stick to only one topic per page or slide

When creating a report, it’s easy to try and cram a bunch of text onto one page. But then you run the risk of creating an impenetrable wall of text.

Instead, focus on only one topic per page or slide. If you find that even that makes your page look too cramped, then try breaking up your information into two pages or looking for ways to better summarize your information .

Put functionality first

When you’re designing a business report, you should look for opportunities to visualize data and creatively present information. That being said, the primary goal of your business report should still be to communicate information clearly.

Use design elements such as icons or fonts  in different sizes, weights and colors to highlight, emphasize and categorize information, not obscure it. If a page you’re working on looks cluttered or confusing, take another stab at it.

Remember that functionality comes first, and that includes using the right visuals for your information.

3. What is the best business report maker?

You can make a business report online using a number of tools. As we have mentioned, a great business report is visually appealing, includes icons, images, clear fonts, easy-to-understand charts and graphs, as well as being branded.

Venngage is the one-stop design solution when it comes to creating reports. The business report examples in this article highlight how easy it is to design a variety of reports for every type of organization and activity. Make design simple by using Venngage.

More business communication guides:

• The Ultimate Guide to Consulting Proposals (2024)
• 20+ White Paper Examples [Design Guide + White Paper Templates]

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• Begin your own dropshipping business.
• Create and sell t-shirts that are printed on-demand.
• Self-publish your book.
• Creating digital products or online courses is a great way to get started.
• Sell posters, greeting cards, and prints that are printed on-demand.
• Establish a charitable enterprise.
• Promote a service.
• Create a fashion boutique online.

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New Business Project Report

Report generator.

Starting a new business project is a combination of risk and reward. Starting a new venture is always risky, but once a blueprint is laid out and a clear plan is set, then the project can attain steady progress. Once the project is completed, a general report needs to be created and submitted to management for the project to be reviewed.

To help you create a new business project report, we have provided some project report examples you can use as a guide. We also listed down some tips in writing a new business project report.

Project Report For New Business Template

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Why Businesses Start a New Project

It is not a rare occurrence for businesses to start a new project. Whether it is a small enterprise or a large corporation, a new project is always is in the sights of these companies. The main reason why businesses start a new project is for expansion purposes. Business organizations who rely on profit for sustainability eventually need to expand so that they can increase their revenues. You may also see investigation report samples and examples.

Even a company cannot simply rely on producing and selling products in one location. Competitors are always threats and they can easily create similar products that do not only have similar functions but might function better than the ones currently existing in the market. You may also like business report examples.

Another reason why businesses start a new project is to venture into other products or a new industry. Although this is similar to expanding, venturing into a new industry acts as a 90-degree shift for companies due to difficulties entering into a new venture.

Take for example a computer software manufacturer planning to open a restaurant or a toy and souvenir seller venturing into the healthcare business. Venturing into a new business is like starting from scratch, financial and human resources ( human resource plan , investment agreement , loan agreement , etc.) still need to be gathered and extensive research ( business plan , business proposal , marketing plan , etc.) also needs to be conducted.

The subsequent section will further discuss the types of business projects. Some of the projects may be applicable and can be implemented in your own business.

Types of Business Projects

1. administrative.

An administrative project involves the company investing in projects that relate to administrative functions. These types of functions mostly involve secretarial duties and responsibilities (i.e., create reports or minutes of meetings, represent the company in business events and gatherings, be the first line of interaction with clients and other stakeholders, etc.). You may also see status report examples.

Mostly, administrative projects are focused on purchasing or developing new office equipment. Among the office equipment that needs to be purchased include computers, landline phones, printers, scanners, security systems, network cables, and Wi-Fi/modem routers, to name a few. You may also like academic report examples.

2. Construction

Construction meanwhile involves the company investing in building projects. If administrative projects are more focused on purchasing, then construction projects center on construction. These types of projects mostly involve the construction of an office space or office building. Construction can also pertain to constructing office equipment from scratch. You may also check out consulting report examples.

Construction projects are lengthy projects, thus creating a business project report for a construction project requires multiple project reports to track the progress of the said project.

3. New Product Development

A new product development pertains to the company investing in developing a new product that will eventually be sold to the market (and possibly to a new market segment).

Product development is a common function utilized by companies as they aim to expand operations. In some companies, they have a research and development (R&D) department that takes charge of developing a new product or service. The R&D department reports directly to the CEO or top management. You may also see research report examples.

Examples for new product projects include a restaurant adding a new dish in their menu, a car manufacturer creating a new variant for an existing automobile model, or a video game developer releasing a new game. Similar to a construction project, a new product project also requires multiple project reports as the amount of time needed to develop a new product is lengthy. You may also like examples of a short report .

4. Event or Relocation

An event or relocation is a business project that pertains to the company investing heavily in an event or relocation activity.

The event pertains to an activity that the company organizes. It can either be a business event (seminar, workshop, conference, forum) or a community event (outreach program, donation activity, environmental clean-up). The company can organize the event by itself or with another company or public institution (government, academe). You may also check out technical report examples.

Relocation meanwhile involves the company or business organization investing in a full or partial relocation in another office or office building. A relocation project is similar to a construction project where an office building needs to be constructed in which employees will be relocated to the office building. You might be interested in marketing report examples.

5. Research

Not all business projects are tangible, just like research projects. You may ask yourself why companies invest in research projects when they can research on their own. This is because some companies are understaffed and want to create a study for their business operations, so what they do instead is hire a third party to create the research project. You may also see management report examples.

Additionally, some companies do not have the qualified personnel to research since some processes or terminologies can be only be accomplished and understood by qualified researchers.

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Essential Tips in Creating a New Business Project Report

Listed below are some tips in creating a new business project report. Take note that the tips listed below are important when you will be creating a project report. This is to avoid confusion while also providing clarity to the reader or recipient to the project report, specifically to top management and stakeholders.

1. Specify the project

The first step in creating a new business project report is to specify the project. The report cannot be created if there is no clarity to the project that will be worked on. The project can range from administrative, construction, equipment or system installation, new product development, and research (as mentioned in the previous section). You may also see recruitment report examples.

Specifying the project also needs to be identified as the company might be working on other projects as well. This is true for companies who are always pursuing expansion projects and have ample financial resources at the same time.

Additionally, there are project reports that cannot be completed in a single report, especially for construction projects. Construction projects require numerous progress reports due to the period needed to complete these projects. A simple office construction can even last one month, how much more for an entire office building. You may also like sample activity reports .

2. List down the people involved

After specifying the project, the next step should be listing down the people involved in the project. Depending on the project, the people involved should be the individuals working on the said project. If there are individuals who are not directly involved in the project but act in an observatory function, they should be included in the business project report as well. You may also check out sales report examples.

If the project requires more than a hundred or even a thousand individuals, then it is not necessary to include all of their names in the project report . The report should not only be limited to the names of the individuals involved. Their duties, responsibilities, or tasks in the project should also be included as well. This provides a reference for top management and to stakeholders, in case they have concerns regarding the progress of the project.

3. Have a timeline

The timeline is another essential component of a new business project report. Listing down a timeline is important not only for a project that is still in progress but also for a project that has already been accomplished. If the project is already completed, then the complete timeline of when the project began until when the project was accomplished should be listed in the project report. You might be interested in quality report examples.

A timeline for a project report should be listed in detail. If the analysis of the timeline can be included in the project report, then it can be very beneficial for the report’s readers. If the project requires numerous reports and the timeline is spread out across the different reports, then it is suggested that a timeline summary of the previous reports should be included in each formal report . A compilation of all the timelines should be included in the last report if the project is completed.

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Companies Who Found Success after Investing in New Projects

1. nintendo.

If you thought the massive Japan-based gaming company Nintendo began with Mario, think again. Nintendo was already in the gaming industry when it began operations, but it all started with creating and selling playing cards . Nintendo shifted its core business to video gaming in the 1970s, and eventually released the Super Mario and Donkey Kong games and the Nintendo Entertainment and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System gaming consoles in the 1980s. After that, the rest is history.

Apple began as a computer company that introduced the Apple I and eventually the Macintosh (Mac) to the world. That was in the 1980s. Fast forward three decades later, the iPhone was introduced which put Apple in the map as the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Apple still produces the Mac, by the way, and is also one of the world’s highest-selling laptops. You may also see how to write a short report .

Korean electronics company LG is not the company that you know today when it began in the 1940s. LG began selling hygiene and cosmetics. LG is one of the few companies that made a 90-degree shift in terms of products and services and is more profitable now after they completely changed their entire product line. You may also like English report writing examples for students.

4. General Electric

Did you know that when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1982, he also founded the energy company General Electric (GE)? GE then proceeded to manufacture and sell the light bulb as well as Edison’s other inventions to the world. GE eventually shifted to aircraft engines, hybrid locomotives, HD CT scanners, ultrasound devices, and chemical sensors. You may also check out narrative report examples.

Nokia was at its peak during the late 1990s and early 2000s. But before the Finnish-based company became the undisputed mobile phone manufacturer during that time, it sold paper and rubber.

The company then changed its product line after a merger of its umbrella companies in the 1960s. Nokia is now jointly owned by Taiwanese firm Foxconn Technology and another Finnish company HMD Global after its failed acquisition by Microsoft in the late 2000s. You might be interested in medical report examples.

Formerly called Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, 3M is one of the world’s leading producers of scotch tape, duct tape, post-it notes, and cleaning products. 3M began in 1902 after five men in Minnesota, USA, invested in a mining venture. When they discovered that the minerals they mined were not marketable enough, they started making and selling sandpaper and scotch tape. You may also see incident report letter examples.

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We hope you found this article to be informative as you will be creating a project report for your new business project.

General FAQs

1. what is a project report for new business.

A project report for new business is a report that contains information relating to the venture of a new proposed business. It lays out a road map and discusses the finances, challenging risks, and other forewarning issues of the business.

2. What are the Main Components of a Business Project Report?

Following are the components of a business project report:

• Background of the business
• Company objectives
• Project background and progress
• Market analysis
• Marketing assessment
• Financial assessment
• Operational and financial plan.

3. What are the Tips for Designing an Effective Project Report for New Business?

Follow these tips to design an effective project report for new business:

• Keep in mind the target market
• Develop a powerful business strategy
• Focus on strategies that present you differently from your competitors
• Catalog realistic plans.

4. What is the Significance of a Project Report?

The significance of a project report is as follows:

• It serves as a master plan
• It gives direction
• It shows feasibility
• It foresees necessities
• It helps in decision making
• It paves the way for financial assistance
• It guides the course of action.

5. What are the Different Types of Project Reports?

Following are some of the different types of project reports:

• Project status report
• Project progress report
• Project summary report
• Project management report
• Executive project report
• One-Page status report
• T project status report.

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How to write an effective project plan in 6 simple steps

Contributing writer

If you’re a Type A personality, project planning might sound like music to your ears. Setting deadlines, organizing tasks, and creating order out of chaos — what’s not to love?

The reality is that project planning isn’t for everyone. In one survey by Association for Project Management, 76% of project professionals said their main project was a source of stress . Poor planning, unclear responsibilities, and overallocation are often the culprits behind the stress. 

An effective project plan helps teams stay within budget, scope, and schedule, while delivering quality work. In short, it gets you to the finish line without the stress.  

What is a project plan?

A project plan, also known as a work plan, is a blueprint of your project lifecycle. It’s like a roadmap — it clearly outlines how to get from where you are now (the beginning of the project) to where you want to go (the successful completion of the project). 

“A project plan is an action plan outlining how…[to] accomplish project goals,” says Jami Yazdani , certified Project Management Professional (PMP), project coach, project management consultant, and founder of Yazdani Consulting and Facilitation . 

