Want to Know the Secret to Sell Yourself and Your Ideas to Senior Management?

Conference Room Report to Senior Management

As a Presentation Skills Expert, I’m often asked, “Patricia, how do I report to my senior management without being nervous?” The secret is to be prepared, clear, concise, and to act confident. Now, how do you appear confident when you’re nervous ?

First, prepare. Script out exactly what you are going to say, at least the opening of your presentation or conversation . It could be as simple as, “Thank you for the opportunity to update you on our project” or “The purpose of our meeting is to . . . ” or “As you will remember, at our last meeting you challenged us to . . .”

If your manager, or senior management team, gives you 10 minutes, it’s best to prepare a seven-minute presentation. You will certainly get credit if you can deliver a focused report in less time than expected.

Get to the point fast . Use shorter sentences or phrases. Make sure you use very specific language . In other words, don’t say “thing.” Instead, use a precise, appropriate word. Do not talk about “tons.” Sloppy language diminishes your power.

Remember, your report must focus on the deals and handle the details. In other words, your senior management wants to know what the bottom line is. Answer that, and I promise that your report to senior management will be less stressful.

Rehearse what you are going to say with one of your colleagues.

Even if you are nervous, or possibly even terrified, don’t worry. The work you’ve done in advance will give you confidence. Also, if you present without distractions or fidgeting and remember to breathe, you will look more confident. Once your presentation gets off to a good start, you will feel confident.

I share my strategies for presenting to senior management without being terrified in this video. Enjoy!

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Just a few of the many complimentary resources on Fripp.com to help you best present your ideas, intelligence, and professional expertise:

  • When You’re on The Spot, Speech Structure Can Save You
  • Do You Sound Intelligent, Powerful, Polished, Articulate & Confident?
  • How to Present to Senior Management – FrippVT Video
  • How to Talk to Money – Tailor Your Elevator Speech to Venture Capitalists

Executive Speech Coach and Hall of Fame Keynote Speaker Patricia Fripp works with those who realize that powerful, persuasive presentation skills give them a competitive edge.

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how to write a good report to senior management

How to Present to Senior Executives

Learn how to present to executives.

If you're like most people, presenting to executives has probably been a bit intimidating. The thought of walking into a room full of busy and important senior executives can be daunting. However, if you follow these tips, it's possible to make an effective presentation — even when you're nervous!

Define your objective.

The first step in presenting your ideas to senior executives is defining your objective. Before you start, you need to know what you want to achieve. 

The second step is to be sure that the person presenting their ideas and the people who are hearing them understand each other's needs. Because if we don't know what our audiences want or need from us, how can we provide them with a solution? This will also help ensure that when you ask for something, it's relevant and appropriate for the situation.

How do you present information to senior management?

Because senior executives' decisions are s o critical, it's important to understand what is expected from your presentation. Depending on their role and experience, each executive may be interested in different things. However, it's common for them to have questions such as:

  • How you'll measure success
  • How much time and money will be required to complete the project
  • What resources will be needed (e.g., people, equipment)
  • What problems might arise along the way 

It's also important that you're prepared for questions stemming from the actual presentation, especially if it's a pitch for funding. For example, how will you know if your project is on track? How do you plan to spend any excess funds? What are some obstacles that could get in your way?

What are good questions to ask about your audience?

The next step is to figure out what you need to learn about your audience. This will help you guide your presentation and allow you to make sure they understand the information that you present.

Here are some good questions to consider:

  • Who is the audience? 
  • Are they more interested in how things work or why things happen? 
  • What level of knowledge do they have about this topic?
  • What do they know about your topic?
  • What do they not know about your topic?
  • What are they interested in?
  • What are they not interested in?
  • What questions do I want my audience to ask? What do I need to do to be able to answer them?
  • How much time does each attendee have available for a presentation?  

What should be included in an executive presentation?

You'll want to include:

Six elements for an executive summary

  • Problem statement. This is where you explain why there's a problem or issue to solve and its impact on your audience or organization (if applicable).
  • Solution statement/recommendation(s ). This is where you outline your proposed solution or recommendation for solving the problem based on your research and findings, including any data and/or metrics that support this conclusion. You should include any risks associated with implementing this new solution as well — this helps mitigate any concerns executives might have about changing their strategy or plans to implement your recommendations.

Be prepared to answer the question "So what?"

"Why should we care about this? How does it relate to our business goals?" These are the most important questions you need to keep in mind when developing a presentation. Be prepared to respond to these questions at any time while giving your presentation. Make sure that you differentiate between issues that may seem important but aren't immediately relevant. 

Clarify in advance the role you want them to play.

Before you begin to write your presentation, you must ask yourself what role you want the audience members to play. For example, if your objective is simply to inform your audience about a new product line, their role is to listen and absorb the information. However, if you want them to make a decision or take action (e.g., approve funding), they will need some time for deliberation before doing so. This is where having a specific agenda can help ensure that discussions stay on track.

You should also determine how much structure is appropriate for your meeting: Will time be set aside for questions at the end of the presentation? Will there be an opportunity for feedback or questions after each segment? These decisions will dictate how much direction you give during each presentation section.

Answer their questions. 

When presenting to senior executives, if they ask questions during your presentation, don't give quick answers. Focus on giving thoughtful responses to be sure you're addressing their specific question. It is best to be prepared by thinking about what questions they may ask and preparing succinct answers. If you don't know the answer, don't make one up. It is fine to let them know you will get back to them. Make sure you provide a time certain for when you will get back.

Don't assume they all have the same level of knowledge.

When presenting to senior executives, it's important to remember that they all have different levels of knowledge and experience. Some may be experts in the subject you're discussing, while others may not be familiar with it at all. 

To keep things interesting for everyone, you should use creativity in your presentation style. Here are some tips:

  • Understand what your audience knows about your topic — and also what they don't know. The more informed they are on the topic before you start speaking, the better off everyone will be. Suppose there are any topics or points that everyone should understand before moving forward with your presentation (e.g., "Here's how our product works"). In that case, it might make sense for someone else on your team to cover these before giving a presentation yourself so that everyone has an equal understanding of what is being discussed during this meeting/session/etc.
  • Know who exactly is in attendance at each meeting (and where) . When possible, ensure every attendee has access (to what, the meeting?) beforehand, so there aren't any surprises during the delivery time!

Give them an opportunity to contribute.

When presenting to senior executives, there's a good chance they may have more experience than you. That means they might also have some great ideas worth sharing. Ask for their questions, suggestions, and other forms of insight that may be helpful to you in the future as well as during the presentation itself. Encourage them to share their opinions by asking questions like "What do you think?" or "How can we make this better?" If you're looking for specific answers, try saying something like: "I'd love to hear your thoughts on this." This will help get everyone involved in your presentation.

Watch your time.

Time management is essential. At the beginning of your presentation, set a timer and stick to it. You can use the timer on your phone or computer, but make sure you reset it for each section of your talk so you know how much time is left in that section as well as for the full presentation.

It's important to know how much time you have in advance and plan accordingly. If you're presenting on a topic that has many different parts and subtopics, give yourself enough time to talk about them all without rushing through any one section too quickly. Be sure not to spend too much time on one particular point.

If you're presenting to a group of executives who are used to being in control and having access to all the information when they feel like they've heard enough, they may cut off your presentation before it's completed. When this happens, ask them if they'll give you a few more minutes so that everyone has an opportunity to ask questions.

Stick to the point, don't ramble.

When presenting to senior executives it's important to remember that they are busy people. You need to use every second of your time wisely. They don't have time for rambling or digressions. If you find yourself going off track, consider whether the point you are making could be better focused on what they need to know rather than what you want them to know. If a certain piece of information is interesting but not vital, cut it out entirely or save it for later.

How can I impress senior executives?

What can you do to impress senior executives?

  • Be prepared for any response.
  • Be prepared for any situation.
  • Be prepared for any outcome, no matter what it is (good or bad).

Everyone needs to make an executive presentation at some point, be ready!

Whether you have been presenting for decades or just starting out, a presentation to the executive team is a big deal and you need to be prepared for anything.

To hit it out of the park (or perhaps land safely on solid ground), you need to be confident. If you don't know enough about what you're talking about, or if you think you may not be able to answer questions confidently, it will show. Beyond the actual content, your body language and tone of voice will also show your lack of confidence. 

I've found the best way to be confident is by being well prepared and practicing with friends or colleagues beforehand. Practice until every minute detail feels natural and easy to present and discuss. Confidence is critical for any speaker. You may also want to get coaching or training. Click here for more information.

It's important to remember that executive presentations are a two-way street. If you're going to ask senior executives to listen to your ideas and seek buy-in, then you also have to be willing to listen. If they have something valuable to add, don't be afraid; instead, let it fuel your presentation.

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How to Write for Senior Executives

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When you and I don’t work efficiently, we may waste time, money, supplies, and opportunities. But imagine the waste involved when the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and other executives at “C-level” work inefficiently.

Beyond the cost of their time, executive inefficiency can rock an entire organization. Forgotten commitments, delayed decisions, unavailable information—these place a huge burden on a company.

As writers, we affect C-level efficiency. When we send concise, well-organized documents to C-level readers, we help them understand and use information quickly. When we send them poorly conceived, rambling documents, we cut their efficiency and effectiveness.

Here are 12 ways to write well for C-level. When you finish reading them, please share your thoughts in a comment.

1. Provide an executive summary. When you write a report or a similar document, state the primary message at the beginning. Do not state simply what is to come, as in “This report presents research that will . . . .” Instead, state conclusions: “Extensive research demonstrates that . . . .” An opening summary gives C-level readers a key to quickly understand the information you will present. My blog post “Write Better Executive Summaries” can help you.

2. Provide only the information they need. Your C-level readers do not need to know enough to do your job. They need only enough to do their jobs. Do not share background, history, and detailed data when your readers need just the core message.

To determine how much to include, imagine that you are meeting with the individual. For example, would the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) ask for details about your three months of research? Or would the CTO ask, “What do you recommend and why?” Remember that C-level individuals typically focus on profits, market share, strategy, competition, efficiencies, tax savings, and operating within the law.

3. Summarize. People at C-level need the big picture, not fine details. Therefore, summarize meetings and conversations. For example, if you are reporting on a meeting with a customer, do not report “He said this” and “I responded that” or “She asked about pricing, and I told her . . . .” Report specific agreements, outcomes, and action items but not all the details that led to them.

4. Write so that your information can be passed on verbatim. Your C-level reader may need to pass on your information to others at the executive table. Write for those pass-it-on readers, and your executive will be more efficient.

For example, rather than stating “Chris at XYZ says we ought to team up to gain design efficiencies,” write “Chris Bloom, VP of Leadership Development at XYZ Company, wants to explore partnering with us in the program design phase.”

5. Don’t just report. Analyze, synthesize, and recommend. Whenever you can add value, add it. In a recommendation, for example, if some options are not feasible, eliminate them rather than wasting time describing them. If one choice is outstanding, say so emphatically.

Rather than passing on a white paper or article “FYI,” read it yourself and summarize the essential points.

6. Provide descriptive headings. Headings focus your readers on the information they need. Generic headings such as “Test Results” and “Recommendation” are useful. But descriptive headings speed understanding. They include content, such as “Test Results: 20-Page Catalog Ups Sales by 4 Percent” and “Recommendation: Invest in the ACE E-Learning Aid.”

7. Clearly state when action is required. Even C-level individuals need to be told what to do by when. If your reader must approve a contract change or authorize an expense, say so clearly. Point out any deadlines and incentives that require prompt action.

