Producing Effective Written Reports

Although some consulting work may require only a brief verbal discussion or oral presentation to convey the results of your work, most consulting assignments result in at least a brief written report.

The best report is the one that your intended audience actually reads. If your client throws your report into a corner and forgets about it — because it's too complex, it's untimely, or the results don't match your client's expectations — you have just wasted your time, and your client has wasted money.

Two basic consulting reports

In most cases, you will use two different kinds of written reports to communicate with your clients: progress reports and final report. In some cases — particularly in complex projects of long duration — your consulting projects will use both types of reports. In others — particularly projects that are relatively simple and short in duration — you may need to submit only a final report. In any case, you should plan to allocate approximately 20 percent of your time to the task of preparing and communicating results.

The most important consideration of all is your client's expectation. If your client expects a short report, make sure that you deliver a short report. If your client expects a long, detailed report, make sure that you tailor your format to meet that need.

Progress reports — also known as milestone reports or project status reports — do just what they say: They report your progress on the way to completing a project. A progress report can be anything from a short, one-page update to a full-length, multipage extravaganza. Regardless of the length of your progress reports, make sure that they are concise and to the point.

The exact length and format of your report are up to you and your client, but you should make sure that your progress reports contain at least the following information:

• Executive summary: Write a brief but complete summary of the progress of the project during the reporting period, highlighting accomplishments and recommendations.

• Key accomplishments: Your clients will be particularly interested in any notable accomplishments that you have achieved on the project.

• Work completed during the reporting period: Summarize the exact work that you completed during the reporting period and discuss how it relates to the overall project.

• Percentage of completion: This information is simply an estimate of the percentage of completion of your project during the period of the report.

• Work to be completed: Briefly discuss the work to be completed during the next reporting period and how it relates to the rest of the project.

• Issues: If you have encountered any problems or other issues that need to be brought to your clients' attention, list them here. Make sure that you follow up this written presentation of project issues with personal, face-to-face discussions with your clients.

How often should you produce progress reports? The specific answer to that question depends upon the exact nature of the project, how long the project is scheduled to last, and the expectations of your clients.

Your final report presents the results of your project and, as such, is the culmination and central focus of the efforts you have undertaken on behalf of your client. Depending on the exact nature of your work, your final report may be the showcase of the project, and it may form the basis for company-wide changes or restructuring.

Final reports are different from progress reports in many ways. Here are the key ingredients that you always include in your final reports:

• Executive summary: Briefly summarize the information you are presenting in your final report and highlight key project accomplishments and problems.

• Project background and scope: Make this part of the final report your opportunity to discuss the nature and scope of the project, how it came to be, and your role in it.

• Methodology: Your readers want to know how you came up with the results and conclusions that form the basis of your report.

• Findings and conclusions: This section of your report contains the results of your work and any conclusions you can draw from what you found out in your investigation.

• Recommendations: Apply all your experience to develop and present your prescription to cure your clients' ills. Make sure that your recommendations are concise and easy to understand and that they can realistically be acted upon.

• Implementation guidelines: Spell out a step-by-step approach for putting your recommendations into place and include scheduling milestones and budgetary information. While you're at it, take the opportunity to propose your role in the implementation, along with a price and timetable to do so.

• Summary of benefits: Summarize the benefits of your recommendations in a way that shows your clients why they should be compelled to implement them.

You have only one chance to make a first impression

It bears repeating that your reports may be the only tangible product you deliver to your clients. Therefore, both the quality of the contents of the report and the quality of your firm will be judged by how your reports look.

The following tips may help make your reports as professional-looking as they possibly can be.

• Composition and printing: Use a fully capable computer word processing program (such as Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect) and then print your report out on a good quality laser printer, such as those produced by Hewlett-Packard, Panasonic, Brother, and others.

• Layout: Use lots of white space, indentations, margins, headings, and other layout features to make your reports more inviting to the reader. Ask your clients for some examples of reports they like or check your word processing software for standardized report templates.

• Graphics: Graphs, tables, charts, photographs, drawings, and other graphical features make your reports much more attractive and professional in appearance. If you want to really go all the way, use full-color versions of the graphics in your reports. Keep in mind, however, that you can use too manygraphics in your reports.

• Paper and covers: Use top-quality, heavyweight paper (24 pounds and up) for producing your reports. A transparent front cover that both protects and provides easy access to the cover page of your report and a heavy, color-coordinated back cover are pretty much the norm.

• Binding: For small- to medium-sized reports, use a comb, wire, tape, or special binding (such as Velobind) to hold your reports together. You can take your reports to almost any printer or copy shop to get them done. For larger reports, use good-quality three-ring binders.

• Proofreading: Check your report closely for grammatical and typographical errors. Not only will the results of your work be judged suspect by your client, but so will you and your firm.