A comprehensive project plan includes the project schedule, project scope, due dates, and deliverables. Writing a good project plan is key for any new, complex project in the pipeline.

Why Are Project Plans Important?

Project plans allow you to visualize your entire project, from beginning to end—and develop a clear strategy to get from point A to point B. Project plans steer stakeholders in the right direction and keep team members accountable with a common baseline.  

Project plans help you stay agile

Projects are bound by what is traditionally called the “iron triangle” of project management . It means that project managers have to work within the three constraints of scope, resources (project budget and teams), and schedule. You cannot make changes to one without impacting the other two.    

Modern-day project management has shifted to a more agile approach, with a focus on quality. This means that resources and schedules remain unchanged but a fixed number of iterations (flexible scope) helps teams deliver better quality and more value. 

A project plan puts this “agile triangle” in place by mapping out resources, schedules, and the number of iterations — sprints if you’re using a Scrum framework and work in progress (WIP) limits if you’re using the Kanban methodology . 

As Yazdani points out, “Project plans help us strategize a path to project success, allowing us to consider the factors that will impact our project, from stakeholders to budget to schedule delays, and plan how to maximize or mitigate these factors.” 

Project plans provide complete visibility

A project plan, when created with a comprehensive project management software , gives you 360-degree visibility throughout the project lifecycle. 

As a project manager, you need a single source of truth on team members and their project tasks, project scope, project objectives, and project timelines. A detailed project plan gives you this visibility and helps teams stay on track.

Project plans also help to get everyone involved on the same page, setting clear expectations around what needs to be accomplished, when, and by who. 

“Project plans create a framework for measuring project progress and success,” says Yazdani. “Project plans set clear expectations for…stakeholders by outlining exactly what…will [be accomplished] and when it will be delivered.”

Project plans boost engagement and productivity

A well-written project plan clarifies how each individual team member’s contributions play into the larger scope of the project and align with company goals. When employees see how their work directly impacts organizational growth, it generates buy-in and drives engagement , which is critical to a project’s success. 

“Project plans provide…teams with purpose and direction,” says Yazdani. “Transparent project plans show team members how their individual tasks and responsibilities contribute to the overall success of the project, encouraging engagement and collaboration.”

How To Write A Project Plan in 6 Steps

Writing a project plan requires, well, planning. Ideally, the seeds for a project plan need to be sowed before internal project sign-off begins. Before that sign-off, conduct capacity planning to estimate the resources you will need and if they’re available for the duration of the project. After all, you want to set your teams up for success with realistic end dates, buffer time to recharge or catch up in case of unexpected delays, and deliver quality work without experiencing burnout .

Based on organizational capacity, you can lay down project timelines and map out scope as well as success metrics, outline tasks, and build a feedback loop into your project plan. Follow these project planning steps to create a winning plan:      

1. Establish Project Scope And Metrics

Defining your project scope is essential to protecting your iron, or agile, triangle from crumbling. Too often, projects are hit with scope creep , causing delays, budget overruns, and anxiety.

“Clearly define your project’s scope or overall purpose,” says Yazdani. “Confirm any project parameters or constraints, like budget, resource availability, and timeline,” says Yazdani.

A project purpose statement is a high-level brief that defines the what, who, and why of the project along with how and when the goal will be accomplished. But just as important as defining your project scope and purpose is defining what metrics you’re going to use to track progress.

“Establish how you will measure success,” says Yazdani. “Are there metrics, performance criteria, or quality standards you need to meet?”

Clearly defining what your project is, the project’s overall purpose, and how you’re going to measure success lays the foundation for the rest of your project plan—so make sure you take the time to define each of these elements from the get-go.

2. Identify Key Project Stakeholders 

Get clarity on the team members you need to bring the project to life. In other words, identify the key stakeholders of the project. 

“List individuals or groups who will be impacted by the project,” says Yazdani. 

In addition to identifying who needs to be involved in the project, think about how they’ll need to be involved—and at what level. Use a tool like Confluence to run a virtual session to clarify roles and responsibilities, and find gaps that need to be filled. 

Let’s say you’re managing a cross-functional project to launch a new marketing campaign that includes team members from your marketing, design, and sales departments. 

When identifying your key stakeholders, you might create different lists based on the responsibility or level of involvement with the project:

• Decision-makers (who will need to provide input at each step of the project)
• Managers (who will be overseeing employees within their department) 
• Creative talent (who will be actually creating the project deliverables for the campaign) from each department. 

Give your project plan an edge by using a Confluence template like the one below to outline roles and responsibilities.

Define roles, discuss responsibilities, and clarify which tasks fall under each teammate’s purview using this Confluence template. 

Getting clarity on who needs to be involved in the project—and how they’re going to be involved—will help guide the rest of the project plan writing process (particularly when it comes to creating and assigning tasks).

3. Outline Deliverables

Now is the time to get granular.

Each project milestone comprises a series of smaller, tangible tasks that your teams need to produce. While a big-picture view keeps teams aligned, you need signposts along the way to guide them on a day-to-day or weekly basis. Create a list of deliverables that will help you achieve the greater vision of the project. 

“What will you create, build, design, produce, accomplish or deliver?” says Yazdani. “Clearly outline your project’s concrete and tangible deliverables or outcomes.” Centralize these deliverables in a Trello board with designated cards for each one, like in the example below, so you keep work moving forward.

Each card on a board represents tasks and ideas and you can move cards across lists to show progress.

Defining the concrete items you need your project to deliver will help you reverse-engineer the things that need to happen to bring those items to life—which is a must before moving on to the next step.

4. Develop Actionable Tasks

Task management is an important component of any project plan because they help employees see what exactly they need to accomplish. Drill down those deliverables into actionable tasks to assign to your team. 

You can use either Confluence or Jira for different task management needs. If you want to track tasks alongside your work, like action items from a meeting or small team projects, it’s best to use Confluence. But if a project has multiple teams and you need insight into workflows, task history, and reporting, Jira makes it easy.      

“Let your deliverables guide the work of the project,” says Yazdani. “Break down each deliverable into smaller and smaller components until you get to an actionable task.” If a major deliverable is a set of content pieces, the smaller actionable tasks would be to create topic ideas, conduct research, and create outlines for each topic.  

Once you’ve broken down all of your deliverables into manageable, assignable subtasks, analyze how each of those tasks interacts with each other. That way, you can plan, prioritize, assign, and add deadlines accordingly.  

“Highlight any dependencies between tasks, such as tasks that can’t be started until another task is complete,” says Yazdani. “List any resources you will need to accomplish these tasks.”

When a task has multiple assignees, you need to streamline the workflow in your project plan. Say the content pieces you outlined need to be edited or peer-reviewed. A couple of articles may need an interview with a subject matter expert. Lay down a stage-by-stage process of each piece of content and pinpoint when each team member comes into play so you prevent bottlenecks and adjust timeframes.     

5. Assign Tasks And Deadlines

Assign tasks to your team and collaborate with employees to set deadlines for each task. When you involve employees in setting workloads and deadlines , you increase ownership and boost the chances of delivering quality work on time.  

After all, you want to move projects forward at a steady pace, but you also want to make sure your teams stay motivated and engaged. So, when writing your project plan, make sure to “set realistic and achievable deadlines for completing tasks and deliverables,” says Yazdani. “Highlight dates that are inflexible and factor in task dependencies. Add in milestones or checkpoints to monitor progress and celebrate successes .”

Use Jira and Confluence to create tasks that live alongside your project plan or meeting agendas.

Once you map out all of your tasks and deadlines, you should have a clear picture of how and when your project is going to come together—and the initial writing process is just about finished.

But that doesn’t mean your project plan is complete! There’s one more key step to the process.

6. Share, Gather Feedback, And Adjust The Project Plan As Necessary

While steps 1 through 5 may make up your initial writing process, if you want your project plan to be as strong and complete as it can be, it’s important to share it with your team—and get their input on how they think it can be improved.

“Share the plan with your project team and key stakeholders, gathering feedback to make adjustments and improvements,” says Yazdani. 

A tool like Confluence helps knowledge flow freely within teams and departments, leading to better teamwork, higher collaboration, and a shared understanding of priorities. Coworkers can use comments, mentions, notifications, and co-editing capabilities to provide and discuss feedback. 

After you gather your team’s feedback —and make any necessary adjustments based on that feedback—you can consider your project plan complete. Hooray! 

But as your project progresses, things may change or evolve—so it’s important to stay flexible and make changes and adjustments as needed.

“Expect to update your plan as you gather more information, encounter changing requirements and delays, and learn from feedback and mistakes,” says Yazdani. “By using your project plan to guide your activities and measure progress, you’ll be able to refine and improve your plan as you move through the project, tweaking tasks and deadlines as deliverables are developed.”

Download a  template to create your project plan and customize it based on your needs.

Example of a simple project plan 

A project plan doesn’t have to be a complicated spreadsheet with multiple tabs and drop-down menus. It’s best to use a project planning tool like Confluence — or at least a project plan template — to make sure you cover every aspect of the project. A simple project plan includes these elements:

• Project name, brief summary, and objective.
• Project players or team members who will drive the project, along with their roles and responsibilities.
• Key outcomes and due dates.
• Project elements, ideally divided into must-have, nice-to-have and not-in-scope categories.
• Milestones, milestone owners, and a project end date.
• Reference material relevant to the project.

Best Practices For Writing Effective Project Plans

A project planning process can quickly turn into a mishmash of goals and tasks that end up in chaos but these best practices can give you a framework to create a project plan that leads to success.

Use Other Project Plans For Inspiration

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel for every new project! Instead, look to other successful project plans for inspiration—and use them as a guide when writing the plan for your project.

“Review templates and plans for similar projects, or for other projects within your organization or industry, to get ideas for structuring and drafting your own plan,” says Yazdani.

To get started, use a Trello project management template and customize it for your project plan by creating unique lists and adding cards under each list.

Build your team’s ideal workflow and mark each stage of the project plan as a list, with cards for each task. 

Get Your Team Involved In The Process

You may be in charge of spearheading the project. But that doesn’t mean that you have to—or even that you should—write the project plan alone. 

“Collaborate with your project team and key stakeholders on crafting a project plan,” says Yazdani. “Input into the project plan supports buy-in to project goals and encourages continued engagement throughout the project.”

With Confluence , you can organize project details in a centralized space and build a project plan collaboratively.

Don’t Let Perfect Be The Enemy Of The Good

You may be tempted to write (and rewrite) your project plan until you’ve got every detail mapped out perfectly. But spending too much time trying to get everything “perfect” can actually hold up the project. So don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good—and instead of getting caught up in getting everything perfect from the get-go, stay willing and flexible to adjust your project plan as you move forward.

“Focus on outcomes, not plan perfection,” says Yazdani. “While it would be awesome for the first draft of our plan to require no changes while also inspiring our team and ensuring project success, our goal shouldn’t be a perfect plan. Our goal is a plan that allows us to successfully deliver on project goals. Responsiveness to changing needs and a shifting environment is more important than plan perfection.”

Use the right tools to succeed with your project plan

Writing a project plan, especially if you’re new to the process, can feel overwhelming. But now that you know the exact steps to write one, make sure you have the tools you need to create a strong, cohesive plan from the ground up—and watch your project thrive as a result. 

Atlassian Together can help with project planning and management with a powerful combination of tools that make work flow across teams.

Guide your team to project success with Atlassian Together’s suite of products.

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The Top 17 Free Project Report Templates For Effective Project Management

By Kate Eby | August 5, 2019 (updated August 7, 2023)

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In this article, you’ll find a comprehensive list of project report templates to support your project management efforts. These pre-built templates are free to download in a variety of formats, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF, and Google Docs.