8. Write skimmable documents. Use bullet points, lists, and short paragraphs. Your C-level reader is indeed capable of comprehending lengthy paragraphs and complex sentences. However, it is easier for everyone to retrieve information when content is rendered in short chunks.

9. Include links to more information. Provide links rather than large chunks of information. Links allow your readers to click when they want more information rather than wading through large amounts they don’t want. Provide charts and graphs as attachments, appendices, or links rather than lengthening your report.

10. Watch your jargon and abbreviations. It is fine to use abbreviations that everyone in your company recognizes, such as DC for Distribution Center and LOB for line of business. But be careful about jargon and abbreviations that only technical experts know. If your C-level reader doesn’t recognize Lucidchart or skeuomorphism , he or she will be vexed by your inability to communicate rather than impressed by your expertise.

11. Use plain English. The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) may have an M.D. and a Ph.D., but those degrees do not mandate the use of complex, sophisticated language. When writing for executives, use begin rather than commence ; use  explain  rather than  explicate . Plain English is easier for everyone to read, understand, and act on.

12. Don’t drown the executive in email. As the head of a function or division, your senior executive may receive hundreds of emails daily. To avoid drowning him or her (or an executive assistant), send only must-have messages. Before copying a senior executive on email you send, ask yourself whether the person must have it. If the answer is no, don’t send the copy.

Like anyone else, C-level readers need the four Cs: clarity, conciseness, completeness, and courtesy. At their level, a fifth C applies as well: courage. Have the courage to write directly and honestly, and you will be doing your C-level reader—and your organization—a service.

This is is good advice for writing at any level. It can be leveraged across an organization, and makes logical sense. Don’t overcrowd with fillers and large words, write concisely, summarize at front and then lead in with supporting facts.

Jacqueline, you are correct. Thanks for that helpful reminder.

Cristie, that is an excellent approach to making email more efficient in an organization. Thanks for sharing it.

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how to write a good report to senior management

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Top 25 Management Reporting Best Practices To Create Effective Reports

Top 25 management reporting best practices blog by datapine

Table of Contents

1) What Is A Management Report?

2) Financial vs. Management Reports

3) Management Reporting Best Practices & Examples

4) Management Reporting Trends & History

5) Importance Of Management Reporting

6) Types Of Management Reports

7) Management Reporting System Functionalities

8) Best Practices Summary

Management reporting is a source of business intelligence that helps business leaders make more accurate, data-driven decisions. But, these reports are only as useful as the work that goes into preparing and presenting them. In this blog post, we’re going to give a bit of background and context about performance management reports, and then we’ll outline 25 essential best practices you can use to be sure your reports are effective.

We’ll also examine examples that illustrate these practices in action created with modern online reporting tools . By the end of this article, making stunning and useful managerial reports will be second nature to you. But before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s start with the basic definition.

What Is A Management Report?

A management dashboard example visualizing the number of paying customers, ARPU, CAC, CLTV, and MRR over the course of a month.

Management reports are analytical tools used by managers to inform the performance of the business in several areas and departments. Senior executives and leadership use management reporting to drive their strategic decisions and monitor critical KPIs in real-time. 

They basically show the worth of your business over a specific time period by disclosing financial and operational information. Reporting for management provides insights into how the organization is doing, empowering decision-makers to find the right path to increase operating efficiency and make pertinent decisions to remain competitive. To do so, many companies use professional management reporting software .

Backed up with powerful visualizations developed with a dashboard creator , no information can stay hidden, eliminating thus the possibility of human errors and negative business impact. The image above is a management report example focusing on a SaaS business. Throughout this post, we will cover various examples for different industries and departments to help you understand the power of these modern tools.

In The Beginning, Financial Reports

Most people in business are familiar with financial reports, which your business is required to keep for external accounting purposes. These reports are generally put out “after the fact” and follow a very clear and established set of guidelines known as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

While such reports are useful for legal purposes, they’re not ideal for decision-making. They give you a bird's eye view of your business operations but without the actionable insights that are useful for making strategic choices. They’re also slow. As Tyrone Cotie, treasurer of Clearwater Seafoods, said , “…no matter how quickly you compile and release historical financial statements, you never make a decision from them. The challenge for finance is getting timely and accurate analysis that’s forward-looking and helps us make decisions.” This statement is valid today and probably, in the future as well. Why?

Because this mismatch between usefulness and reality comes from the fact that financial reports were never designed to be useful: they were designed to satisfy legal requirements. They were using historical data only.

Trying to make financial management reports useful

The mentioned mismatch led some companies to try to use their financial reports for legal purposes as decision-making tools by including additional information in them. While this approach has some merit, it has one big drawback: increased complexity and time cost. Considering that financial reports have to hit specific legal deadlines and that any additional information will cause them to be prepared in a more time-intensive way, this approach of “hybridizing” financial reports into management + finances is not recommended. Thus, the practice of management reporting separately from financial reporting came about. Managerial reports use a lot of the same data as financial ones but are presented in a more useful way, for example, via interactive management dashboards .

As a Growthforce article states, management reports help answer some of the following questions for a CEO:

  • “Am I pricing my jobs right?
  • Who are my most profitable clients?
  • Do I have enough cash for payroll?
  • Should I hire more employees? If so, how much should I pay them?
  • Where should I spend my marketing dollars?”

To answer these questions, you will need a financial management report focused not on legal requirements but on business-level and decision-making ones. In essence, analysis reports are a specific form of business intelligence that has been around for a while. However, using dashboards, big data, and predictive analytics is changing the face of this kind of reporting.

Before moving on to our list of best practices, we leave you an image to help you easily visualize the differences between these two types of reports.

Differences between traditional financial reports and modern management reports

**click to enlarge**

What Should Be Included In A Management Report: Top 25 Best Practices, Examples & Templates

We’ve asked the question: ‘ What is a management report?’ and explored its clear-cut benefits. Now, it’s time to consider the management reporting best practices.

Here, we’ll explore 25 essential tips, looking at management reporting examples while considering how you can apply these principles to different types of managerial reports.

1) Set the strategic goals and objectives

For every report you write, you will need to start with the end in mind. Why do you need that report in the first place? Do you know the key drivers of your business? How can you tell if your pricing is correct? How do you define success? Ask yourself some important data analysis questions that will allow you to address the needs of the report.

Once you know what you are monitoring and why it will be much easier to set the performance indicators that will track each specific aspect of the performance, don’t go further in the reporting process until you have set at least two to three goals.

2) Gather and clean your data  

After you’ve set strategic and operational goals for the organization, your next step is to collect the information needed to track the success and performance of your efforts toward achieving those goals. Now, an important point to consider here is to pick only the data that will assist you in tracking your goals. Businesses gather an infinite amount of information coming from customers, sales, marketing, and much more, and tracking everything can become overwhelming and counterproductive. Instead, pick the sources of data that you actually need and move on to the cleaning stage. 

Once you have selected your sources, you must ensure your data is clean and ready to be analyzed. When we say clean your data, we mean erasing any duplicates, missing codes, or incorrectly formatted data that can damage your analysis in the future. If, just by reading this, you are thinking, “What a tedious process this must be,” it's because it is. Cleaning your data manually requires a lot of time and effort. That said, there are many online data analysis tools out there that automate this process to save you countless hours of work and prevent any risk of human error. 

3) Pick the right KPIs for your audience

OK – so you know that you need to focus on a small number of KPIs. Which ones should you be putting on?

It really depends on your audience – both on their job function and their level of seniority. For example, a junior sales manager and a junior marketing manager are both going to want to see different indicators. And the junior marketing manager will be interested in different data than the head of marketing. Good KPI management is critical in the process of manager reporting. A good way to think about the challenge of picking the correct metrics is to think: what data-driven questions will the readers of this report want to be answered? A sales manager might be interested in which of his reps is performing better, while an inbound marketing manager might want to know which piece of content is performing better regarding new email signups. Only after answering this question you will be able to address your audience’s expectations and benefit from effective reporting. You can also read our KPI reports article, where you can find precious advice on how to pick your KPIs.

Hereafter is an investment management reporting format that illustrates this practice well. It focuses entirely on variables that investors would care about, including the share price and the price-to-earnings ratio.

Management report for investors focusing on KPIs investor-oriented: Return on Asset, Return on Equity, Debt-Equity ratio, Share Price, P/E ratio, and Working-Capital ratio

 **click to enlarge**

4) Set measurable targets and benchmarks

Once you’ve set your goals and defined the KPIs you’ll need to measure them, it is a good practice to set targets or benchmarks to evaluate your progress based on specific values. Let’s explore some ways in which you can define them in the most efficient way possible. 

To do so, you first need to understand the difference between targets and goals. On one hand, goals are general strategic objectives that your company wants to achieve, such as increasing revenue compared to the previous year. And on the other hand, targets are the measures that will enable you to understand if you are on the right track to achieving your initial goals. Based on that, you should be able to set measurable, relevant, and achievable targets. Emphasis on achievable. Many businesses make the mistake of setting unrealistic targets and end up being disappointed when they don’t reach them. To prevent that from happening, comparing your performance to the previous period is a good and realistic benchmark to get started. Our example below is a CEO dashboard that gives managers a perfect overview of the organization’s performance compared to the previous period. Let’s talk about it in more detail below.  

CEO management report tracking relevant metrics fro finances, sales and marketing, customer service and HR

The CEO template provides insights into 4 critical areas for any C-level executive: finances, sales and marketing, customer service, and HR. Each of the metrics displayed in this report is compared to a benchmark of the previous period, with the colors red and green showing negative or positive development, respectively. Through this, managers can understand if their strategies are performing as expected and quickly spot any issues or improvement opportunities. 

5) Take customer feedback into consideration in your reports

An additional tip is to use customer service analytics to draw conclusions from your client's feedback. Customer feedback plays into the overall performance of an organization as it caters to the organization’s ability to meet the needs of its customers. This feedback not only helps teams gauge what they’re doing wrong on their digital channels but also what they’re doing right .

Reporting on insights from feedback surveys can aid in forming a more data-driven digital strategy. For example, it can be leveraged to inform your product roadmap, identify pain points across the website (usability), and boost overall customer satisfaction.

Is it overall customer satisfaction you wish to report on? Dive into your charts and show the rise (or fall) of your Net Promoter Score (NPS). Then take it one step further and analyze open comments associated with your scores to uncover what’s causing the drop. From here, you can formulate a strategy for boosting the organization’s NPS.

Here is an illustration of an NPS (feedback) chart:

NPS and CES development by month, depicted on a line chart throughout the year

6) Tell a story with your data

Our next tip zooms out of hard data and figures to focus more on the style and how to present your raw content. Human beings are primarily persuaded through 3 different types of information: context, content, and meaning. When you tell a story using the insights on your report, you can utilize all of them. This form of storytelling is challenging, but you have a few tools at your disposal and some tips:

  • Using time periods and historical data. Stories follow a beginning, middle, and end pattern, and through the use of showing trends over time, you can achieve something similar. For example, you could compare the revenue in Q1 this year to the revenue in Q1 last year.
  • Contrasting different KPIs and metrics against each other. For example, showing a target revenue number vs. the actual number this quarter.

Hereafter is a good example of a management report, mainly thanks to the three large historical graphs taking up most of the display:

Management report telling a story thanks to historical graphs (Revenue, Operational expenses and Earning before interest) that are displayed so as to be the most important graphs, with additional info on their side (Gross Profit Margin, OPEX ratio, EBIT Margin, Net Profit Margin, etc.)

Let’s take a real-world example of how you can selectively use metrics to tell a specific story: you are the head of marketing and need to justify your current expenditures on content marketing to the CEO. She doesn’t care about email signups or page visits. No, your CEO is interested in revenue and ROI (an essential element of any effective financial management report). It is your job to connect the KPIs you look at revenue so that your CEO understands how important funding your department is.

You could show her the following variables to tell a story:

  • Current email list numbers compared to last quarter
  • How many new email list signups you’re currently getting per week on average
  • The average email list signups you got per week last quarter
  • How much money are you making, on average, for every new email subscriber and calculate the expected ROI

Using all of this information, you can answer the following question: how much new revenue is being driven by your new content marketing strategy?

This is the kind of story that can make or break funding allocation for a department.

7) Pick the right visuals 

If you ever dealt with analytics and reporting before, then you must be aware of the multiple types of graphs and charts available to visualize your most important KPIs and build your reports. That said, being aware that these graphics exist does not mean you have the knowledge of how to use them correctly. A common mistake when it comes to management reporting is to use the wrong visual. This can significantly harm the decision-making process as the data can be perceived in the wrong way. 

The first step you should take to avoid this mistake is to think about the goal of the data you want to display. Are you trying to show the breakdown of total costs? Or comparing costs to a previous period? Understanding the end goal will enable you to pick the right visual to convey the information you want. To help you with this task, below we display a visual overview of the different types of graphs and charts you should use depending on whether you want to compare, find relationships, analyze distribution, or composition. 

Overview to use the right data visualization types for comparisons, compositions, relationships and distributions.

If you want to dive deeper into this topic, our guide on the different types of graphs and charts will provide all the necessary knowledge and practical examples. 

 8) Make your report visually pleasing through focus

The human mind cannot process too much data at a time without getting overwhelmed. Getting overwhelmed leads to decision fatigue – which makes it harder for your management team to think strategically. That’s why when it comes to this level of reporting, you should remember the mantra of “less is more.” As a rough rule of thumb, displaying three to six KPIs on a report is a good range, and going too much beyond this is not the greatest idea.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t have other data presented – but you must have a clear hierarchy of visual importance in your report and only give the most important spots to your indicators. Other metrics should occupy secondary or tertiary positions. State-of-the-art online dashboard software allows you to easily build interactive KPI dashboards in no time that will become your prime asset when you’ll need to convey your information.

The following example is good to showcase this practice:

Management report of Revenue and Customer Overview, displaying 4 main KPIs in order of importance and comparing to the previous year, with the purpose of telling a clear story

The four KPIs in this report template are prominently displayed:

  • Number of New Customers
  • Average Revenue per customer
  • Customer Acquisition Cost

These metrics are set in context with historical trends, targets for the period, or other metrics like Customer Lifetime Value, causing this focused graph to tell a story.

9) Make your report very clear

In business writing and management reporting, clarity is the primary objective. This has several implications for your report design:

  • Follow established dashboard design principles – give plenty of white space, ensure your colors stand out from each other, and select colors carefully.
  • Don’t forget the small things – display a date range next to the data, and ensure it’s clear whether a given KPI is good, bad, or neutral. A good way to do this is by comparing expected values to real ones, like the expected revenue for a quarter to the actual revenue of this very quarter.
  • Use common metrics that everyone who will read the report can understand and has experience with using.

For more tips & tricks on data-efficient reporting, you can read one of our previous blog posts on how to create data reports people love to read.

10) Be mindful not to mislead 

As you learned in our two previous points, making your reports visually appealing and following design best practices is a fundamental aspect of achieving a successful management reporting process. Another important aspect to consider in this regard is to be mindful of how the information is presented to avoid being misleading. As a manager generating a report, it is very likely that you will have a diverse audience which can include people that are not familiar with the data presented in them. For this reason, following some best practices to avoid misleading reports can help you keep your work objective and easy to understand. 

  • Labels : When integrating several charts and graphs into your reports, labels play a fundamental role in how the data is perceived. For this reason, your labels should be short, clear, and concise. Avoid writing labels that guide the viewer to a specific conclusion or too complicated ones that can make the chart hard to understand. 
  • Axis: Manipulating an axis is a common form of misleading statistics used by the media and politicians to manipulate the public. A common bad practice in this regard is to start the X axis in a higher number than 0 to exaggerate a comparison between two data points. To avoid this, use your axis correctly, following charting guidelines. 
  • Cherry picking: This means picking only the data that will make you look good. As a manager, you obviously want to show how great the business is doing. However, showing only good results is a practice that can mislead the audience into believing something that is not the complete truth. Including bad results is a good way to learn and find improvement opportunities. 

Your Chance: Want to test a management reporting software for free? We offer a 14-day free trial. Benefit from great management reports!

11) Go digital!

An important best practice for management reporting is to ditch paper-based reports and go digital. Online KPI reporting software is a great asset for your business, as they offer real-time updating capabilities, saves money, and reduces waste.

These digital reports can be made to be interactive, allowing you to get more granular or zoom out as you wish. Moreover, they are collaborative tools that let your team onboard the analytics train and work conjointly on the same report. Another example we will provide you with is the following marketing KPI report:

Marketing report for management, with main KPIs about costs and revenue

This is the perfect type of report a management team needs to ensure actionable, data-driven decisions: a high-level overview of the marketing performance is given. Indeed, focusing on the click-through rate, the website traffic evolution, or page views wouldn’t make sense. On the other hand, the big picture of how the marketing department works as a whole will be more appreciated: total revenue generated standing next to the total spend, the profit that came out of it, the return on investment, etc.

12) Strike a balance with your visualizations

We’ve established that making your report clear is vital to success. Another way of making sure that your management report format is digestible is to make your various visualizations balanced on the page. Our SaaS executive dashboard is an excellent example of a visually balanced format:

A management report visualizing the number of paying customers, ARPU, CAC, CLTV, and MRR over the course of a month.

The primary focus of this particular example is to provide a customer-centric view of the costs, revenue, and performance stability of your SaaS-based activities from a senior standpoint.

As you can see, our SaaS executive dashboard serves up 4 performance indicators (Customer Acquisition Costs, CLV, ARPU, and MRR) to offer a concise snapshot for senior decision-makers, with each visualization selected based on their ability to offer at-a-glance information without clashing or creating confusion.

When choosing types of graphs and charts, it’s important to consider basic design principles while also considering whether each chart, graph, or display works cohesively to provide essential information without causing conflict or consuming too much time.

By considering the previous tips, testing your visualization choices, and considering your core goals throughout, you’ll create a managerial report that gets real results.

13) Make your report scannable & drillable

It’s clear that going digital with your management reporting system is essential in our tech-driven age. And as we touched on earlier, two of the significant advantages of these systems are interactive functionality and customizable features.

By being able to customize your reports with ease while taking advantage of interactive features, you can build on your data visualization selection and design practices to ensure your management report template is both scannable & drillable.

Take this dynamic project reporting example, for instance:

One of our management reporting examples: IT project management depicting the budget, workload, overdue tasks, upcoming deadlines, among others

By making customizations and using interactive functions to drill down deeper into particular pockets of information, this IT report sample is effective for quick access to real-time project performance information as well as comprehensive trend-based data.

Working from the top left to the top right and down the project dashboard in a logical format, you can see the dashboard is entirely scannable and customized for cherry-picking important metrics. Here, it’s possible to get a clear gauge of project progress, looming deadlines, budgets, and workloads by simply scanning the page.

Plus, by taking advantage of interactive features and drill-down boxes, it’s possible to dig deeper into your data as required. By embracing customizable and interactive dashboard features, you can build your creations flexibly, working in real-time or with monthly management report tools. If you want to track your progress in a different format, you can take a look at our KPI scorecard article and organize your milestones differently.

14) Deliver real-time data that aligns with your objectives

Regarding major types of management reports, it’s important to understand when to lean on real-time insights. Knowing when to use this kind of dynamic data is the most prominent feature of your dashboard.

We’ve covered the importance of storytelling and selecting a balanced mix of KPIs (for past, predictive, and real-time insights). But what is important to consider with any management report sample is making sure your real-time insights fully align with your objectives.

The next of our examples comes in the form of our energy dashboard - a prime representation of well-placed real-time insights:

Energy management dashboard with selected KPIs

Energy management is challenging as it requires quick responses to potential issues or inefficiencies to prevent major losses or problem escalations by utilizing modern energy analytics solutions. As demonstrated in this most insightful example, while you can see a mix of data types, the real-time metrics reflect the core aims of monitoring energy consumption and improving powercut management.

When creating your report, here’s what you should do to ensure your real-time data aligns with your primary goals:

  • Revisit your key objectives and KPI selections, studying them in greater detail to see whether your real-time metrics “tell a story or paint a picture” that your audience will benefit from.
  • Run your report for a week, personally testing it to check if your real-time insights allow you to achieve your goals and make quick, informed decisions.
  • Ask other key stakeholders within the organization to test your report and offer their feedback. Based on their (and your) discoveries, make tweaks, changes, or customizations accordingly.

15) Try Predictive Analytics & AI Technologies 

Following the line of real-time data, our next best practice is related to advanced management reporting systems. To extract the maximum potential out of your reports, you need to be sure you invest in a tool that will make your process easier, more automated, and more time-efficient. To assist you with this purpose, there are several business analytics tools in the market that can offer you these types of solutions. Let’s look at what you can achieve with these technologies. 

Predictive analytics: Unlike not many other solutions out there, datapine provides a predictive analytics tool that takes historical data in order to predict future outcomes in your business performance. Getting these kinds of predictions is valuable as it will let you prepare in advance for the future and spot any potential issues before they happen. 

Artificial intelligence (AI): As we’ve mentioned a few times throughout this post, management reports should turn your life easier. For this reason, embracing the powers of AI can take your managerial data to the next level. datapine’s intelligent alerts use neural networks to learn from trends and patterns in your data so they can later notify you if something unusual happens. All you need to do is set predefined targets or goals, and the alerts will set off as soon as a goal is met or something is not going as planned. 

16) Keep your dashboards actionable and improve constantly

Expanding on the previous point: whether a financial management report, a monthly management report sample, or any other type of senior dashboard, continual improvements will ensure your offerings remain relevant and actionable.

The digital world is constantly evolving, and as such, business goals, aims, strategies, and initiatives are always changing to adapt to the landscape around them. To ensure your reports work for you on a sustainable basis, you should periodically test each report to check for any irrelevant KPIs while looking for any reporting inefficiencies. This can be done simply by utilizing visual analytics tools that use the power of visualization to ensure your reporting stays on course and improves your business's bottom line.

At this point, you’ll have already laid out the framework for your reports, and by committing ample time to make updates as well as improvements, you’ll remain one step ahead of the competition at all times. Get testing!

17) Develop your reports collaboratively

Managerial reporting systems are designed to offer insight, clarity, and direction.

To squeeze every last drop of value from your managerial reports, you must commit to developing your reports according to the landscape around you—and the best way to do so is as a team.

By taking a collaborative approach to your company's reporting initiatives, you will increase your chances of making tweaks or enhancements that offer a real benefit to your business.

Suppose you're in charge of financial management reporting, for instance. In that case, you should create a tight-knit workgroup of relevant specialists within your organization to gather on a regular basis and assess the relevance of your KPIs or metrics.

With this mix of professional perspectives, you will gain the power to spot any existing report management system weaknesses (outdated visualizations, inefficient reporting layouts, unnecessary data, etc.) to ensure that your accounting management reports not only capture every valuable fiscal insight but work in a way that gives every user the tools to perform to the best of their abilities.

As modern management reporting templates offer flexible 24/7 access across a multitude of devices, it’s possible to develop or evolve your visualizations and insights collaboratively on a remote basis, if required.

18) Create a sense of cohesion & consistency

Concerning financial management reporting best practices, our dynamic financial dashboard is as good as it gets. With a balanced mix of scannable visualizations and KPIs designed to drill down into the four primary areas of CFO management, this particular tool demonstrates the unrivaled value of internal executive reports.