Included on this page, you'll find many free, downloadable templates for your next project, including a project status report template , a daily project progress report template , a business project report template , and many more.

Project Status Report Template

Download Project Status Report Template

Word | PowerPoint | Smartsheet

Consistent and thorough status reporting is an essential component of effective project management. Ensure you meet project objectives by utilizing this customizable project status report template. This template provides space to summarize the project and track risks, roadblocks, milestones, accomplishments, and key takeaways. It also includes a visual project timeline to give you easy visibility into major project events.

One-Page Project Status Report Template

Download One-Page Project Status Report Template

Word | PDF | Smartsheet

This template covers all the primary elements of the project status report in a convenient one-page format. The pre-built status report provides an overview of project status by category (i.e., budget, scope, etc.), project timeline, key risks and issues, as well as issue ownership to ensure that you account for and complete all project action items on schedule. Learn how to create an effective project status report in this article .

Project Report Dashboard Template

Download Project Report Dashboard Template - Excel 

Having a clear visual of a project’s high-level metrics and overall performance enables a project manager to identify and home in on problem areas that need further attention. Download this project report dashboard template to track the status of key components of a project, including tasks, costs, and pending action items. This template also helps you support the decisions you make for future project initiatives. Check out this article to find more free Excel dashboard templates for all of your business needs .

Daily Project Progress Report Template

Download Daily Project Progress Report Template

Excel | Word | PDF

Provide stakeholders with insight into a project’s daily development using this progress report template. This template provides space to outline progression details, work completed, equipment used, workers on site, task locations, delays, incidents, and more. This report allows you to compare activity progress with the project plan to effectively maintain governance.

Performance Project Report Template

Download Performance Project Report Template

Communicate the performance of key project elements using this customizable project performance report template. Detail key activities, deadlines, work quality, risks, budgeting performance, and more to ensure you carry out major project deliverables on schedule and according to plan.

Project Summary Report Template

Download Project Summary Report Template

Effective project management requires that you keep lines of communication open (between the team and client) and ensure that the information you present is accurate and up to date. Provide all stakeholders with the current status of key projects, milestones, steering committee escalations, progress, and upcoming events using this pre-built project summary report template.

Weekly Project Status Report Template

Download Weekly Project Status Report Template

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This customizable project status report template provides a snapshot of a project’s health on any given week. Track overall project performance and the status of each project component, including budget, resources, scope, milestones, work accomplished, roadblocks, highlights, and more. This template also comes with a pre-built visual timeline to display major project details at a glance.

Monthly Project Status Report Template

 Download Monthly Project Status Report Template

Excel | Word

This project status report template captures the status of key project elements at a monthly view. Use this downloadable template to track notable project components that are complete, in progress, on hold, or at risk and outline deadlines and details for upcoming work.

Stoplight Project Status Report Template

Download Stoplight Project Status Report Template

Stoplight project status reports are an effective way to visualize project items that require immediate attention and additional planning. Use the stoplight key to define the parameters of what constitutes a red, yellow, or green status and ensure that the client and team members are on the same page regarding these conditions. This template will help keep the process streamlined.

Business Project Report Template

Download Business Project Report Template

Word | Google Docs

A business project report is a detailed document that serves as a roadmap for a proposed project or business venture. This business project report template provides a solid basis to expand upon according to your needs. It includes space for a table of contents, an executive summary, key project activities, a marketing analysis, a SWOT analysis, recommendations, appendices, and more.

IT Project Status Report Template

Download IT Project Status Report Template

Information technology project management and operations can be complex and involve many moving parts. Between balancing the budget, making adjustments mid-project, and meeting the needs of project stakeholders, this pre-built IT project status report template will help ensure that you track and account for all the key components of your project. This template provides room for project milestones, open and closed issues, change requests, resource evaluation, and the current status of all major project categories. Learn the essential tips for successful IT project management by checking out this article .

Construction Project Report Template

Download Construction Project Report Template

Excel | Word | PDF | Google Docs

Effective reporting is a key factor in the overall success of a construction project. This pre-built construction project report template includes all major day-to-day project details, like daily progress, materials and equipment used, number of workers and work hours performed on site, progress obstructions, and official visitors. Additionally, the template includes space for the inspector to sign off on the report in order to ensure overall project compliance. For a wide variety of free construction management templates to download, visit this page .

Executive Project Report Template

Download Executive Project Report Template

An executive project report is a high-level view of the project that highlights progress, without getting into the granular details of the project. Use this customizable executive project report template to communicate the essential elements of the project, including key milestones, accomplishments, risks, issues, financial overview, and project requirements.

Final Project Report Template

Download Final Project Report Template

The purpose of the final project report is to briefly and clearly summarize the outcomes of a completed project. This final project report template contains a table of contents, as well as space for names and roles of team members, project summary, scope, costs, risks, communication strategies, learning outcomes, top-level project performance details, and more.

Project Report Template for Teams or Departments

Download Project Report Template for Teams or Departments

Teams or departments can use this project report to communicate the status of project activities: That is, they can indicate whether they have completed an activity or whether an activity is still in progress. Use this template to track key tasks, team members involved, deadlines, progress scores, issues needing attention, and other project developments to ensure teams or departments account for and complete assignments on schedule.

Project Report for Stakeholders and Partners

Download Project Report for Stakeholders and Partners

Use this project report is to provide key stakeholders and partners with high-level visibility into a project’s overall performance. Briefly summarize progress, project deliverables, start and end dates, outputs, and other major project details to keep stakeholders up to date on current project happenings.

Project Postmortem Report Template

Download Project Post-Mortem Report Template

This customizable project postmortem report template should be completed as a workshop comprised of key team members within a week of concluding the project work. This report highlights project details, such as accomplishments, problem areas, lessons learned, and more to facilitate the process of analyzing the performance of all the project’s elements. Once you’ve completed this template, the project sponsor should sign off on it to formally close out the project.

Tips on Writing a Project Report

When writing a project report, stick to the facts and back up your claims with data. Consider using a template to give structure to your report, and tailor the report to your audience. We’ve outlined top report-writing tips below:

• Know Your Audience: The type and depth of information you communicate in a report will depend on the nature of your audience. For instance, managers and clients may have a better understanding of the concepts and terminology involved in a project than do stakeholders and other personnel. Effective project reporting, therefore, requires using the appropriate tone and phraseology and knowing when to share high-level versus granular project details.  Your audience may also care about different details when viewing a year-end report  versus a project status report .
• Give Structure to Your Report: Once you’ve identified your audience and which components of the project to communicate, organize the segments of the report so the information makes sense and is helpful to the reader. For example, you should place project identification and background details near the beginning of the report; place summarizing details near the end.
• Only Provide Facts: The report should remain objective and free from personal bias, regardless of whether the project is failing or performing successfully. If an opinion is needed, it should be labeled clearly and placed in a separate segment of the report. Additionally, the charts, metrics, and other performance data you present in the report should be accurate and up to date so that such information is credible and meaningful to the reader. 
• Use a Template: Save time building out your report by using a customizable template to get you started. Templates are beneficial for standardizing processes, and you can easily adapt them to fit your needs. Use the free templates provided above for your reporting needs, and then check out this article for more project management templates .
• Use an Online Reporting Tool: Keeping a project’s development aligned with business goals is the basis of project management, and the success or failure of a project can greatly depend on the tools you use. Employ an online tool that displays data in different ways (e.g., Kanban boards, Gantt views, and dashboards), shows the real-time status of multiple projects, provides various permission levels, and allows you to set up recurring reports (such tools can automatically email these recurring reports at a set frequency to designated stakeholders, which allows project managers to shift their focus to other critical project matters). These online tools provide increased visibility into project processes and status.

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Project Management Report: Examples and Writing Tips

• 1.  Project Management Basics
• 2.  Project Management Methodologies
• 3.  Project Management Life Cycle
• 4.  Best Project Management Software
• 5.  Team Collaboration Tips
• 6.  Agile Methodology Basics
• 7.  Agile Project Management Tools & Techniques
• 8.  Project Management Frameworks
• 9.  Resources
• 10.  Glossary
• Advanced Terminology
• Methodologies
• PM Software Features
• Basic Terminology
• Professional Development
• Agile Project Management
• Project Management Guide

How to Write a Project Management Report

A project management report is a summary overview of the current status of a project. It is a formal record of the state of a project at a given time. The exact form and details may vary depending on your company and project management office requirements. Many businesses have their own project management report templates their project managers adhere to.

Depending on the size and complexity of your projects, a project management report may be required weekly or monthly. It is provided to all project stakeholders to help keep them up to date with the progress of the project and any pressing challenges it may be facing. 

Project management reports are useful for all sorts of different types of projects across a variety of industries. For example:

• A marketing project manager could provide a regular project status report to the entire organization so they can keep tabs on how the company rebrand is progressing
• A software development team might use resource reports to effectively plan a sprint and ensure they have the resources they need
• An executive might present a project risk report to the company’s board of directors to get guidance and help navigating potential issues and roadblocks
• A project manager could use a project performance report to monitor the project budget, schedule, and success metrics, and share that crucial information with leaders
• A leadership team could use a time tracking report to understand how the team’s time is being used and how the team could become more efficient

That’s only the beginning. There are numerous types of project management reports that can be used for an assortment of project goals and scenarios. 

Most project management reports are single-pagers but may have appendices or links to more information for stakeholders who wish to delve into the details. However, project reporting can be much more in-depth in some companies and circumstances.

But regardless of the specific report, the point remains the same: Project management reports are intended to provide a clearer understanding of a project — whether it’s only getting started, in progress, or just wrapped up. 

Project management reports are as unique as projects themselves.  

Whether you’re creating a one-page report or a comprehensive one, Wrike is the must-have tool for project planning, monitoring, and reporting.  

What is included in a project management report?

As you figure out how to prepare a project report, you’re bound to have one big question: What should you include?

The information you include in your project management report will largely depend on the type of project, the scope of the project, your organizational processes, as well as your goal in generating a project report in the first place. 

Understanding and appropriately allocating project resources will likely require more detail and a far more comprehensive report than providing a straightforward status update. And in general, more complex projects typically require more complex project reports. 

With that said, there are some standard elements that apply to project reports across nearly every industry, organization, and type of project. Whether you need them all or only a few, here are some key characteristics to consider when creating your own project report. 

Identifying project information

Think of this as the “basics” of your project. While it might seem like overkill to include it in every single project report you create, doing so (ideally, near the top of your report) gives people the necessary context they need about the project before reviewing the report.

You’re essentially laying the groundwork for them, which is especially important for people who might not be privy to every single report or who only need to be kept updated at a high level. They aren’t as close to the project, so they likely require regular refreshers.

• Project name: Give your project a name to quickly and easily identify it. Resist the urge to get too creative — instead, name your project something instantly recognizable and intuitive (for example, “CompanyXYZ Website Revamp”).
• Project number (if it has one): If your company uses project numbers or any other identifying code, include that on each report as well.
• Name of project manager: If and when people have questions after reviewing the report, this means they can quickly understand their best point of contact for more information. 
• Project sponsor(s): Your project sponsor is the person (or people) at the senior leadership level that’s providing resources and overall support for the project. For many people, it’s easy to confuse this person with the project manager. So, listing the sponsor on each report provides clarity about those roles.
• Start date of the project: Timing matters for projects. Including the project’s start date at the top of the report helps people instantly glean how long the project has been progressing and how much time has already been invested. 
• Expected end date: Projects don’t stretch into eternity (at least, they shouldn’t). Including the project’s anticipated end date with the start date means people can understand the overall timeframe of the project.
• Customer name and information: If you work in professional services or any industry where you’re doing work for customers, the customer’s name and other identifying details should be included on the project report. That helps ensure accuracy in reporting and also makes file management a little easier. 
• Date the project report is released: Particularly for long projects, you could generate many reports throughout the process — maybe even dozens of them. Dating each project report means you can maintain a paper trail and ensure those reports are easy to refer back to and make sense of in the future. 