One of our management reports examples focused on Chief Financial Officer's data such as revenue, EBIT, operations expenses, etc

Here, everything is geared towards striking a balance between economic value, improved financial performance, and ongoing employee satisfaction, presented in a logical and digestible format for swift decision-making even under pressure.

One of the main reasons this CFO manager report template works so well is it is functional as well as visual cohesion and consistency. Every key element is neatly segmented on screen, with charts that offer a wealth of relevant information at a glance.

As you can see, everything flows, each element fits into the right place, the colors and tones are cohesive, and it’s clear where you need to look when you need very specific nuggets of information at the moment.

Using this template as a working example, which you can adjust also as a CEO dashboard , you can create various types of reports in management with visual and practical consistency and cohesion at the forefront of your mind. If something appears out of place or creates friction, return to the drawing board and start again until everything is harmonious and offers genuine value.

19) Compartmentalize your data effectively

Our striking IT dashboard is a dynamic informational toolkit for anyone leading a company’s technical innovation and progress.

A dashboard showing relevant metrics focused on internal processes, learning, finance and customers, and users, important for modern CTOs

Whether you’re a small, medium, or large business (and regardless of your sector), our CTO-centric management reports template focuses on minimizing technical issues, streamlining tech-based processes, improving team attrition rates, managing new developments, and more.

In addition to its streamlined functionality and sheer reporting power, one of the key reasons this managerial report example is so powerful is its effective compartmentalization. Expanding on our last trip, by focusing on cohesion before considering how you will compartmentalize your insights, you will consistently get the most from your reporting efforts.

We touched on this before, but it’s a vital component of reporting, so it’s worth covering in further detail: once you’ve committed to your data and visual KPIs, examine how each key element fits into your report and place it into the ‘right compartment’ on-page.

Looking at the CTO dashboard, each core branch of information is split into a box under a clear-cut subheading. Within each of these compartmentalizations, there are clearly labeled data, insights, and visualizations.

By drilling down further into how you compartmentalize your reports, you will give yourself the ability to analyze one area of information or grab an entire snapshot at a simple glance. As a result, you will improve your business performance and streamline your decision-making process.

20) Create a scannable timeline

Employee management reporting helps managers make vital improvements to specific functions of the business with clear-cut direction and complete confidence.

Our HR dashboard — a must for any modern HR department — exists to assist personnel-based managers in keeping their employees happy, engaged, and motivated. Employees who feel valued and engaged in the business are generally more productive and more creative, so looking after your talent the right way should be one of your company’s top priorities — no exceptions.

Managerial report example showing talent management metrics such as the hiring stats, talent turnover rate, fired talents, satisfaction, and rating

When it comes to HR, managers need to take care of many tasks, which include picking the best payroll system, conducting performance reviews to ensure productivity, hiring the right talents, and more. Putting the talent area into perspective, our HR management reporting template serves up a perfect storm of data-driven insights that covers staff turnover, dismissal, rising talent, and overall satisfaction levels. For example, the talent satisfaction KPI for HR managers gives you a clear overview of whether your business gives enough incentives to satisfy your current workforce.

But not only here, but you will also gain a deep working insight into where you might be going wrong while capitalizing on your strengths and, ultimately, offering the right reward, recognition, training, and support where needed.

What makes this workforce management reporting example so successful is the fact that it provides a solid timeline of information. By working down or across, you can access an excellent balance of historical, real-time, and predictive knowledge with ease.

As such, this report paints a data-centric timeline that will empower any HR manager to examine trends, understand fluctuations in employee engagement rates, and create viable strategies that increase retention while boosting productivity.

The takeaway here? When considering the contents of a good managerial report, it’s always important to look at how your visualizations and design layout create a timeline that allows you to formulate initiatives that will benefit the business both in the moment and in the future.

21) Embed your reports  

As we are about to reach the end of this insightful list of tips and best practices, we couldn’t leave out one of the technologies that have revolutionized the reporting landscape: embedding analytics. Essentially, embedding a report means integrating all the functionalities of a business intelligence reporting software , such as dashboards, charts, and more, into your company’s existing system. 

Having access to this type of technology is not only way cheaper as your company doesn’t need to invest in creating a system of its own, but it can also provide a great competitive advantage. Embedded dashboards and reports are fully customized to the colors, logo, and font of the organization, allowing employees and managers to enjoy all the functionalities of a reporting system in a familiar environment which can boost productivity and performance. 

22) Don’t neglect security and privacy  

So far, we’ve covered tips related to the planning, design, and usability of your reports. Now, we will talk about a topic that is often overlooked but is becoming increasingly important, privacy and security. According to research , in 2021, 70% of small businesses reported a cyberattack of some kind. The financial impact of these attacks can significantly damage an organization. It is believed the average cost of an email comprise attack is $130.000. At the same time, ransomware attacks are projected to reach $11.5 million in damages this year.  

That said, privacy and security issues affect businesses on a financial level but also on a reputational and legal one. Not protecting sensitive customer and employee data, such as addresses, bank records, phone numbers, and others, can expose them to serious damage that can lead to legal repercussions. 

To prevent critical business information from falling into the wrong hands, you should implement strict access controls, data encryption, and data anonymization processes, among other things. Plus, you should train your employees about potential threats and prevent risky behaviors, such as accessing reports on a public network. Tools such as datapine provide a secure environment for your management reporting process. This includes secure sharing options such as password-protected URLs or strict viewing rights to make sure only authorized people have access to the reports. 

23) Explore self-service analytics tools 

The times when financial or management reports were only meant for analysts or scientists are long gone. In today’s data-driven era, if a business wants to succeed and get an advantage over competitors fully, they need to make sure that everyone in its organization can benefit from data analysis. For this purpose, implementing a self-service business intelligence tool can be the answer. 

In simple words, self-service BI refers to the process or tools companies use to analyze and visualize their data without needing any prior technical skills. Management reporting systems such as datapine include a user-friendly interface as well as an intuitive dashboard designer that will allow you and anyone in your business to visualize insights from several sources and create powerful reports with just a few clicks. Businesses that benefit from these types of solutions can extract valuable information into their performance and constantly spot improvement opportunities. 

24) Assess data literacy  

As mentioned a couple of times already, in order for your management reporting process to be efficient, it is necessary to involve the entire organization. While self-service tools such as the ones we mentioned in the previous point are extremely valuable to achieve this task, there is still a level of knowledge or analytical awareness that needs to be had across all employees for the process to be successful. To do so, assessing the level of data literacy is a great place to start. 

Data literacy refers to the ability to understand and communicate using data. To evaluate the level of literacy of your employees, you can carry out surveys to categorize them depending on their level of knowledge. With the results, you can set up training instances to get everyone in the same place with the tools and concepts that will need to be used across the organization’s analytical journey. In time, everyone will be able to generate stunning management reports and use them to collaborate with each other. This leads us to our next and final best practice. 

25) Encourage a data-driven culture

Following on from the prior point, by implementing self-service solutions, you will gain an invaluable benefit: a data-driven culture for your business. Your company culture is the blueprint for how your business runs, as well as how everyone within your business interacts or operates internally. Naturally, your internal culture will have a notable impact on the way your clients, customers, and affiliates view your business.

Seventy-eight percent of top business leaders believe that company culture is among the top five things that add value to their company. That said, if you want to maximize the power and wider organizational values of your data-driven reporting efforts, you should make it a key component of your company culture.

If you place the value of data and using it to its maximum capabilities at the heart of your company culture, you will empower everyone to embrace and make use of the reporting tools that will improve their performance while making their roles easier (which, in turn, will boost employee satisfaction levels).

To do so, you should hold regular meetings to explain how data reporting can benefit every department within your organization while holding educational workshops where everyone within the business can learn how to use the tools.

Let’s now go over the history of these reports, where they come from, and how they have been developed.

History And Trends Of Management Reporting

In the past, legacy systems were used to prepare reports for management – and still are, in many cases. These systems are much more useful than financial reports but still have their drawbacks. Legacy systems are often quite technical in their operation and interface, which makes them challenging for most non-IT personnel to use effectively. This creates a situation of “lag time” between a member of management wanting a report and actually receiving it.

In modern times, with the breadth and depth of data available growing at an astonishing rate, these challenges have only escalated. As Peter Wollmert, an EY global leader, stated in a quote from a Financial Director article: “Many [CFOs] are encumbered by legacy systems that do not allow reporting teams to extract forward-looking insight from large, fast-changing data sets.”

To put the rise of management reporting into perspective, let’s analyze the results of Deloitte’s survey about the changes in this managerial practice. As we mentioned before, top managers are no longer satisfied with static financial reports that don’t provide the level of insights the business needs to grow. Although getting a clear picture of a company’s finances is fundamental, modern management reports provide the context and reasons behind the business's financial results, which makes it possible to go deeper into the roots for better decision-making. 

Although managers have the willingness to adopt these reporting practices, the survey shows that only 24% of the reporting time is actually spent doing analysis and building strategies. The reason is businesses today are still spending an insane amount of time building their reports. Paired with this, 50% of respondents said they were unsatisfied with the speed of delivery and the quality of the reports they received. 

What businesses need today are management systems that will provide them with the perfect mix of internal and external real-time data to put their business performance into context and drive those much-wanted business insights. 

Tools such as datapine provide businesses with an all-in-one management reporting system in which they can connect all their data sources to create real-time automated reports in the form of professional business dashboards . By adopting this type of technology, managers and their teams can save countless hours on manually gathering the data and creating the reports, and spend all the necessary time monitoring and analyzing their performance in the most interactive and efficient way. 

Why Is It Important To Write A Management Report?

For any function and in any industry, reports are more than useful, they are crucial to the well-functioning of the company.

Reporting is all the more important in management as it has higher stakes and holds bigger, cross-disciplinary decisions. In general, reports are important to management for various reasons: they measure strategic metrics to assess and monitor the performance, they set benchmarks about said performance, enable the business to learn from its activity by leaving a track record, and finally, enhance communication. Here’s a short list of benefits:

  • Measuring strategic metrics to assess and monitor the performance: by now, we’ve understood that if businesses wanted to grow, they would need to implement a way to measure their performance against their competitors – but also against their own
  • Helping you understand your position: a management-style report provides you with the right metrics to get a snapshot of your business's health and evolution. You can compare it to your competitors to focus on or realign your strategy.
  • Setting clear-cut performance benchmarks: thanks to that track record, you have a regular benchmark about how you perform both operationally and financially.
  • Learning and reproducing – or not: benchmarks are a guide to tell you what works and what doesn’t. From it, you can learn the best and worst practices to develop or avoid.
  • Enhancing communication: among partners, investors, customers, and colleagues. Management-type reports develop the visibility of the different activities across departments and improve communication within the company.
  • Improving collaboration: as a direct result of improved internal communication, senior-level reports enhance interdepartmental collaboration. With people working cohesively towards a common goal, departments can use management reporting discoveries to collaborate on specific projects or initiatives, catalyzing success in a number of key areas.
  • Boosting engagement & motivation: a well-crafted manager-level report makes critical company data accessible to all, which improves individual performance. When people perform at an optimum level and are recognized for their work, they will become more engaged, inspired, and motivated. This, in turn, will increase productivity across the organization.
  • Fostering continual business growth: solid reporting in management indeed improves productivity and decision-making, which fosters consistency as well as continual business growth. If you’re growing consistently over time, you will ensure long-term success - the most powerful benefit of reporting in management.