Key metrics of project success

Exactly what metrics you report on will depend on the intention of your overall report. For example, a project risk report will dedicate much more space and detail to potential threats to the project while a project status report will focus far more on the tasks that have been completed and what’s still left to do. 

It’s important to include some project success metrics in each report you generate. Much like the basic identifying project information, it’s helpful context for any team members or stakeholders who review the report. Think of it almost like the project’s highlight reel. It’s a quick rundown of project performance that should be included at the beginning of your report (after the identifying information) or at the very end, depending on your report formatting. 

• Schedule progress against plan: Is the project ahead of or behind schedule? How far ahead or how far behind? This helps people understand a more realistic timeline as well as how much time is left for the project.
• Current cost versus budget: Is the project under budget or over? How much over or under? It can also be helpful to include a few notes or bullet points about how the budget or project plan will be adjusted or managed moving forward, particularly if you’ve already experienced severe overages.
• Current scope compared to plan: Has the project scope changed since the project began? If so, how? Understanding how the scope evolves throughout the project will make it easier for everyone to manage resources and expectations.
• Planned versus actual resourcing: Are any resources missing or overallocated? How will you secure or reallocate resources moving forward?
• Overview of risks: Are there any high risks that need to be managed?
• Current quality findings: Has quality testing been done? Were there any issues?

Additional information to include

• Project change management : This is usually an update of any pending and approved change requests for the project.
• Actions taken: This provides a high-level summary of key actions taken and decisions made since the last project report. It can also include accomplishments, such as milestones recently met.
• Decisions required: If there is a crucial decision that needs to be made, this is the right place to share it, whose decision it is, and when it’s due. An example could be sponsor approval for the project management plan .
• Upcoming milestones: Deliverables due soon and milestones approaching are communicated here.
• Task lists : This is a list of all the tasks to be completed to deliver the project successfully. Task lists should have the start and end dates of the included tasks.

Types of project management reports

Below is a list of the most important project management reports you may need to track and report on your project status.

Time tracking reports

Time tracking reports show what projects your team members are spending time on. This helps you improve project management and communicate adequately with stakeholders about a project ’ s progress. Time tracking reports provide useful data to improve scheduling and resource management and boost revenue, especially in professional services agencies and companies.

Project status reports

Project status reports communicate how a project is progressing within a specific period. This helps to keep stakeholders updated on the project ’ s progress and any emerging issues with cost, scope, schedules, or risks. You can easily compare a project status report to the project baseline or project plan to assess how well it is doing. Project status reports typically include the work that ’ s been completed, a summary of the project’s costs and schedule, a plan for what is to follow, and any issues and risks.

Project health reports

Project health reports provide a snapshot of the status of a project. This helps to share how well or poorly a project is doing. Project health reports show what ’ s been done, what ’ s on schedule, and what ’ s overdue. They make it easy to communicate to team members and stakeholders about the overall health of a project. A project health report makes it obvious if you ’ ve stayed on track or deviated far from the project plan. It brings to the forefront the most important tasks to tackle to get a project back on the intended path. Different teams and companies may have unique ways of organizing their own project health reports.

Project risk reports

Project risk reports identify and categorize risks in a project based on their severity and likelihood of happening. This helps prioritize issues and eliminate harmful risks before they cause irreparable damage or project failure. Project risk reports communicate problems to stakeholders so they can take action. The goal of project risk reports is to catch and identify project risks before they occur.

Variance reports

Variance reports show how a project has deviated from the project plan or baseline. This helps compare how a project is doing with the project plan and reduce any chances of project failure. With a variance report, project teams can monitor actual and planned performances and ensure they are on track with the project scope, costs, and schedules. This helps mitigate risks and implement change management procedures where necessary. Variance reports also aid in planning for future projects.

Resource reports

Resource reports are helpful for managing available resources and planning a successful project. You can use them to adjust workloads and make decisions to make the project workflow more efficient and effective. Resource reports take costs, schedule, and scope of work remaining into consideration to make the best resourcing decisions for the project and team. It’s easy to see how much team members have on their plate and redistribute work to achieve the desired results and complete the project.

How often should you report on projects as a manager?

There’s no set cadence for your project reports. However, when determining how often you should send a project report to the team or other stakeholders, here are a few important elements to think through: 

• How long is the project’s timeline? For a project that spans many months, reporting daily would be overkill. But for a project that only spans a week or two, a quick daily report could be warranted. The duration of your overall project is one of your most important considerations when figuring out how often to create and share project reports. 
• What are client or stakeholder expectations? Are you creating deliverables for clients that expect frequent communication? Or have stakeholders expressed that they’d like regular weekly updates? Keep in mind that being a project manager is ultimately a service position, so you’ll need to consider other people’s needs, expectations, and preferences in terms of reporting cadence.
• How much has the project changed? Whether the project scope has ballooned, broader organizational goals have shifted substantially, or the team recently achieved a significant project milestone, major and consequential changes to the project almost always warrant a report and an update to stakeholders — even if it’s not your “regularly scheduled” time to send one. 

If you still feel unsure about how often to report on projects, have a conversation with the project team and any relevant stakeholders to get their insights on a cadence that would keep them informed without making them feel overwhelmed.

Tips for effective project reporting

When writing a project management report, it is essential to keep the following in mind:

• Be concise and share results and outcomes: Don't focus on details your stakeholders don't need to know. Try to use bullet points, not paragraphs. If you create a 10-page document every week, no one is likely to read it. Plus, you won't have time to manage the actual project.
• Understand your audience: Make sure the project report is not too technical and avoid jargon. Otherwise, your stakeholders won't be able to understand it.
• Provide context: Don't just say a deliverable will be two weeks late. Share how it will impact the rest of the project and what actions are being taken to resolve it. Stakeholders need to know how significant the problem truly is.
• Be clear about any asks: If you require your stakeholders to do something, make sure you explicitly mention who is responsible, what they are responsible for, and when it needs to be done.
• Make it visual: Use project management software that offers project management report templates . This allows stakeholders to quickly identify which projects are struggling and what areas they are struggling with before reading further into the project report. Executives may receive dozens of project management reports (or more) every week, so making your project reports easy to read is crucial.

Project management report example

How can Wrike help you with project management reports? 

Learning how to write a management report for your projects might seem daunting, but using the right software can make all the difference in the reporting process — whether you’re reporting on a small project or are tasked with enterprise project management . 

Wrike has all of the features you need to make every type of project a success, including reports . These reports are completely customizable and make it easy to gather all of the data you need from your tasks and projects and generate a helpful summary that you, your team, and all of your stakeholders can easily understand.

No more combing through spreadsheets or scrolling through endless email threads to find and compile the information you need. Wrike will gather your project-related information right from the source and save you all of the mundane and tedious work that’s usually synonymous with reporting. 

And if you’re tired of reports being lost, misfiled, or even hitting the recycling bin after a cursory glance, Wrike makes storage and management of your reports easy too. You can access and view all reports created by or shared with you by simply clicking “Reports.” It’s painless to find the information you need and you also have the peace of mind that you can always refer back to those reports in the future. 

Ready to jump in with project reporting that’s more helpful and less of a hassle? Get started with a two-week free trial of Wrike today and see how simple project management reports can be.

Further reading

7 Stakeholders to Consult Before Starting a New Project

Stop Projects From Derailing With Wrike’s New Report Templates

What It Means to Be a Digital Project Manager

How Successful Teams Use Project Management Software

Basic Project Management

• Project Charter
• Project Management Stakeholders
• What is a Project?
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Project Objectives
• Project Baseline
• Project Management Scheduling
• Project Management Work Packages
• Project Management Scope
• Scope Creep

Advanced Project Management

• What is PERT?
• Network Diagram
• Risk Management
• Cost Estimation
• Feasibility Study
• Monte Carlo Analysis
• Project Integration
• Cost Management
• PMI Project Management
• What To Do With Certification
• Certification
• Become Certified
• PMP Certification
• Best Certification

Software Features

• Critical Success Factors
• Capacity Planning
• User Role Access Permissions
• Time Tracking
• Budget Tracking
• Request Forms
• Work Assignments
• Version Control
• Dependency Managements
• Project management Milestones
• Project Management Software
• Project Management Tools
• Project Management System
• Gantt Charts

550+ Business Plan Examples to Launch Your Business

Need help writing your business plan? Explore over 550 industry-specific business plan examples for inspiration.

Find your business plan example

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Business plan template: There's an easier way to get your business plan done.

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View all sample business plans

Example business plan format

Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the traditional business plan format . You'll find that the business plan samples in this library and most investor-approved business plans will include the following sections:

Executive summary

The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your business plan and is ideally only one to two pages. You should also plan to write this section last after you've written your full business plan.

Your executive summary should include a summary of the problem you are solving, a description of your product or service, an overview of your target market, a brief description of your team, a summary of your financials, and your funding requirements (if you are raising money).

Products & services

The products & services chapter of your business plan is where the real meat of your plan lives. It includes information about the problem that you're solving, your solution, and any traction that proves that it truly meets the need you identified.

This is your chance to explain why you're in business and that people care about what you offer. It needs to go beyond a simple product or service description and get to the heart of why your business works and benefits your customers.

Market analysis

Conducting a market analysis ensures that you fully understand the market that you're entering and who you'll be selling to. This section is where you will showcase all of the information about your potential customers. You'll cover your target market as well as information about the growth of your market and your industry. Focus on outlining why the market you're entering is viable and creating a realistic persona for your ideal customer base.

Competition

Part of defining your opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage may be. To do this effectively you need to get to know your competitors just as well as your target customers. Every business will have competition, if you don't then you're either in a very young industry or there's a good reason no one is pursuing this specific venture.

To succeed, you want to be sure you know who your competitors are, how they operate, necessary financial benchmarks, and how your business will be positioned. Start by identifying who your competitors are or will be during your market research. Then leverage competitive analysis tools like the competitive matrix and positioning map to solidify where your business stands in relation to the competition.

Marketing & sales

The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you plan to reach your target market segments. You'll address how you plan on selling to those target markets, what your pricing plan is, and what types of activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success.

The operations section in our business plan examples covers the day-to-day workflows for your business to deliver your product or service. What's included here fully depends on the type of business. Typically you can expect to add details on your business location, sourcing and fulfillment, use of technology, and any partnerships or agreements that are in place.

Milestones & metrics

The milestones section is where you lay out strategic milestones to reach your business goals.

A good milestone clearly lays out the parameters of the task at hand and sets expectations for its execution. You'll want to include a description of the task, a proposed due date, who is responsible, and eventually a budget that's attached. You don't need extensive project planning in this section, just key milestones that you want to hit and when you plan to hit them.

You should also discuss key metrics, which are the numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common data points worth tracking include conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, profit, etc.

Company & team

Use this section of your business plan to describe your current team and who you need to hire. If you intend to pursue funding, you'll need to highlight the relevant experience of your team members. Basically, this is where you prove that this is the right team to successfully start and grow the business. You will also need to provide a quick overview of your legal structure and history if you're already up and running.

Financial projections

Your financial plan should include a sales and revenue forecast, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and a balance sheet. You may not have established financials of any kind at this stage. Not to worry, rather than getting all of the details ironed out, focus on making projections and strategic forecasts for your business. You can always update your financial statements as you begin operations and start bringing in actual accounting data.

Now, if you intend to pitch to investors or submit a loan application, you'll also need a "use of funds" report in this business plan section. This outlines how you intend to leverage any funding for your business and how much you're looking to acquire. Like the rest of your financials, this can always be updated later on.

The appendix isn't a required element of your business plan. However, it is a useful place to add any charts, tables, definitions, legal notes, or other critical information that supports your business plan. These are often lengthier or out-of-place information that simply didn't work naturally into the structure of your plan. You'll notice that in these business plan examples, the appendix mainly includes extended financial statements.

Types of business plans explained

While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. To get the most out of your business plan, it's best to find a format that suits your needs. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.

Traditional business plan

The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used for external purposes. Typically this is the type of plan you'll need when applying for funding or pitching to investors. It can also be used when training or hiring employees, working with vendors, or in any other situation where the full details of your business must be understood by another individual.

Business model canvas

The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.

The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template. It encourages you to build connections between every element of your business. It's faster to write out and update, and much easier for you, your team, and anyone else to visualize your business operations.

One-page business plan

The true middle ground between the business model canvas and a traditional business plan is the one-page business plan . This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business.

By starting with a one-page plan , you give yourself a minimal document to build from. You'll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences making it much easier to elaborate or expand sections into a longer-form business plan.

Growth planning

Growth planning is more than a specific type of business plan. It's a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, forecast, review, and refine based on your performance.

It holds all of the benefits of the single-page plan, including the potential to complete it in as little as 27 minutes . However, it's even easier to convert into a more detailed business plan thanks to how heavily it's tied to your financials. The overall goal of growth planning isn't to just produce documents that you use once and shelve. Instead, the growth planning process helps you build a healthier company that thrives in times of growth and remains stable through times of crisis.

It's faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your business plan is always up-to-date.

Download a free sample business plan template

Ready to start writing your own business plan but aren't sure where to start? Download our free business plan template that's been updated for 2024.

This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan sample is designed to make planning easy. It's a proven format that has helped over 1 million businesses write business plans for bank loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. It includes additional instructions for how to write each section and is formatted to be SBA-lender approved. All you need to do is fill in the blanks.

How to use an example business plan to help you write your own

How do you know what elements need to be included in your business plan, especially if you've never written one before? Looking at business plan examples can help you visualize what a full, traditional plan looks like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started. Here's how to get the most out of a business plan sample.

Choose a business plan example from a similar type of company

You don't need to find an example of a business plan that's an exact fit for your business. Your business location, target market, and even your particular product or service may not match up exactly with the business plans in our gallery. But, you don't need an exact match for it to be helpful. Instead, look for a business plan sample that's related to the type of business you're starting.

For example, if you want to start a vegetarian restaurant, a plan for a steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business plan are likely to be very similar.

Use a business plan example as a guide

Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want to avoid copying an example of a business plan word for word. It just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your business plan to be a useful tool for starting a business —and getting funding if you need it.

One of the key benefits of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll naturally think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , and any market analysis or research you'll need to do to be successful.

You'll also look at where you stand among your competition (and everyone has competition), and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet. Looking at an example of a business plan's financials section can be helpful because you can see what should be included, but take them with a grain of salt. Don't assume that financial projections for a sample company will fit your own small business.

If you're looking for more resources to help you get started, our business planning guide is a good place to start. You can also download our free business plan template .

Think of business planning as a process, instead of a document

Think about business planning as something you do often , rather than a document you create once and never look at again. If you take the time to write a plan that really fits your own company, it will be a better, more useful tool to grow your business. It should also make it easier to share your vision and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page.

Adjust your business plan regularly to use it as a business management tool

Keep in mind that businesses that use their business plan as a management tool to help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses that don't. For that to be true for your company, you'll think of a part of your business planning process as tracking your actual results against your financial forecast on a regular basis.

If things are going well, your business plan will help you think about how you can re-invest in your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgets or your sales forecast. Either way, tracking your progress compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business.

Prepare to pitch your business

If you're planning to pitch your business to investors or seek out any funding, you'll need a pitch deck to accompany your business plan. A pitch deck is designed to inform people about your business. You want your pitch deck to be short and easy to follow, so it's best to keep your presentation under 20 slides.

Your pitch deck and pitch presentation are likely some of the first things that an investor will see to learn more about your company. So, you need to be informative and pique their interest. Luckily we have a round-up of real-world pitch deck examples used by successful startups that you can review and reference as you build your pitch.

For more resources, check out our full Business Pitch Guide .

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Now that you know how to use an example of a business plan to help you write a plan for your business, it's time to find the right one.

Use the search bar below to get started and find the right business plan example for your business idea.

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30+ Free Project Report Samples [Printable, Customizable]

By archtc on April 3, 2023 — 3 minutes to read

• Types of Project Reports: Free Resources and Downloads Part 1
• General-Purpose Project Report Template Free Download Part 2
• Additional Resources Part 3
• How to dramatically reduce the time you spend creating reports Part 4

The purpose of a project report is to serve as a basis for decision-making and in determining whether the project is being carried out according to plan. This article allows you to have the exact guidelines of how to build a project report successfully.

The types of project reports in project management are the following:

Project Status Report

This type of project report provides a summary of the status of the project in terms of the highlights of the main or the overarching project, as well as what the team expects to accomplish in the coming weeks or months, the percentage of project completion, and its financial status, since the client, top management and other stakeholders will be interested to know whether the budget allocated for the project is enough or if it has been used judiciously.

Download free samples and templates here

Project status dashboard and project tracking.

This type of report presents data on key performance indicators, metrics for the overall performance and progress of the project, or highlights specific issues and challenges that may need attention from the top management and other stakeholders.

It provides information on all the tasks, its status, the percentage of the overall completion of the whole project and it aims to provide all this information to the reader in a single view. By tracking progress of each task being carried out by the team and the overall project itself, a project tracking report is a valuable project that strengthens communication between the units involved in a project.

Check 3 terrific sources and how-to’s here

Project progress report.

This specific report tracks actual project progress, including its performance based on the identified metrics and in terms of risks, issues, changes. Aside from that, it also presents a summary of the project status, budget, and deliverables.

Download the best samples here

Project summary report.

It contains a brief discussion of the progress of a project during the reporting period covering all its aspects. It is generally helpful in maintaining and handling all the data related to the project, in a way that is easy to understand and manage.

This article contains a useful free template and a guide

Project management report.

This particular report provides a comprehensive account of the aspects and important details of the project and the action taken by the team to accomplish the tasks involved or to achieve its performance targets.

Free examples and templates, how-to’s

Project reports may also be delivered on a periodic basis such as daily, weekly , and monthly.

There are also the following specific types of project reports:

Executive Project Report

• IT Project Status Report Basically summarizes and documents the status of a project related to information technology, this particular report is a useful tool that provides a history of the project which can be later revisited to track progress, conduct an assessment, and review the project.  How to write and a sample here .

Progress report is another popular type of reporting, it might not be always about a project or business progress but it may also document an individual’s progress. Check best practices and free templates for daily progress reports , weekly progress reports , and monthly progress reports  (click each link to check the relevant articles with free templates).

Project Status Report Samples: Free Download

If you just need a general-purpose project report sample, here are a few great templates:

Click Here to Download Project Status Report XLSX

Click Here to Download Project Update Report DOC

Click Here to Download Project Update Report 2 DOCX

—————————————————————————-

You can also use the following templates on ProsperForms :

Edit and use this template

Additional Resources

• How to Write a Project Report + Free Template Download
• How to Write a Quarterly Status Report + Free Template Download
• How to Write the Best Implementation Status Report + Free Template Download

Small Business Trends

How to create a business plan: examples & free template.

Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or launching your very first startup, the guide will give you the insights, tools, and confidence you need to create a solid foundation for your business.

Table of Contents

How to Write a Business Plan

Executive summary.

It’s crucial to include a clear mission statement, a brief description of your primary products or services, an overview of your target market, and key financial projections or achievements.

Our target market includes environmentally conscious consumers and businesses seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. We project a 200% increase in revenue within the first three years of operation.

Overview and Business Objectives

Example: EcoTech’s primary objective is to become a market leader in sustainable technology products within the next five years. Our key objectives include:

Company Description

Example: EcoTech is committed to developing cutting-edge sustainable technology products that benefit both the environment and our customers. Our unique combination of innovative solutions and eco-friendly design sets us apart from the competition. We envision a future where technology and sustainability go hand in hand, leading to a greener planet.

Define Your Target Market

Market analysis.

The Market Analysis section requires thorough research and a keen understanding of the industry. It involves examining the current trends within your industry, understanding the needs and preferences of your customers, and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

Our research indicates a gap in the market for high-quality, innovative eco-friendly technology products that cater to both individual and business clients.

SWOT Analysis

Including a SWOT analysis demonstrates to stakeholders that you have a balanced and realistic understanding of your business in its operational context.

Competitive Analysis

Organization and management team.

Provide an overview of your company’s organizational structure, including key roles and responsibilities. Introduce your management team, highlighting their expertise and experience to demonstrate that your team is capable of executing the business plan successfully.

Products and Services Offered

This section should emphasize the value you provide to customers, demonstrating that your business has a deep understanding of customer needs and is well-positioned to deliver innovative solutions that address those needs and set your company apart from competitors.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

Discuss how these marketing and sales efforts will work together to attract and retain customers, generate leads, and ultimately contribute to achieving your business’s revenue goals.

Logistics and Operations Plan

Inventory control is another crucial aspect, where you explain strategies for inventory management to ensure efficiency and reduce wastage. The section should also describe your production processes, emphasizing scalability and adaptability to meet changing market demands.

We also prioritize efficient distribution through various channels, including online platforms and retail partners, to deliver products to our customers in a timely manner.

Financial Projections Plan

This forward-looking financial plan is crucial for demonstrating that you have a firm grasp of the financial nuances of your business and are prepared to manage its financial health effectively.

Income Statement

Cash flow statement.

A cash flow statement is a crucial part of a financial business plan that shows the inflows and outflows of cash within your business. It helps you monitor your company’s liquidity, ensuring you have enough cash on hand to cover operating expenses, pay debts, and invest in growth opportunities.

Tips on Writing a Business Plan

4. Focus on your unique selling proposition (USP): Clearly articulate what sets your business apart from the competition. Emphasize your USP throughout your business plan to showcase your company’s value and potential for success.

FREE Business Plan Template

To help you get started on your business plan, we have created a template that includes all the essential components discussed in the “How to Write a Business Plan” section. This easy-to-use template will guide you through each step of the process, ensuring you don’t miss any critical details.

What is a Business Plan?

Why you should write a business plan.

Understanding the importance of a business plan in today’s competitive environment is crucial for entrepreneurs and business owners. Here are five compelling reasons to write a business plan:

What are the Different Types of Business Plans?

Using Business Plan Software

Upmetrics provides a simple and intuitive platform for creating a well-structured business plan. It features customizable templates, financial forecasting tools, and collaboration capabilities, allowing you to work with team members and advisors. Upmetrics also offers a library of resources to guide you through the business planning process.

Business Plan FAQs

What is a good business plan.

A good business plan is a well-researched, clear, and concise document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies, target market, competitive advantages, and financial projections. It should be adaptable to change and provide a roadmap for achieving success.

What are the 3 main purposes of a business plan?

Can i write a business plan by myself, is it possible to create a one-page business plan.

Yes, a one-page business plan is a condensed version that highlights the most essential elements, including the company’s mission, target market, unique selling proposition, and financial goals.

How long should a business plan be?

What is a business plan outline, what are the 5 most common business plan mistakes, what questions should be asked in a business plan.