Essential Types Of Management Reports

As we’ve mentioned throughout this post, there is an immense amount of growth possibilities when implementing a modern management reporting system in your business. To finalize interiorizing you into the benefits of these powerful tools, we will mention 9 essential types of reports for management you can adopt for different analytical purposes. 

  • External reports: We’ve already introduced you to this type of report at the beginning of the post. As its name suggests, these reports are aimed at external stakeholders, which can be investors, creditors, suppliers, and bankers, among others. These reports can also be used to provide context into something that might be affecting business performance, for example, industry trends.
  • Internal reports: The next in our list are internal ones. This refers to any managerial task that must be reported on, and it is not expected to follow legal format standards. Internal reports can be used for top-level, middle-level, or lower-level management, and their frequency will vary depending on their main goal.
  • Progress or status reports: Tracks the progress of a project or a goal in detail. By using this type of management report, you can track all activities related to the completion of the project, see how far you are from the final goal, and if tasks are running at the expected schedule.  
  • Operational reports: This type aims to track all aspects related to the operation or performance of different metrics. They are usually created on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis and are used to optimize business processes, lower costs, spot trends, and improve the overall day-to-day running of the company. 
  • Analytical reports: This type of business report uses quantitative and qualitative data to analyze, evaluate, and filter the performance of a company's strategies. They can deliver predictions and trends for better decision-making and business innovation.
  • Industry reports: As its name suggests, this type gives managers an overview of the industry's status. These reports are helpful because they enable decision-makers to understand their position in the industry and their competitors. The insights provided in this report can help businesses extract benchmarks to measure their performance. 
  • Product reports : C-level executives need to oversee every single aspect of the business, and one of them is product development. These reports provide a complete overview of product development, such as feature adoption, top-selling products, and willingness to pay, among other things. Through them, decision-makers can find improvement opportunities and boost their products and services through the power of analytics.  
  • Project reports: In a business context, there is always a range of projects being carried out. These reports provide an overview of the development of a project with insights into completed and upcoming tasks, budget usage, competition percentage, and launch dates, among other things. Through them, teams can stay connected to ensure every task is carried out efficiently and in the expected time. 
  • Compliance reports: As mentioned previously, companies have been generating financial reports for decades. These reports enable them to stay compliant with law and tax regulations and provide an accurate picture of financial health to investors and other external stakeholders.

What Should A Successful Management Reporting System Include?

In our 25 tips to generate efficient management reports, we presented you with a few features any software worth its salt should include, such as real-time data, embedding capabilities, predictive analytics technologies, and more. A management reporting system that wants to be successful in today’s fast-paced world needs to support itself with a set of functionalities and technologies that will make it more efficient in various aspects. Paired with the features we already presented before, a couple of others that are fundamental include: 

  • The ability to connect multiple data sources 

If you’ve ever dealt with generating a report, then you must be aware of the fact that manual work is the enemy of productivity. For this reason, your management reporting system should provide you with the possibility to automatically connect multiple external and internal data sources with just a few clicks. Management reporting tools, such as datapine, offer professional data connectors that allow users to merge all their sources into one location. The best part is that the information in them is updated automatically, eliminating any kind of manual work from the process.  

  • Be user-friendly and intuitive 

Another important functionality is user-friendliness and accessibility. Analytics has become a mandatory practice for modern businesses, meaning generating reports and analyzing the information in them is a task that cannot be segregated to people with technical knowledge anymore. When investing in professional software, ensure it has a user-friendly interface that anyone in your organization can use. This way, you’ll make sure all employees are empowered to integrate data into their daily routines. 

  • Interactive filters to explore your reports 

While report generation is an important part to consider, data exploration is equally as important. Traditional reports created on PowerPoint or Excel often limit users to only analyze the information that is visually available. Modern management reports should be interactive and provide a set of filters that allow users to navigate the data and extract deeper conclusions from it. For instance, datapine’s drill down filter allows you to explore lower levels of data just by clicking on a specific chart. For example, say you have a chart showing sales by product category. A drill down would allow you to click on a specific category and see the best-selling products in that category. This proves to be a great method to support discussions and make more improved strategic decisions. 

  • Automation of various tasks  

Going back to the first point, automation is key when it comes to achieving an efficient management reporting process. We already talked about merging your sources of information as a key automation feature. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Any reporting system worth its salt should also provide other automation features, such as report automation and sharing. This means telling the tool that you want to generate a report with specific data in it, and you want it sent to a specific recipient on a specific date and time, and the system should do it on its own. Relying on automation for various tasks that would otherwise take a lot of time and resources is a great way to focus your efforts on growing the business and carrying out successful strategies. 

How To Prepare A Management Report – Summary

Blackboard showing a summary of the 25 management reporting best practices by datapine

To sum up, the main steps we have explored throughout this guide and cement our understanding of the question “What is management reporting,” here is a list of the 25 best practices you should use to prepare a solid report or overview. By taking the time to get acquainted with these approaches, you will boost your business intelligence (BI) initiatives sooner than you think.

Without further ado, let’s summarize:

  • Set the strategic goals and objectives : Start by defining what you want to achieve, why you need to write that report, and who you are writing it for.
  • Clean your data : Make sure it is clean from any formatting errors or duplications to avoid damaging your analysis later.
  • Choose the right KPIs for your audience: Different positions have different needs – keep in mind who will read what you write to know what you need to focus on.
  • Set measurable targets: Set performance benchmarks or targets to evaluate the success of your strategies toward achieving general company goals. 
  • Take customer feedback into consideration: Customers are the backbone of any business, and you need to understand what your business is doing wrong as well as right.
  • Polish your storytelling skills : You have hard data in your hands that need to be understood by everyone: clarifying it with a nice story backed with a comprehensive dashboard will convey your insights even more easily.
  • Pick the right visuals: Understand the goal of your reports to help you pick the right graph or chart to visualize your data. 
  • Make your report visually pleasing through focus : With the help of BI software, you can build compelling dashboards in no time that will be your best ally when communicating your findings.
  • Clarity is the watchword : Follow some presentation and design principles to stay on the safe side while elaborating your report.
  • Don't mislead : make sure you follow design best practices and avoid unethical manipulations of the data to avoid misleading your audience.
  • Go digital : Paper-based reports are of the past. Put your hands on an online dashboard tool that will let you consolidate your data in one central place and quickly and smoothly build interactive reports with always up-to-date information.
  • Striking the balance : To ensure you get the most from your centralized digital dashboards, you need to make sure that the visualizations work well on-page and help those within your organization obtain at-glance information with ease, devoid of confusion.
  • Scannability + drillability = success: By taking full advantage of the interactive functionality of digital reporting dashboards, you can improve the scannability of your dashboard reports while using filters and drill-down boxes to dig deeper into important pockets of information with ease.
  • Real-time data relevance: Real-time insights are invaluable to any organization—but only if they align with your core reporting goals. Test your reports before rolling them out across the organization, checking your real-time metrics for clarity and relevance.
  • Keep on improving: The digital world is constantly evolving. Sector, niche, or industry aside, you must regularly test your reports, making changes or customizations to iron out any data that has become redundant or inefficient. Never stop testing; never stop improving.
  • Use predictive analytics & AI: Benefit from advanced analytical technologies to spot trends and patterns in your data and get a pick into your future performance.
  • Develop your reports collaboratively: When improving and enhancing your reports and dashboards, you should work as a tight-knit team, taking everyone’s ideas and perspectives on board. Doing so will ensure your reports are valuable and built for success at all times.
  • Create a sense of cohesion & consistency: From both a visual and functional perspective, focusing on creating a sense of consistency and harmony with your KPIs and visualizations will improve your reporting success across the board.
  • Compartmentalize your data effectively: In addition to making sure you create cohesion within your on-page reporting layout, you should also compartmentalize every key branch of information, creating separate boxes and subheadings for quick access to effective information.
  • Create a scannable timeline: When creating your dashboard reports, developing an informational timeline over a specific period will make it easier for you to put together strategies and initiatives in a wealth of key areas.
  • Use embedding analytics : Use this technology to make your reports more professional and accessible to all stakeholders.
  • Don’t neglect privacy and security: Implement security measures to ensure your financial, customer, and employee data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. 
  • Use self-service analytics: Involve all your employees in your reporting process with the help of intuitive self-service BI tools.
  • Assess data literacy: Evaluate your employee's analytical knowledge and provide training instances where needed. 
  • Encourage a data-driven culture: Your company culture is, in many ways, the beating heart of your entire business. By taking measures to place respect and value for data-driven reporting at the heart of your business, you will empower everyone to embrace the concept, boosting the value of your dashboard-centric efforts.

With all of these reporting best practices, you can now perform online reporting that will help your company’s leaders to make effective, data-driven decisions. 

Key Takeaways Management Reporting  

On our journey, we’ve outlined the management reporting definition, looked at management reports examples, explored best practices, and drilled down into the business-boosting benefits of dynamic digital dashboards.

It’s clear that by embracing the wealth of digital data available to your business and harnessing it effectively, you stand to make the kind of management decisions that will drive your organization forward with force, accelerating your success in the process.

In a nutshell, you should follow the management reporting examples by hand-picking a few relevant KPIs to display and tell a clear story with your data. It’s also essential to work collaboratively, creating a healthy ecosystem of data-driven innovation that will empower everyone in the business to benefit from the unrivaled power of managerial-style reporting. Knowledge is indeed power, and if your business runs on it, you will reap great rewards, both now and in the long run.

Combine this concept with the help of our BI dashboard software which will empower you to work on the evolution of your data in real-time while enabling you to create efficient dashboards, and you will drive your business well above the competition.

Take charge of professional destiny today by trying datapine with a 14-day trial , completely free, and start creating your own reports just with a few clicks!

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How to Brief a Senior Executive

  • Grant T. Harris

how to write a good report to senior management

Lessons from an Obama White House staffer.

You can always count on outside circumstances to affect your pitch to a senior leader, so prepare to get your point across under pressure by understanding the interpersonal dynamics at play in advance. What are your boss’s “tells”? How do they engage with material? And whom do they look to for endorsement? Knowing these things ahead of time will help you react effectively to pushback and pivot when necessary while you’re in the room, either in person or virtually.

Briefing a senior executive is an art and adept White House staffers do it every day under the most stressful of circumstances. They’re masters of compressing the right information into the right amount of time, no matter how complex the topic or short the briefing. The skills needed to brief the chief executive in the Oval Office are directly applicable to briefing  any  executive in the C-suite.

how to write a good report to senior management

  • GH Grant T. Harris is CEO of  Connect Frontier LLC  and advises companies on doing business in emerging markets. He has twice served at the White House and teaches interactive seminars on  How to Brief the President (or Any Senior Leader) TM  in corporate, nonprofit, university, and policy settings. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Global Management at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern, and a Lecturer at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. Follow him on  Twitter .

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how to write a good report to senior management

Management Presentation: 8 Tips, Examples & a Template

In a corporate context, presenting works wonders for a career. Most professionals get exposure to presenting to informed colleagues and department managers. It’s an ideal way to get visibility and show value. But a management presentation to senior executives who aren’t familiar department nuances is a different ballgame.

A management presentation is a high-level summary to senior executive that optimizes reports to include only the details relevant to directorial decisions . They are notoriously difficult to navigate for two reasons: 1. most executives do not have working knowledge of the nuances in each department , 2. presenters rarely have time to understand executives’ preferences .

More than anything else, good management presenters learn how to strike a balance in the degree of detail: they provide enough detail so executives make informed decisions, but not so much detail that they cause confusion.

This article explores how to make a good management presentations in PowerPoint using 4 management presenting best practices , 4 management presenting techniques , providing examples for each, and finishing with a management presentation template you can apply in real life. You can use it as a jumping off point for deeper communication curriculum .