A business plan should address questions such as: What problem does the business solve? Who is the specific target market ? What is the unique selling proposition? What are the company’s objectives? How will it achieve those objectives?

What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?

How is business planning for a nonprofit different.

How to Write a Formal Business Report (Template and Examples)

Formal business reports are official documents that guide and inform stakeholders. These reports are valuable tools when solving company problems or making decisions. 

You should be clear and include all relevant information to make your report useful in decision-making and problem-solving. 

Here are five steps for writing a formal business report:

• Define the purpose and intended audience
• Gather and analyze data
• Create an outline
• Draft the business report
• Revise and format your report

Keep reading to get valuable details under every step and learn to segment your report.

But first, let’s delve deep into formal business reports, the different types, and what differentiates them. We’ll also discuss the elements of a business report and cover valuable tips to perfect your writing skills.

Let’s get started!

Understanding formal business reports

Business reports provide an analysis of the current performance of a business and offer recommended actions to improve operations. A formal business report should include detailed data, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations.

What is a formal and informal business report?

A formal business report is a detailed and organized document that provides information about a specific topic, like research findings, market trends, or a financial situation. It usually includes conclusions based on data collected during the research process. 

Formal business reports can present complicated topics in an easy-to-understand format, allowing company executives to make informed decisions. A formal report typically includes an introduction, a body of information, and a conclusion. It should consist of accurate data and reliable sources and be written formally with proper grammar and spelling.

An informal business report does not follow traditional, formal reports’ formal structure and layout. Instead, it is written in an easy-to-understand language and typically includes summaries of key points, along with recommendations or suggestions for further action. 

Unlike formal reports, informal business reports do not need to be approved by higher management and can be sent directly to the intended recipient. Businesses often use informal reports to quickly provide updates or summaries of projects, data, or other important information. They are also commonly used when sharing ideas, solutions, or findings that don’t necessarily require a formal response from the receiver. 

While informal reports may need more depth and detail than formal reports, they can still communicate important information concisely and clearly. 

Types of formal business reports

Formal business reports include different types that may be used to present data, analyze performance, or make recommendations. Examples of formal business reports include annual, research, feasibility, and marketing research reports. 

Feasibility Reports

A feasibility report is an analytical document that outlines whether an activity or project has the potential to be successful. It includes cost estimates, expected outcomes, and other factors affecting the project’s success.

Business Plans 

A business plan is a formal outline of a company’s objectives and strategies for achieving them. It is used to obtain financing, attract investors, and set goals for the company. 

Business plans typically include sections on market analysis, organizational structure, competitive analysis, product or service description, financial projections, marketing strategies, and tactics.

Progress Reports

A progress report is a document that details the current status of a project or activity. It outlines the progress made, challenges encountered, and a timeline for when the project should be completed.

Financial Reports

Financial reports provide information about the company’s financial performance over some time. They include income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.

A proposal is a document that outlines how an organization, company, or individual intends to complete a project. It usually includes information such as the purpose of the project, expected outcomes, methods, and associated costs. For example, businesses may use proposals to solicit funding from investors or government agencies.

Market Research Reports

A market research report is a document that provides information about customer needs and competitor activities to develop strategies for the organization. They typically include data on consumer preferences, product demand, market trends, and other relevant factors.

Risk Reports

A risk report is a document that details the potential risks associated with a specific activity or investment. It outlines possible losses and considers how they could affect an organization’s operations. Risk reports may also include measures the organization can take to mitigate losses and recommendations for further actions.

Technical Reports

Technical reports are documents that explain the results of a technical project or investigation in detail. They are used to document the findings of a project and provide a record that can be used as reference material. 

Technical reports typically include sections on research methods, results, conclusions, recommendations, and implementation plans. 

What are the key differences between writing a business report and writing an academic report?

Business reports inform a decision or provide direction in the form of recommendations. They may include factual data and analysis but are often practical and focus on the actionable steps needed to achieve a goal. 

Academic reports take a more analytical approach, emphasizing research and thought-provoking discussions that examine different points of view. 

Sources used

When writing business reports, only use real-world sources such as government reports. But when writing academic reports, you may cite theoretical works . 

Conciseness

When writing business reports, use concise points with stakeholders in mind . As for academic reports, you may use technical terms and lengthy explanations to support a point. 

Academic reports are often longer and more detailed than business reports and may also include recommendations but with a focus on developing new strategies or ideas.

When writing a business report, adhere to the following structure: cover page, table of contents, list of figures, executive summary, introduction, body, conclusion, and recommendations. 

But when writing an academic report, follow the structure: introduction, literature review, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.

The purpose of both types of reports is to provide information that is useful and relevant to the target audience. So keep the audience in mind when writing a report; what information do they need to know? How will it help them make decisions or understand a concept better? 

Elements of a formal business report

An excellent formal business report organizes information into these sections: 

• Table of contents
• List of Figures
• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Recommendation

1. Title page

The title page indicates the company name (and logo), the author’s and readers’ names and positions, and the date.

2. Table of contents

The table of contents lists the sections of a report with their page number and helps jump to a specific title. 

3. List of Figures

The list mentions every chart or diagram included in the report and its page number for easy navigation. 

4. Executive summary

The executive summary briefly overviews the report’s key points, findings, and conclusions. It helps readers to understand the report’s data without reading the entire document. Therefore, this section should be the last to write since the facts in the report will form the executive summary. 

5. Introduction

The introduction outlines the research objectives and methods used to generate data for analysis. It sets the stage for what follows. Unlike the executive summary, it does not mention any conclusion or recommendation. 

The body contains an in-depth review of the research results and their implications. It may include an analysis of trends, correlations, pictorial evidence, and other data supporting the report’s conclusions.  

7. Conclusion 

The conclusion summarizes the data discussed in the body . It is a brief sentence that takes around three to six sentences. 

8. Recommendation

The recommendation suggests an action based on the facts presented in the report. It outlines steps or policy changes necessary to solve a problem.

9. Appendix

The appendix contains information that supports your report but would be distracting if you included it in the body. This information may consist of raw data, charts, transcripts, and surveys used for analysis or any additional resources used in the research process. You may also include acronyms used in the report.

10. References/Bibliography

This section consists of all references you used in your report. Citations protect you from plagiarism and give credit to your sources. You can write citations in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles , depending on the style of your formal report. 

11. Glossary

The glossary is where you define all technical terms used in the report. Use an asterisk next to words you will describe in the glossary to indicate that the reader should check the glossary for a definition. 

How to write a formal business report step-by-step

When writing a formal business report, start by defining the purpose of the report and the intended audience. You then gather data and analyze it before writing the report. Finally, write the report and revise it accordingly.

1. Define the purpose and intended audience

Why are you writing the report? Consider what information you need to include and who will read the report. This will help you structure your document correctly and provide relevant information. 

Defining your target audience will help you tailor the language used and choose relevant information to include in the report.

2. Gather and analyze the data

Collect all data relevant to achieving the goal of your report. This should include quantitative and qualitative data, such as customer satisfaction surveys, case studies, performance metrics, or feedback from stakeholders.

Once you have collected all of your data, analyze it and identify any trends or patterns that may be useful in writing the report. You can use various tools and techniques like statistical analysis , gap analysis , or cause-and-effect diagrams .

3. Create an outline

An outline will help you organize your research data, stay on topic, and avoid including unrelated information under a particular title. Besides having a section of each formal business report element above, outline your key points, headings, and subheadings. 

Use self-explanatory headings, for example, “ Impact of expanding market share. ”

3. Draft the report

Organize the data you collected during research into the draft report. Start by introducing the topic, providing background information, and the report’s objectives. Then include each of the main points you want to discuss, supported by evidence from the research data.

Have the relevant elements mentioned above and write adequate information under each section. The draft does not have to be perfect; you just need to organize the data roughly. 

4. Revise and format your report

After completing your draft, proofread and edit it to remove irrelevant data or add forgotten information. Make sure everything looks good, including the formatting. It also helps to share the business report with someone who can review it and propose necessary changes. Once everything is settled, share the report with your intended audience.

Tips for writing a formal business report

When writing a formal report, use data and evidence to support your argument, add visuals, use consistent fonts and headings, and highlight important information. You should also use clear language that is easy to understand, considering the audience’s background knowledge.

1. Only use credible sources

Credible sources strengthen your report because they are factual, unbiased, and reliable. To identify a credible source, look out for the following markers. 

• The source’s author should be an expert in their field.
• The information in the source should be up-to-date. 
• The source should include evidence. The author should not have their opinions or speculations.
• A credible source is peer-reviewed by other experts in the field. 

2. Use diagrams in formal business reports

Use diagrams like graphs and charts to illustrate relationships between ideas. They are more engaging, easier to understand, and they capture your audience’s attention. 

Mind that you don’t clutter your diagrams with too much information. Excess detail will confuse your readers. 

Achieve simplicity by:

• Removing backgrounds that cause distractions.
• Removing or lightening gridlines. Gridlines clutter diagrams. 
• Reduce the number of colors you use. Only use color on crucial data in the diagram. 
• Instead of adding every tiny detail, use symbols and have a key. The key explains what each symbol, figure, or line represents. 

3. Use a consistent format

A consistent format makes it easy to follow your report. Keep the format headings and subheadings uniform throughout your report. And make your page margins and font styles consistent. 

4. Use bold fonts to highlight  

Bold fonts stand out against regular text to draw focus on essential data and make it easier to skim through the report. Use bolding sparingly; otherwise, the effect of highlighting will not work.

Formal business report template

A formal business report template will save both time and energy by providing a framework that simplifies the process of assembling data into a comprehensive document.  

Check out this collection of editable business report templates to find one that works for you.

Final Thoughts: Formal Business Report

Formal business reports are essential tools for any business. An excellent report drives company decisions and recommends solutions to company problems. Writing one may be challenging, but this guide gives you a clear pathway to ease the process. 

Remember to use visual aids and credible sources to fortify your report. Organize data into the above sections, and use the discussed tips to write your business report like a pro!

You may also like:

• How to Write a Resignation Letter for a Better Opportunity [Samples + Template Included]
• Bullet Form Examples: How to Use Bullet Points Effectively
• How to Write a Subject Line for Job Applications [+Samples]

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Business Plan Executive Summary Example & Template

Updated: Jun 3, 2024, 1:03pm

Table of Contents

Components of an executive summary, how to write an executive summary, example of an executive summary, frequently asked questions.

A business plan is a document that you create that outlines your company’s objectives and how you plan to meet those objectives. Every business plan has key sections such as management and marketing. It should also have an executive summary, which is a synopsis of each of the plan sections in a one- to two-page overview. This guide will help you create an executive summary for your business plan that is comprehensive while being concise.

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The executive summary should mimic the sections found in the business plan . It is just a more concise way of stating what’s in the plan so that a reader can get a broad overview of what to expect.

State the company’s mission statement and provide a few sentences on what the company’s purpose is.

Company History and Management

This section describes the basics of where the company is located, how long it has been in operation, who is running it and what their level of experience is. Remember that this is a summary and that you’ll expand on management experience within the business plan itself. But the reader should know the basics of the company structure and who is running the company from this section.

Products or Services

This section tells the reader what the product or service of the company is. Every company does something. This is where you outline exactly what you do and how you solve a problem for the consumer.

This is an important section that summarizes how large the market is for the product or service. In the business plan, you’ll do a complete market analysis. Here, you will write the key takeaways that show that you have the potential to grow the business because there are consumers in the market for it.

Competitive Advantages

This is where you will summarize what makes you better than the competitors. Identify key strengths that will be reasons why consumers will choose you over another company.

Financial Projections

This is where you estimate the sales projections for the first years in business. At a minimum, you should have at least one year’s projections, but it may be better to have three to five years if you can project that far ahead.