5 management presenting best practices are:

  • Ask what managers prefer ahead of time.
  • Have 1 message, and 1 message Only.
  • The only words should be “Thought Starters.”
  • Keep it short.
  • Practice 7 times in advance.

4 management presenting techniques are:

  • Use a CSP model – Challenge, Solution, Progress.
  • Begin with a summary of exactly 3 points.
  • Use only these 3 chart types: bar, line, scatter.
  • Design slides with the company logo.

I will use a financial analyst perspective in this article, but everything here applies to data and business analysts as well.

Ask Executives Their Preference Ahead of Time

If you’ve ever taken a class on presentation techniques, you’ve heard the old adage “know your audience.” It’s true, the best way to deliver a great presentation is to align your message with what your audience already understands. The same applies to a management presentation.

The challenge is that, more often than not, executives are too busy for you to get to know them well. This means you hardly get the chance to understand how they like presentations. So what can you do? Well, ask them! There’s no harm in sending an email to understand better. And what’s more, once you know, you can always defer to their preferences in the future.

For a financial management presentation, common questions to ask include the following:

  • Do you prefer to see raw data, or only visualizations?
  • Do you prefer charts or table summaries?
  • Would you like a written explanation on paper for each slide?
  • Do you like averages alone, or do you prefer means, or standard deviation?
  • What interests you most in a presentation?

If you gather some helpful insights, then your presentation will be that much better. That said, you may not get a response, or it may be quick and not insightful. But most senior executives will appreciate you asking .

The best part is you will be able to surprise them. Using the best practices and techniques below, in additional to any insights gathered form your email, will work wonders for you.

Have 1 Message, and 1 Message Only

The easiest mistake to make on a management presentation is trying to deliver multiple messages. Senior executives go through loads of meetings every day, and each meeting they have includes a wave of information. Your mission should be to deliver 1 essential message so they can easily understand and compartmentalize it.

This is no easy task. When I try to narrow down the focus of my management presentation message, it seems like I leave out critical information along the way. The key is to tell a story to incorporate critical information as part of a story towards the essential message.

For example, imagine you work for a wholesale watch company called Batch Watch . You want to explain a financing operation in which the company has the option of two loans to fund the initial costs of 10,000 watches. These loans have different interest rates and maturity dates. Loan A is better if the company expects to sell the watches within 3 months, while Loan B is better if the company expects to sell over more than 3 months. Each has cancellation fees and cash flow impacts.

Instead of showing the cancellation fees and cash flow impact of the each loan, all you need to say is “ we expect the company to sell them within 3 months, and we recommend loan A for that reason.” If the executives disagree on the sale timeline, they will ask for more information.

This is how you keep senior executives engaged, by integrating them in the story you tell. Ultimately, the essential message of your presentation should be how much profit the company will make from the watch funding operation. Senior executives should leave feeling like the project is in good hands with you, and they only feel that way when you tell a story around the essential message .

Whatever the Message, Use Data

Whatever message you want to send, it needs to be backed up by data. In the example above the data was financial, but it’s not always that simple. Context may require you to provide KPIs and perform extensive data analysis that culminates in a small output that your viewers can easily digest.

You need to be strong with data to deliver a good management presentation. To get started or refresh your memory, you can read AnalystAnswers’ free Intro to Data Analysis eBook .

The Only Words Should be “Thought Starters”

As a general presentation principle, you should not write many thoughts down on presentation slides. Words have two negative impacts on the audience: they demand energy from the reader, and they make the reader feel compelled to read, lest they misunderstand.

If you can avoid putting text blocks altogether, do. If you don’t need any writing at all, don’t. However, if you need guidance as you speak or want to provide reminders for a later data, use “Thought Starters.”

Thought starters are phrases of 3 words maximum that contain ideas leading to the essential message. People often call them “bullet points,” which is common for list-style thought starters. Personally, I prefer to place thought starters at different places on a slide. When I use a chart, for example, I put thought starters at relevant places on the slide.

Keep it Short

Your presentation should never consume more than 80% of the allotted timeframe. This means that if you plan a 5 minutes meeting, deliver the presentation in 4 minutes. If you’re given 30 minutes, do it in 25 minutes. If you have 1 hour, do it in 45 minutes.

By keeping the presentation short, you relieve the audience and you allow for some question buffer. Have you ever sat in a meeting planned for 1 hour, and at 45m it ends early? It’s a pleasure for everyone. Most of us feel like we’re running behind — when you put us ahead of schedule, we love you!

At the same time, senior executives may bombard you with questions throughout the presentation. If you planned to fill the whole timeframe, you won’t finish. But if you planned to finish early, you still have a chance.

And if you use the rest of these best practices and techniques, those senior executives shouldn’t need to ask too many questions!

Practice 7 Times in Advance

There’s a mix of opinions on the number of times you should rehearse a presentation before doing it live, but most people agree that it’s somewhere between 5 and 10 times. If you take nothing else from this article, take this. To deliver a good presentation, prepare excellent slides; to deliver a great presentation, practice presenting them 7 times.

To deliver a good presentation, prepare excellent slides; to deliver a great presentation, practice presenting them 7 times. AnalystAnswers.com

But just practicing isn’t enough, there are a few criteria you must meet:

  • Practice in the room you will present in. There’s something about envisioning yourself live that really makes a difference. When you practice in a space other that where you’ll present, it’s good. But when you practice in the “live” room, you’re able to sensitize yourself to the environment, which calms nerves so you can focus on the message.
  • Have an audience. We all behave differently when there’s stimulus of other people around. Whenever possible, get one or two people to whom you can present. In addition to getting used to having an audience, you’ll also get some feedback.
  • Use the same volume of voice. When we’re not “live,” we have a tendency to hold back on our voice. This is detrimental to the presentation because you feel taken off guard by your own voice. Make sure to envision yourself in front of the senior execs when you practice.

Best Practices Recap

We’ve addressed 5 best practices — now let’s turn our attention to 4 specific techniques you can easily implement. And when you do, that work wonders for management presenting.

Use a CSP Model (Challenge, Solution, Progress)

Every presentation needs structure, but it’s easy to forget that we need to guide our audience. A great way to structure management reports is using the CSP model. CSP stands for Challenge, Solution, Progress, and it’s exactly what it sounds like.

You need to explain the challenge or goal, explain what the solution to the challenge is (or how to achieve the goal), and show where you are in the steps to completing that goal.

For example, let’s look at our Batch Watch case. Imagine you need to find funding for a new product launch — $100,000 to be exact. A sample CSP model for this would be a slide that shows:

how to write a good report to senior management

By using the CSP model, you guide the audience. However, it’s important to note that the CSP model is not a summary . It’s an overview of the process, but a summary should always come before. Let’s talk about it now.

Begin with a Summary of Exactly 3 Points

Any good presentation begins with a summary. And a good summary communicates the essential message simply in 3 points. However, the summary is not the same thing as the CSP model. Instead, it provides an alternative view on the challenge and and solution.

For example, using our Batch Watch case of funding a new product, you could address a summary in the following way:

  • Challenge, Solution, Progress
  • Funding acquisition
  • Project Timeline

This provides additional details that are most relevant to the project and carry added value to the CSP model.

Use only Bar Charts (aka Column Charts), Line Graphs, and Scatter Plots

Whether it’s for data, financial, and business analyst topics , management presentations should only ever have bar charts, line graphs, and scatter plots. They are common, rich in information, and well understood. Any other kind of graph is distracting more than anything else.

A bar graph is useful when you want to compare like variables. For example, if you want to show the average size of Canadian trout versus American trout. A common mistake, though, is to use bar graphs to show change over time. While it’s not incorrect to do so, line graphs are better for this purpose.

A line graph is useful when you want to show change in one variable over time (we call this time series data). For example, if you want to show the progression of revenues over time, line graphs are the perfect way to do so.

A scatter plot is best when you want to compare a set of observations of one variable to a set of observations of another. It’s the ideal way to quickly visualize the relationship between two variables. For example, if you want to see how company revenues compare to GDP, you could use a scatter plot like this:

For example, let’s look at our Batch Watch case. If we want to see how our company is performing compared to the economy as a whole, we could use this scatter plot. As you can see, we have a positive (bottom left to top right) relationship, but a weak one (points not clustered closely).

how to write a good report to senior management

Design Slides Using the Company Logo

When you’re presenting to senior executives, you want your slides to look professional. The best way to do that is by putting your company logo on them, including any corporate design standards (colors, fonts, etc). Show through your presentation that you belong to the same company, and that you’re in it in spirit. For example, let’s add the AnalystAnswers.com logo to our CSP slide:

how to write a good report to senior management

Techniques Recap

Here’s a sample management presentation template below. I hope you understand after reading this article that management presentation is more about your delivery than it is about the slides you prepare.

Download Management Presentation Template for Free

While the techniques we’ve discussed will help you build a good presentation, your success really depends on how well you deliver the ideas needed to help senior executives make decisions. At the end of the day, it’s all about balance.

If you only remember two things from this article, remember that great management presenters give enough detail to inform senior executive but not too much that they cause confusion, and great management presenters make sure they do so by practicing 7 times in advance. You’ll have to practice, practice, practice.

About the Author

Noah is the founder & Editor-in-Chief at AnalystAnswers. He is a transatlantic professional and entrepreneur with 5+ years of corporate finance and data analytics experience, as well as 3+ years in consumer financial products and business software. He started AnalystAnswers to provide aspiring professionals with accessible explanations of otherwise dense finance and data concepts. Noah believes everyone can benefit from an analytical mindset in growing digital world. When he's not busy at work, Noah likes to explore new European cities, exercise, and spend time with friends and family.

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Management Reporting: 8 Best Practices to Create Effective Reports

how to write a good report to senior management

Table of contents

Big numbers and rough notes make little sense unless they’re properly packaged and presented. Management reporting helps achieve exactly this.

Without it, your company’s management has data flying in from all directions, making it challenging to pick out important data bites for meeting business targets.

With a management report though, information from different departments of a company is properly tracked, packaged, and presented to the decision-makers. This helps them in making well-informed, strategic moves that benefit year-round business goals. In addition to this, according to Databox’s State of Business Reporting , in most companies, the management is not only able to read and interpret data – but is also in charge of making reports.

So it makes sense to say that the usefulness of management reporting lies in how efficiently it’s done. To this end, it’s important to understand what makes a beneficial management report.

And to help you out, we’ve created this guide to explain this and more. Here’s what you’ll learn:

What is a Management Report?

Difference between financial and management reports, management reporting best practices.

how to write a good report to senior management

A management report provides up-to-date insights or key performance indicators (KPIs) about the functions of various business departments in an easy-to-understand manner.

In other words, managerial reports inform managers and leaders about the ups and downs of the business and their goals over a time period. This helps them reflect on and address different aspects of the business and make data-informed strategies that align with the organization’s aims.

Wondering which report format is best for reporting to the management?

We asked respondents from different business sectors. Of these, 14.8% of respondents belonged to the SaaS sector, 25.9% to eCommerce, 29.6% to a marketing agency, 14.8% to professional services, and 14.8% belonged to other sectors. 

What best describes your business

59% of these folks use presentations to report to management. 40% choose spreadsheets for sharing data with some 38% using written documents. 33% use centralized dashboards with the remaining 8%, using other methods.