Startup Financing Requirements

This states what it will cost to get the company launched and running. You may tackle this as a first-year requirement or if you have made further projections, look at two to three years of cost needs.

The executive summary is found at the start of the business plan, even though it is a summary of the plan. However, you should write the executive summary last. Writing the summary once you have done the work and written the business plan will be easier. After all, it is a summary of what is in the plan. Keep the executive summary limited to two pages so that it doesn’t take someone a long time to peruse what the summary says.

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It might be easier to write an executive summary if you know what to expect. Here is an example of an executive summary that you can use as a template.

Bottom Line

Writing an executive summary doesn’t need to be difficult if you’ve already done the work of writing the business plan itself. Take the elements from the plan and summarize each section. Point out key details that will make the reader want to learn more about the company and its financing needs.

How long is an executive summary?

An executive summary should be one to two pages and no more. This is just enough information to help the reader determine their overall interest in the company.

Does an executive summary have keywords?

The executive summary uses keywords to help sell the idea of the business. As such, there may be enumeration, causation and contrasting words.

How do I write a business plan?

If you have business partners, make sure to collaborate with them to ensure that the plan accurately reflects the goals of all parties involved. You can use our simple business plan template to get started.

What basic items should be included in a business plan?

When writing out a business plan, you want to make sure that you cover everything related to your concept for the business,  an analysis of the industry―including potential customers and an overview of the market for your goods or services―how you plan to execute your vision for the business, how you plan to grow the business if it becomes successful and all financial data around the business, including current cash on hand, potential investors and budget plans for the next few years.

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Kimberlee Leonard has 22 years of experience as a freelance writer. Her work has been featured on US News and World Report, Business.com and Fit Small Business. She brings practical experience as a business owner and insurance agent to her role as a small business writer.

Cassie is a deputy editor collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. Focusing on bringing growth to small businesses, she is passionate about economic development and has held positions on the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager.

How to Write a Business Plan: Your Step-by-Step Guide

So, you’ve got an idea and you want to start a business —great! Before you do anything else, like seek funding or build out a team, you'll need to know how to write a business plan. This plan will serve as the foundation of your company while also giving investors and future employees a clear idea of your purpose.

Below, Lauren Cobello, Founder and CEO of Leverage with Media PR , gives her best advice on how to make a business plan for your company.

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What is a business plan, and when do you need one?

According to Cobello, a business plan is a document that contains the mission of the business and a brief overview of it, as well as the objectives, strategies, and financial plans of the founder. A business plan comes into play very early on in the process of starting a company—more or less before you do anything else.

“You should start a company with a business plan in mind—especially if you plan to get funding for the company,” Cobello says. “You’re going to need it.”

Whether that funding comes from a loan, an investor, or crowdsourcing, a business plan is imperative to secure the capital, says the U.S. Small Business Administration . Anyone who’s considering giving you money is going to want to review your business plan before doing so. That means before you head into any meeting, make sure you have physical copies of your business plan to share.

Different types of business plans

The four main types of business plans are:

Startup Business Plans

Internal business plans, strategic business plans, one-page business plans.

Let's break down each one:

If you're wondering how to write a business plan for a startup, Cobello has advice for you. Startup business plans are the most common type, she says, and they are a critical tool for new business ventures that want funding. A startup is defined as a company that’s in its first stages of operations, founded by an entrepreneur who has a product or service idea.

Most startups begin with very little money, so they need a strong business plan to convince family, friends, banks, and/or venture capitalists to invest in the new company.

Internal business plans “are for internal use only,” says Cobello. This kind of document is not public-facing, only company-facing, and it contains an outline of the company’s business strategy, financial goals and budgets, and performance data.

Internal business plans aren’t used to secure funding, but rather to set goals and get everyone working there tracking towards them.

As the name implies, strategic business plans are geared more towards strategy and they include an assessment of the current business landscape, notes Jérôme Côté, a Business Advisor at BDC Advisory Services .

Unlike a traditional business plan, Cobello adds, strategic plans include a SWOT analysis (which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) and an in-depth action plan for the next six to 12 months. Strategic plans are action-based and take into account the state of the company and the industry in which it exists.

Although a typical business plan falls between 15 to 30 pages, some companies opt for the much shorter One-Page Business Plan. A one-page business plan is a simplified version of the larger business plan, and it focuses on the problem your product or service is solving, the solution (your product), and your business model (how you’ll make money).

A one-page plan is hyper-direct and easy to read, making it an effective tool for businesses of all sizes, at any stage.

How to create a business plan in 7 steps

Every business plan is different, and the steps you take to complete yours will depend on what type and format you choose. That said, if you need a place to start and appreciate a roadmap, here’s what Cobello recommends:

1. Conduct your research

Before writing your business plan, you’ll want to do a thorough investigation of what’s out there. Who will be the competitors for your product or service? Who is included in the target market? What industry trends are you capitalizing on, or rebuking? You want to figure out where you sit in the market and what your company’s value propositions are. What makes you different—and better?

2. Define your purpose for the business plan

The purpose of your business plan will determine which kind of plan you choose to create. Are you trying to drum up funding, or get the company employees focused on specific goals? (For the former, you’d want a startup business plan, while an internal plan would satisfy the latter.) Also, consider your audience. An investment firm that sees hundreds of potential business plans a day may prefer to see a one-pager upfront and, if they’re interested, a longer plan later.

3. Write your company description

Every business plan needs a company description—aka a summary of the company’s purpose, what they do/offer, and what makes it unique. Company descriptions should be clear and concise, avoiding the use of jargon, Cobello says. Ideally, descriptions should be a few paragraphs at most.

4. Explain and show how the company will make money

A business plan should be centered around the company’s goals, and it should clearly explain how the company will generate revenue. To do this, Cobello recommends using actual numbers and details, as opposed to just projections.

For instance, if the company is already making money, show how much and at what cost (e.g. what was the net profit). If it hasn’t generated revenue yet, outline the plan for how it will—including what the product/service will cost to produce and how much it will cost the consumer.

5. Outline your marketing strategy

How will you promote the business? Through what channels will you be promoting it? How are you going to reach and appeal to your target market? The more specific and thorough you can be with your plans here, the better, Cobello says.

6. Explain how you’ll spend your funding

What will you do with the money you raise? What are the first steps you plan to take? As a founder, you want to instill confidence in your investors and show them that the instant you receive their money, you’ll be taking smart actions that grow the company.

7. Include supporting documents

Creating a business plan is in some ways akin to building a legal case, but for your business. “You want to tell a story, and to be as thorough as possible, while keeping your plan succinct, clear, interesting, and visually appealing,” Cobello says. “Supporting documents could include financial projects, a competitive analysis of the market you’re entering into, and even any licenses, patents, or permits you’ve secured.”

A business plan is an individualized document—it’s ultimately up to you what information to include and what story you tell. But above all, Cobello says, your business plan should have a clear focus and goal in mind, because everything else will build off this cornerstone.

“Many people don’t realize how important business plans are for the health of their company,” she says. “Set aside time to make this a priority for your business, and make sure to keep it updated as you grow.”

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Writing an Effective One-Page Business Plan: What You Need to Know (+ Free Template)

By Homebase Team

If you’ve started—or are starting—a small business, you’ve probably heard the words ‘business plan’ thrown around. That’s because a business plan is an important document with important information! Even a one-page business plan can help you address key questions early in the planning process.

That’s right—we said  one page. In many cases, there’s no need for a supermassive document that takes ages to create. In this article, we walk you through what a good business plan needs—and what a business plan one-pager should contain. 

Whether you’re writing your business plan for the first time or giving your existing plan a refresh, we’ve got your back. We’ve even got a free, downloadable business plan template to help you get started. Let’s get into it!

Why do you need a business plan?

A business plan is a blueprint for your business. It outlines everything your business needs, from goals to market to the steps you need to implement.

Business plans serve two main purposes:

• To help you set your business up for success. As you put together your business plan, you’ll be forced to think strategically about all your business goals and activities . Are they realistic? Is something likely to go wrong? What haven’t you thought of? The goal is for you to walk away feeling confident in the future of your business.
• To communicate the value of your business to others. It’s rare that entrepreneurs like yourself will go it 100% alone. You’ll likely work with partners, investors, or vendors to bring your small business to life. A business plan gives your collaborators confidence in you and your business and helps them support you in the best way possible.

Taking the time to create a business plan can feel like you’re wasting all-too-precious time, but it can help keep you focused and increase efficiency down the road. It’ll also help you make better business decisions off the bat so you can grow your small business quickly and wisely. 

What are the 7 main points in a business plan?

Every business plan is unique, which is part of the reason writing one can feel a tad overwhelming. You can’t just copy and paste the plan from another business—instead, you need to assess your business’s idea within its niche.

Luckily, the skeleton of every plan is usually very similar. Whether you’re creating a plan for a neighborhood daycare or that cool new bar down the street , here are a few main points to put into any comprehensive business plan.

1. Executive summary

Your executive summary is an overview of your business plan. 

Think about this section like a TL;DR or too long, don’t read . If someone wants to understand the gist of your business plan in just a few minutes, what information would they need to know?

2. Company overview and description

In this section, you should introduce your business to the reader. By the time they finish reading this section, they should have a good idea of who you are, what you do, and what you sell—in other words, your business’s niche.

Don’t be afraid to dive into your own background and why you decided to start this business. Building a small business is personal, and your story can go a long way in giving the reader some context.

3. Market and competitive analysis

Every business needs customers. Here’s where you’ll detail who they are and the potential target market of your business, including your ideal customer.

You’ll also want to take note of potential competitors that may impact your business. These might be direct competitors, but could also be similar businesses that may compete for your customers’ time and money. For example, if you’re opening a cycling studio, you might consider any other type of fitness studio to be a competitor.

Competition isn’t a bad thing, but being aware of your competition is one way to ensure your business stands out from the crowd. 

4. Business offerings

Here’s where you’ll outline what products or services your business will offer in more detail. It doesn’t have to be a complete laundry list, but it should give readers a general idea and show a certain degree of forethought and attention to details.

For example, if you’re opening a bakery , this might be a sample of your menu. Or if you’re an HVAC repair company , you might share an overview of the services you’ll offer your customers. This section might even mention the products or services you won’t offer and why, especially if it helps clarify how your business is unique.

5. Management and operational plan

From managing employees and inventory to securing equipment and a lease, there’s a lot that happens behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly. Every business plan should touch on how you’ll manage the day-to-day of your business.

This is also a great place to indicate key milestones and timelines so you know that you’re on track for a successful grand opening. 

6. Sales, marketing, and PR strategy

Now that you’ve got all the research and operational plans in place , it’s time to start attracting customers and securing those sales. Even with the best products or services in town, every business can use a little marketing boost. Feel free to get creative. From social media to paid ads, there are tons of ways you can spread the word about your budding business . 

7. Financial forecast and budget

No one loves to crunch financials, but when it comes to business, money talks. And a strong financial plan is key to the long-term success of your business.

This final section of your business plan should estimate the costs, revenue, and profits of your business in the short and long term. How do you plan to finance your business? What costs will you incur before opening day ? What are the ongoing costs?

Not only will this give your vendors and investors confidence in your business, but it helps you make sure that your business is profitable in the long run.

What is a one-page business plan?

A one-page business plan is essentially a condensed version of a full business plan.  

It covers all the core information about your business without overwhelming the reader with details. The goal is to summarize your business plan for yourself and potential stakeholders so they can understand your business at a glance.

Depending on your business needs, this concise document may even be all you need to get your business off the ground. Or it could serve as a stepping stone to a more robust plan in the future. 