How do you report to management

PRO TIP: Get a Live Overview of Your Most Important Projects In a Single Dashboard

Project management is all about juggling: resources, expectations, people, data, and much more. And as a project manager, you not only have to know where your projects are at any given moment, but you also have to be aware of where they’re going and where they need to be in the future. To do that using a project management system, you need an actionable dashboard that allows you to monitor metrics like:

  • Number of tasks completed by project. Get a live update on the total number of tasks that have been completed in a particular project and track how many tasks actually get completed on a daily basis. 
  • Total hours tracked. See how many hours are tracked on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. Split tracked time by project, client, tasks, and team.
  • Tasks overdue by project. At any time, see how many project tasks are overdue, and take appropriate action to get them back on track.
  • Tasks completed by project. At any time, see how many tasks have been completed in a project and how many tasks remain to be completed. 

Now you can benefit from the experience of our project managers, who have put together great plug-and-play Databox templates showing the most important KPIs for tracking your team’s performance. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in management reports, and best of all, it’s free!

asana-project-dashboard-template-preview

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 project management tool with Databox. 

Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.

Briefly, the difference between these two reports lies in their target audiences, use cases, and the details contained within.

The thing is: financial reports are made in accordance with GAAP guidelines and cover the financial overview of a company over a period of time – monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

Such reports are for external use such as legal purposes. Meaning: their target readers are investors and regulators.

Because financial reports provide information on past accounting, they’re of little to no use for making future decisions for maintaining a business’s competitiveness.

This is where management reports come into the picture. Although based on numbers like financial reports, these reports are very different.

Essentially, management reports are for business owners and managers, providing granular details about operations held in different segments of an organization.

Since this type of reporting is for internal use, it doesn’t have to follow GAAP guidelines. It’s also not mandatory as a financial report is.

Related : Business Report: What is it & How to Write a Great One? (With Examples)

Frequent management reporting comes with a slew of benefits. It allows for accuracy in decisions, staying focused on customers, and helps with identifying problems to solve them early on, saving both effort and time.

However, a management report is of no use if it is ridden with errors, has poor information, or is presented inefficiently. So, what can you do for ensuring proper management reporting?

Here are 8 management reporting best practices to help you out:

  • Start with the objectives
  • Always include KPIs
  • Keep the report to the point
  • Make sure it is visually appealing
  • Tell a story
  • Involve all the teams
  • Consider your audience
  • Strive to improve

1. Start with the objectives

First things first, make sure your report has defined objectives.

Mention these at the beginning to keep them at the front and center of your readers’ minds. Since managers and CEOs have busy schedules, it’s easy for them to get lost in numbers that provide little to no reference or explanation from the start.

Elaborating on the importance of sharing goals at the start, Aqsa Tabassam from Ray PCB says, “For your management report to have any weight at all, it is critical that you highlight your key goals and objectives from the outset.

All the data analysis and strategies contained in a management report have one clear purpose: to help a firm achieve its business objectives. If you don’t outline your firm’s goals and objectives at the beginning of the report, all the data contained in the later pages would be rendered meaningless.”

Sharing their experience, Tabassam adds, “I ensure that whenever I have to prepare a management report, I clearly define my company’s key objectives in the first few pages. This gives the readers a point of reference for the contents of the report. It allows them to understand how the organization is aligning its strategies to its long-term goals.”

Mentioning goals at the start will not just benefit the reader but will be also helpful for you – serving as a reminder to see what KPIs you are tracking and what performance factors need to be part of the report.

2. Always include KPIs

KPIs are central to management reporting. Without them, reporting can prove to be futile. These also give a clear idea of how the business is operating by helping measure the goals and performance of each department.

In short, KPIs show managers what is working and what’s not working. Without this data, your project management reporting dashboard can’t be based on facts.

Ben Wallington of Designerwear agrees, “Management reporting can be pretty pointless if it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. Your management report must involve a key performance indicator. This helps everyone in the company see if tactics are working at a glance and if the company is heading in the right direction. It is the best kind of monitoring that a company can do.”

However, try not to squeeze in every other metric in your management report. Why? Because an effective managerial report contains only important data so as to not confuse the reader. This way, you can provide a solid foundation for the conclusions you’re making in the report.

Here’s a quick peek at the KPIs that are essential according to our contributors:

Most important management KPIs

Related : 5 KPI Management Best Practices to Consider in 2021

3. Keep the report to the point

Your management report needs to be “clear and concise” in the words of James Khoury of Zendbox . After all, the purpose of such a report is to make things easy for the management.

Two things that can help here:

  • Use simple words. Any jargon or difficult words will only make the report challenging to understand.
  • Write key takeaways instead of long paragraphs explaining the information you put in the report.

As Khoury points out, “Although the reports will contain tremendous amounts of data, you should ensure it stays clear and concise with easily read summaries and objectives – there can be no room for misinterpretation. All managers can then take the information away and make sure their teams are aligned.”

To make your report easy to read, you can use bullet points and make sure the document has enough white space. Furthermore, cut out any redundancy and make the report scannable. Vertical Leap’s Lee Wilson is of the same view.

“Reporting to management needs a clear narrative, targeted takeaways, and close alignment to business (and likely department) objectives,” Wilson comments.

Remember : your goal should be to present all the data to the leaders briefly.

4. Make sure your report is visually appealing

Blocks followed by blocks of text can be heavy on the eyes.

To make the management report digestible, your report needs to be visually balanced. You can do this by balancing data with some imagery. What sort? Charts and screenshots. You can also make your report interactive.

Most of all, focus on visual hierarchy whereby you place important information first. Don’t forget to make sure your report draws attention to key pointers immediately.

In this regard, ReVerb’s Mary Plahonina shares: “To make my reports efficient and organized, I combine documentation with screenshots from the task management software . The KPI dashboard displays our top priorities, completed tasks, and project timelines. With such an approach, we can easily track work progress and ensure that we deliver all projects on time.” See other free project overview dashboard examples here.

What’s more, as a rule of thumb, select a font style and size that are easily understandable. Lastly, use brand colors for making an on-brand visually appealing report.

5. Tell a story

Storytelling is a great way to keep your readers engaged and explain where you’re coming from. In management reporting too, storytelling can be used to explain segment operations and what can be done to improve.

For instance, compare past data with present one to tell managers how your team has improved over time or can do better. Other than comparing past and present data, you can compare factual data with targets for the period too.

Such storytelling can help in convincing the authorities when it comes to making certain changes for business success. As Khoury of Zendbox pinpoints, “You can use the reports as a tool to guide managers on to their next steps and support action plans.”

Wallington also credits visuals and storytelling for making reports more convincing. Says Wallington, “What works for us is management reporting [that is] executed in a visual manner.

There is a bit of storytelling involved in this, the reports are simply more engaging and easier to read this way. It is more effective than just a bunch of numbers on screen. Pie charts, explanations, and conclusions included in the report make for better management reporting.”

Related : How This 2-Person Agency Helps Clients Understand The Story Behind Their Data

6. Involve all the teams

There should be no disconnect between managers and their teams. After all, communication is key and will only aid in decision-making. Alex Maklakov of MacKeeper credits the practice of involving all employees in the management reporting process for improving it.

Maklakov shares, “One practice that massively improved our management reporting was onboarding and educating entire teams about the process. If there is any disconnect anywhere between the employee and the C-Suite, it will reflect on the report.

Everyone should be clear on how the data is collected, processed, and represented. This practice is even more important if you’re rolling out new technology at your company.”

This practice of collaborating with teams keeps employees engaged and informed, which helps them focus on the objectives at hand. To add, it enables managers to look at matters from a different angle, enabling them to make better decisions.

You can also bring all the teams together for getting an eagle’s eye view of each department’s progress. Talking about this, Khoury od Zendbox advises, “Bringing all departments of a business together you can get an overarching view of performance through the organization – see what areas need to develop and what would ultimately create a more successful business.”

7. Consider your audience

Your management report should satisfy its audience – this can be managers, founders, or other internal authorities. A straightforward way to know what the superiors in charge want is to simply ask them.

Donna Duncan of B-SeenOnTop suggests, “I always ask management to share what keeps them awake at night. I think about the data we have or could collect that would shed light on how well the company is doing relative to that concern.”

Our respondents agree with 73.3% saying they focus on what their audience wants to know in addition to what they should know.

In contrast, only 20% say their sole focus is on what their audience must know and 6.7% admit they focus on what their audience wants to know.

Where do you focus on when reporting to management?

Additionally, for your management reporting to be useful to the managers, it shouldn’t just contain numbers and outcomes but recommendations as well. Make sure each piece of info you add in the report is meaningful to your readers.

Wilson from Vertical Leap defines how you can go about doing this: “Each segment or slide needs to have a purpose that reflects the audience requirement, steering the outcomes away from data assumptions and into meaningful insights.

As a best practice tip, consider the roles and functions of people the report is intended for, and verify you are providing something valuable to each.”

8. Strive to improve

While you may think your management reporting skills are at par, you can always do better. The goals and objectives of businesses are always evolving, and with that, your report needs to as well.

Testing is crucial to ensure there is no inefficiency in your reporting. Double-check if your management report is filled with KPIs or data that aren’t required.

Adapt to the changes in the digital landscape and apply new techniques that can better explain your points. This way, you can stay ahead of the competition.

Apart from studying what tools and tips can be implemented, you can also directly ask managers if you can improve your managerial report.

Duncan of B-SeenOnTop does this as well. After highlighting data relevant to the management’s concerns, Duncan asks the “management to confirm whether it is helping or not.”

Wilson from Vertical Leap takes the same approach: “Remember to verify after the report is provided or discussed, that the audience is happy with the outcome, or any further refinements that can be made for future versions.”

Doing so can also save you from any tweaks that may be needed after submitting your report.

To reiterate, management reporting focuses on measuring and tracking performance metrics and presenting them in a concise manner.

The goal? To help management know how different segments and departmental operations are doing and serve as a guide to take the next steps. With financial reporting software like Databox and the steps outlined above, you can achieve this easier than ever before. Sign up for a free trial today to get a holistic view of your company’s performance.

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How to structure a management report for your business

Need to write a management report? Check out our must-read tips!

Hotmart

03/04/2022 | By Hotmart

What will we see in this post

Running a business is a major challenge, but it’s far from being an impossible mission. After all, there are techniques, resources, and strategies to help entrepreneurs to achieve success. Managing finances, employees, inventory, marketing, and sales strategies are some of the many responsibilities of a leader. It might seem like a lot of work, but a management report can make everything easier and safer.

The premise is simple, but some managers don’t know how to prepare a good management report. If you are one of those professionals, don’t worry. We have listed all the steps to help you do so. So, keep reading!

Management Report: the importance

Even when facing an unstable economy, entrepreneurs around the world tend to be persistent. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Global Report of 2015 , 66% of adults view entrepreneurship as a good career. 

There are 582 million entrepreneurs in the world in the most varied segments. However, getting over your fear and investing in this dream is only the first step. You need to be strategic and work hard to achieve maximum performance.

In this context, a management report serves as a key instrument for the operation of any enterprise. It allows you to look at your business’ situation more accurately and helps you make safer and more assertive decisions.

With the report, you can analyze the results achieved and rethink the actions that aren’t working. This is because it presents the business’ particularities and its performance during the period being evaluated.

The 6 elements of a good Management Report

Now that you understand the importance of this document, in order to learn how to prepare a complete and effective management report, you need to know the elements that must be included in its structure.

Therefore, since the purpose of this post is to help you clarify any questions you might have on the subject, and not face problems with this task in your everyday life, let’s start from the basics. Take a look at the 6 indispensable elements for a good report!

A management report is simply a document in the form of a report that serves to measure your business’ performance and helps in your decision-making process. For this reason, it’s important that it has a title.

Therefore, since there are reports for various departments and purposes, the title will help you identify the subject quickly and efficiently.

2. Contextualization

Contextualization is another indispensable element and allows the recipient – you or another employee -, to understand what will be analyzed in the following pages.