Top benefits of a one-page business plan.

Bigger isn’t always better—and one-page business plans are here to prove it.

Here are some benefits and reasons why you might opt for a one-page business plan:

• To kickstart your business planning: A full business plan can be incredibly daunting. A one-page business plan gives you a place to start without feeling overwhelmed with the nitty gritty. 
• To share and distribute: Sometimes potential vendors, partners, or investors want to get more information about your business before they sign on officially. Instead of leaving them with a massive document, a one-page business plan helps you share the relevant need-to-know information easily.
• To focus on the key details: If you’re early on in the business ideation process and want to make sure you have all the important information, a one-page business plan can help you easily validate your business plan.
• To save time: In the long term, you may still expect to put together a full business plan at some point. However, if you’re in a time crunch, a one-page plan can help you get the important insights without the time commitment.
• To easily edit: In an ever-changing business environment, a one-page business plan is much easier to keep updated. 

Key details to include in a one-page business plan.

Above, we outlined the key components of any business plan. The key with a one-pager is to keep it brief without losing any of those important details. 

Let’s look at the sections of a business plan one-pager and dig into how you can adapt them to cover all the details of your business—all on one page. 

Summary and overview

Start your one-page plan by sharing the name of your business, what you do, and your main value proposition.

The problem—and your solution

In a few sentences, share the problem that your business solves and how you solve it. This clarifies why your business should exist, so it’s an important section!

Depending on your business, you may also want to share a few of your team members to help readers put a face to your business. Great examples include the executive chef for a restaurant, or the lead veterinarian for your vet clinic.

Target market

Briefly describe who you expect to be a customer and their characteristics. This could be in the form of a short “ideal customer” profile.

Competitor overview

Here, you’ll touch on potential competitors and what makes your business stand out.

Business timeline

Share the key milestones for your business. For example, pitch when you’ll start marketing your business, when you’ll hire employees , and when you expect to open.

Sales and marketing plan

Here, you’ll quickly highlight the key marketing activities that you’ll use to drive new customers to your business. Try to stick to the most interesting or high-value stuff, like a website or social media .

Financial projections

Outline your expected revenue , expenses, and profits to give the reader an idea of your financial future.

Our tips for creating a one-page business plan.

If you’ve ever written something with a limited word count, you know that sometimes keeping things concise can be easier said than done.

As you get writing your one-page business plan, here are some of our top tips so you can make the most of that one page.

• Focus on the need-to-know information.
• Avoid fluff and keep your sentences short.
• Link out to additional resources and material if more information is necessary.
• Don’t be afraid to strategically incorporate visuals to emphasize the important points.
• Feel free to up sections or have different versions of your one-page business plan based on who’s reading it. 
• Get creative with formatting to keep information organized.

One-page business plan example.

If you’re skeptical that all that information can fit on one page—we have proof!  Here’s an example that you can use to start thinking about your business plan.

Download our free one-page business plan template.

A one-page business plan is one of the most important pages you’ll write for your business. While there’s a lot to think about, it’s worth the effort to give both you and your partners peace of mind.

The good news is that we’ve done the heavy lifting for you! If the above one-pager looks good to you, we’ve pulled it together as a download for you. All that’s left for you to customize it for your unique business, fill in the sections, and get ready to launch your business.

Download your one-page business plan template PDF

Get your team in sync with our easy-to-use, all-in-one employee app.

One-page business plan FAQs

Why should you create a business plan.

There are several reasons you should create a business plan, such as:

• Improving your decision-making as you start and grow your business.
• Setting realistic goals and timelines.
• Attracting top-notch suppliers, investors, and even employees.
• Keeping your business profitable and your financials in order.

What types of companies need a business plan?

From brand-new small businesses to established corporations, companies of all shapes and sizes need a business plan. It’s a key part of setting your business up for success and improving your business trajectory.

Even if you already have a business plan in place, revisiting it from time to time can help you stay on track with your goals and adapt as your business changes.

Can a business plan be one page?

Yes, in many cases a business page can be one page. The trick to creating an effective one-page business plan is making sure that you’re covering the most important pieces of information. 

Our top tips? Keep it as concise and organized as possible, so you can effectively communicate the value of your business to your audience.

Writing a one-page business plan is simple. You can create a business plan from scratch or use a free template like the one above to stay on track, but generally, the steps to writing a one-page business plan include:

• Start with a short executive summary and value proposition to introduce your business.
• Share the problem your business solves and your solution.
• Give an outline of top competitors and how your business compares.
• Create a timeline of key milestones.
• Outline your sales and marketing plan for attracting customers.
• Summarize your financial projections and funding plans.

Remember:  This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.

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How to Write a Business Plan Conclusion?

• Vinay Kevadia
• June 20, 2024

Completed writing your business plan?

Let’s wrap it up with a conclusion that ends your business plan on an exciting and positive note. Not to forget—a conclusion that convinces the readers about your business’s potential to succeed.

In this blog post, you will learn exactly how to write a conclusion of a business plan and get an example to guide you.

Let’s get started.

What is a business plan conclusion?

A business plan conclusion is the final section concluding very concisely the points discussed in your business plan.

It reinforces the business’s strengths and feasibility and reassures the readers of potential business success. It clarifies the reader’s benefit of associating with your business and convinces them of a profitable investment opportunity.

A conclusion is about 3-4 paragraphs long and is designed to drive action and leave a lasting impression on reader’s minds.

Business plan conclusion vs. executive summary

Many people confuse a conclusion and an executive summary to be the same. However, they are not. Let’s see how.

• An executive summary is a broad overview of your entire business plan. The conclusion, on the other hand, is a concise summary reinforcing the key takeaways of your plan.
• While an executive summary introduces the readers to your business idea, a conclusion convinces them to take the desired action.
• An executive summary is a preview of what the plan will be about. The conclusion, on the contrary, is a review of what the plan has discussed.
• An executive summary is concise. However, conclusions are more concise covering only the aspects that can drive decisions and actions.

Clear enough, right? Let’s move ahead.

Why is a business plan conclusion important?

Although a conclusion is not mandatory, it is an important aspect of a business plan. It communicates your passion and commitment to a business idea and convinces the readers of your ability to succeed.

A conclusion synthesizes the key insights of your business plan focusing on aspects such as market analysis, business strategy, competitive advantage, and milestones. It reinforces your plan’s vision and establishes your strategic position amongst readers.

A well-crafted conclusion will drive desired actions from the readers. It can seal the deal and fulfill your objective of writing a business plan .

How to write a conclusion for your business plan?

From what information to include to where to place the conclusion—this section will guide you to write an impactful conclusion for your business plan.

1. Choose the right placement

There are two places for you to place your conclusion. It can either be after your executive summary or at the end of the document.

The location changes depending on who you plan to present your business plan with.

If you prepare a business plan for investors , placing your conclusion after the executive summary will increase the likelihood of it getting read.

However, the conclusion should be placed at the end for business plans that are prepared for internal use and business partners. Conclusion in this case reviews and emphasizes the company’s strengths.

2. Place the right information

The information in your conclusion changes depending on your audience and the intent of the business plan.

For instance, if you’re a new business trying to secure funds, your conclusion can synthesize the key details about the following:

• Funding demands
• Benefit to the investors
• Target market and target customers
• Solution for the problem
• Marketing strategy
• Team members and their expertise
• Financial projections
• Competitive advantage
• Launch plan

However, if you’re a small business trying to grow or use this plan for internal use, consider covering key insights from the following aspects:

• Mission statement
• History and the milestones
• Data supporting growth
• Industry trends
• Financial summary
• Long-term goals and objectives

These are the details you can cover while writing your conclusion. However, including every bit of these in your conclusion is unnecessary.

Think from your reader’s perspective. Determine the information that would excite them about your business and form your conclusion accordingly.

3. Include stats and visuals

Now that you’ve decided on the placement and information to be included in your conclusion, it’s time to make your conclusion zesty.

How? Get the facts and stats that would support the claims you make in your conclusion.

For instance, if you’re promising growth, show market research that supports your claim. Again, if you’re promising a certain return on investment, include the statistics that can make investors believe you.

Sway away from vague statements and assumptions. And, if you feel that the statistic would be best absorbed through visual charts or graphics, don’t be afraid to add one.

4. Add a CTA

If you want the readers to take action, guide them. Add a crisp clear call to action(CTA) and explain how the readers would benefit from taking that action.

For instance, 

• Join us as a silent partner by investing in Beanco.
• Invest $2 M and secure a 20% stake in equity.
• Support our growth by sharing references.

Don’t beat around the bush. If you are making a funding request, be unapologetic. And even if not, your CTA should suggest how a reader can support your growth.

5. Review and proofread

Once your conclusion is ready, re-read and proofread it for any grammatical or spelling errors. Fix the flow and remove fluff to make your conclusion crisp and persuasive.

Get your friends and business partners to read the conclusion and check if the message you are trying to send is crisp and clear. If not, make the necessary adjustments.

Business plan conclusion example

Use this business plan conclusion as a reference and tailor yours keeping in mind the needs, objectives, and audience for your business plan.

Launching EcoRide Electric Scooters will revolutionize urban transportation by providing an eco-friendly, efficient, and affordable solution for city commuters. Our innovative design and advanced technology will set us apart in the rapidly growing market for sustainable transport options.

We are poised to make a significant impact on urban mobility, and we want [Investor’s Name] to be a foundational part of our journey. By investing in EcoRide Electric Scooters, [Investor’s Name] will benefit in the following ways:

• Joining a groundbreaking startup with a vision to reduce urban pollution and traffic congestion, led by a passionate team with over 20 years of combined experience in the automotive and tech industries.
• Supporting the development and deployment of cutting-edge electric scooters, contributing to a cleaner, greener urban environment.
• Gaining equity in a high-potential startup with a scalable business model and the potential for significant returns as we expand to new markets.

Together, we can transform urban transportation, reduce carbon footprints, and create a sustainable future for city dwellers. If you share our vision for a cleaner, more efficient urban commute, partner with us.

Let’s conclude your business plan

Now that you have understood the process and referred to an example, let’s conclude your business plan.

Identify the information you must highlight, encapsulate it into a powerful conclusion, and pair it with an even more powerful CTA.

However, remember that the conclusion just seals the deal. It’s the business plan that will hook your readers till the end. With Upmetrics’s AI business plan generator , you can create truly engaging business plans in just about 10 minutes.

So, improvise your business plan, sum it up with a convincing conclusion, and send over your business plan to your potential investors to secure funding.

Build your Business Plan Faster

with step-by-step Guidance & AI Assistance.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a business plan conclusion be.

A conclusion of your business plan can be anywhere between 2-3 paragraphs long. In this ideal length, you must outline the key takeaways of your plan, clarify the next step to the readers, and explain to them the benefit of supporting your business.

What is the most important part of a business plan conclusion?

A CTA is the most important part of the conclusion, especially if you are trying to raise funds. However, if you are writing a plan for internal purposes, focus more on synthesizing the key essentials of a plan.

Can I include new information in the conclusion?

A conclusion does not introduce any new information. It simply reinforces the business’s position and convinces the readers to take the desired action for one last time. For instance, offer funding for your business.

Is it necessary to include a call to action in the conclusion?

It is very important to add a crisp clear CTA while concluding your plan. You can’t expect the readers to invest in your business or help you grow if you don’t clarify the steps to take action.

About the Author

Vinay Kevadiya

Vinay Kevadiya is the founder and CEO of Upmetrics, the #1 business planning software. His ultimate goal with Upmetrics is to revolutionize how entrepreneurs create, manage, and execute their business plans. He enjoys sharing his insights on business planning and other relevant topics through his articles and blog posts. Read more

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