This text needs to be brief and objective, serving as an introduction for the metrics, statistics, and results that will be presented.

3. Objectives

Every management report is prepared for a reason. Therefore, don’t forget to insert the document’s objectives and focus on what is really important and useful for your business.

The reports should be an instrument that is easy to analyze and its objective should be very clear. Therefore, even before you start the process, carefully select the information that will be presented so that it is consistent with your objective.

A summary is a text for fast reading that contains only the most relevant information in the report. This way, managers can avoid having to read it in its entirety every time they have to make a decision.

A well-drafted summary optimizes your time and leads to faster and safer decisions. After all, the information is presented in a more objective manner, as in a mental map .

Finally, your management report must have an area for the presentation of results.

In this item, we must insert all the relevant observations that have been made, as well as the statistics, tables, charts and performance metrics observed.

6. Conclusion

The conclusion is the closure of your report and must show your findings, which will be based on the information presented throughout the document.

As you can see, it isn’t about personal opinions. With the support of Big Data , the conclusion is proven in actual and updated information already collected. Therefore, it is so valuable for the management of the business.

Complete steps on how to prepare a Management Report

Many managers consider the preparation of management reports truly challenging. The truth is that this document has always been part of a business’ management, but has gained even more importance in recent years.

For this reason, we have prepared a complete list of steps so you can have a useful instrument at hand that can help you make more money, correct mistakes and take advantage of market opportunities. Keep reading!

Step 1: Plan before you start

Planning is the best way of producing a complete document that is beneficial for your business. Otherwise, you might waste time preparing a report that is incomplete or has irrelevant information.

Before you do anything, define the objectives and identify how the information presented will help your business grow. To do so, start by answering the questions described below.

  • For whom is this report being prepared?
  • What is the purpose of the report?
  • What information will be collected?
  • How can information help in the decision-making process?

Step 2: Invest in automated tools

Business management efficiency is a common goal for every entrepreneur. So, how about investing in automated management tools to create your management report?

To do so, there are technologies that simplify this task, optimize your time and ensure a much more satisfactory result.

Our first suggestion is Google Data Studio , a data visualization tool capable of transforming information into nice, intuitive and easy to understand management reports.

Our second suggestion is Primavera , which is a platform to help you easily manage projects and monitor results. Among its features is its integration with other management, data analysis and report generation software.

Finally, make sure you invest in Business Intelligence (BI) tools. They are essential for fast and safe decision-making. The best systems collect, organize, classify and analyze the data, which makes your work easier.

Step 3: Use clear and objective language

If you think that a management report requires specific terms and complex language, it’s high time you changed your mind.

Ideally, the document should be easy to read and interpret. Therefore, be clear and use informal language, and stick only to the essentials.

Therefore, don’t be wordy and remember that a manager’s busy routine requires fast reading and decision-making. The easier the report is to be interpreted, the more useful and important it will be for the business.

Step 4: Tell a story to engage readers

Overall, a management report consists of a lot of data and information. In fact, this is one of the reasons that make many managers find it to be a difficult document to prepare and understand.

However, it will clearly depend on the strategy while preparing it. In order to make the content attractive and not overwhelm the reader, a good idea is to contextualize the facts by telling a story.

This way, you’ll be able to combine the exposition and description of the situation being analyzed in a lighter manner that makes sense. This allows the results to be understood, creating engagement while it’s being read.

Step 5: Define the metrics and KPIs to be used

Do you usually use performance metrics and KPIs to manage your business? If they still aren’t part of your strategies, you should definitely look into it. 

Actually, KPIs (key performance indicators) are the most important metrics for your business. They are usually linked to your main goals and therefore, guide the preparation of management reports in a positive manner.

Therefore, choose which metrics will be used, collecting the data and sorting the information. After all, not everything should be included in the document.

Step 6: Establish a point of comparison

Whenever we want to evaluate the performance of strategies, departments, products or employees, establishing a point of comparison is essential.

Therefore, this should be your next step. Select the period in which the information will be collected and analyzed, and define goals or targets to outline comparisons.

If you are using tables, set up columns so that you can easily view the comparison. For example, you can add a column with your goals and another one with the results achieved. This will make it easier to understand the conclusion that will be presented at the end of the document.

Step 7: Insert visual elements into the document

As we mentioned earlier, the management report must be clear and easy to interpret. A good strategy is to use visual elements.

Tough routines full of obligations require dynamic tools and actions. Delivering a document with hundreds of pages isn’t productive at all, but the use of charts, mental maps and even videos during the presentation can improve the understanding of the information.

Step 8: Make a final review

After everything is ready, it’s time to make a careful final review. In this phase, you need to make sure that the final text doesn’t have any spelling mistakes, incompatible data and untruthful information.

Remember that this will provide credibility to the document and ensure that it is truly useful. In other words, it fulfills its role of making the management of your business easier .

Writing a Management Report is easier than you think

Have you learned how to prepare a management report? After reading this article, you have probably reached the conclusion that this isn’t an impossible task at all.

This document is crucial for the operation of any business and creating it is easier than it seems. Therefore, don’t waste any more time and follow our tips!

But before you do, how about learning a bit more? Learn how the Pareto chart can help you carry out tasks more efficiently !

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How to Email an Executive: 6 Tips from Senior Management

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Communication at work is key – but when it comes to writing emails to senior management, things can get a little intimidating. You may be worried about nailing the grammar and portraying yourself professionally, but are these really the things senior management cares about when reading an email from someone? We spoke with senior leaders within Jack Henry & Associates to get the scoop on what they really look for and came up with six tips you can use when it’s time to send that all-important email.

Tip #1 - Get to the point and be succinct.

This one may seem a bit counterintuitive. After all, they’re senior management, shouldn’t you include as much info as possible in your correspondence? Dealing with hundreds of emails is part of every executive’s job, which is why getting straight to the point is important.

“I like to get straight to the point unless foundational information is required to make a decision .... most of the emails I get are usually lengthy and require reading time,” said Stacey Zengel, SVP & President of Jack Henry Banking.

When constructing your email to senior management, take the time to read through and make sure you’re only including the essentials. This makes it easier for recipients to get through your email and gather the important facts.

Tip #2 - Check for grammar and punctuation errors.

Double-checking grammar and punctuation may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s an important tip to consider when writing emails to senior management. You want to make sure your email comes across as professional and credible. Reading through your message carefully or even popping the content into a grammar checker, like Grammarly, can help ensure your message is mistake-free. The last thing you want is for your message to come across as confusing because of a typo or an unclear sentence.

“Think about who you are including in an email, and if they need to be included. Make the email as succinct as possible. Lastly, read it for grammar and spelling – how you write/email creates a perception of you to others. I think some of our Associates forget that at times. It may not be a bad idea to have someone else read an important email before you send it for this very reason,” remarked Stacey Zengel, SVP & President of Jack Henry Banking

Tip #3 - Be explicit in the action you want people to take.

Not much is worse than getting a lengthy email and not knowing what you’re supposed to take away from it. When it comes to thinking about how to address senior management in an email, a big thing to consider is including takeaways or actionable items. One idea is to open your email with a brief summary and then list out the actions you need the person to take. You can use bullet points to really call out those actions needed. If there are no actions you need the person to take, explicitly tell them this information is “FYI only.”

“Be succinct – I prefer bullets to long sentences and include proper spacing to make it easier to read. Provide clear subject lines and explicit directions for actionable items so the group and/or individuals receiving the email understand what to do. Finally, if it is FYI ONLY, indicate that’s the case,” advised Jack Henry & Associate Chief Operating Officer, Greg Adelson.

Tip #4 - Summarize long threads.

Long threads are confusing and messy – but sometimes necessary in order to pass along all of the important information. It’s not unusual for executives to check email on the road from their phones. But scrolling through long threads looking for the point of an email is not a something you want to put senior management through.

“Long threads drive me nuts,” shared Russ Bernthal, former SVP & President of ProfitStars. “They’re particularly annoying when I’m traveling and looking at emails on my phone. Brevity makes a huge difference. If you send a long thread, tell me the essence of the thread in a summary at the beginning. I can look through the details if I need or want to.”

Tip #5 - Double check who’s in the “To” and “CC” fields.

Receiving hundreds of emails a day comes with the territory of being a senior exec. But just because this is part of the gig, doesn’t mean an executive automatically understands why they’re getting an email. Make sure it’s absolutely necessary that they’re included on the email before sending it off to them. If they must be, then make clear to them why. No one – from senior executive to summer intern – likes to be included on emails that are ongoing and irrelevant.

“I would say ‘Reply All’ when not required is the biggest pet peeve for me. The second most-frustrating relates to long/drawn out emails that you are ‘CC-ed’ on versus on the ‘To’ line, but you can’t tell if the content is FYI only or requires action on your part.”  said Greg Adelson, Chief Operating Officer for Jack Henry.

Tip #6 - Make sure the subject line is clear.

Think about how many emails you get in a day. If the subject line isn’t clear, you could easily overlook an important message. The same goes for executives. Making sure your subject line is clear and descriptive is one of the easiest tips to keep in mind when writing emails to senior management. It’s the first impression of your email and it helps indicate to the recipient whether or not the email is important. Keeping your subject line clear helps executives prioritize and read your email with the right mindset.

Putting it all together.

Most of these six tips for writing emails to senior management are common sense really. The main goal is to make it easy for executives to do their job and you can do that by constructing your emails in a way that helps them make a decision, take action, or approve your request. It's a small act, but a small act multiplied by 100 people can make a big difference their day. So, before you fire off your next email to a senior manager or an executive consider these tips.

6 tips for addressing senior management in an email.

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how to write a good report to senior management

What Are Management Reports and How to Create One

There are many different types of reports you can create and read in a business setting and not all of them hold the same weight. Management reports are one of the most important ones for decision-making as they have all the highlights and most important data for making business decisions.

With management reports, you don’t have to guess about where your company or business stands, or worry about the financial health of your business. They will help you make better, data-driven decisions that are crucial for the success of any business.

Whatagraph marketing reporting tool

Apr 17 2020 ● 5 min read

What Are Management Reports and How to Create One

Table of Contents

What are management reports.

Management reports are the kind of marketing reports that provide data necessary for the company’s managers to successfully run the business. They present communication of business results, risks, and issues created by managers for executive management , managers, or governance bodies.

Management reports are of absolute importance for one organizational strategy, and every good leader knows it. They help them control and direct their businesses and make more informed decisions.

What is the goal of using management reports?

Data from different departments of the company is collected regarding relevant key performance indicators which are presented in a clear, easy-to-understand way. Usually, the way to do this is with elements such as bar charts, graphs, tables and other types of widgets. Writing a report is also an important part of the process. 

Management reports disclose operational and financial information, thus helping managers to see the worth of their business over a specific period of time with smart financial reporting. They tell how the company is performing, providing the necessary information about different initiatives (such as cash flow and balance sheets) for the decision-makers to move in the right direction and increase operating efficiency.

Whatagraph offers you a way to simplify your management reporting with the many different marketing live reports available.

So, the goal of this type of reporting is to:

  • Monitor and measure certain KPIs and performance metrics through internal reports;
  • Understand the position and health of one business and suggest the next steps (e.g. through financial statements);
  • Determine business intelligence benchmarks;
  • Guide company manager’s next steps;
  • Ensure better communication between executives, colleagues, and stakeholders;
  • Help in the creation of action plans so the management can make better decisions;
  • Track the company’s financial performance frequently;
  • Foster continual business growth;

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What should management reports include?

Here’s what to consider when creating a good management report:

  • Strategic goals and objectives – start creating the report with the end in mind. Think about the reasons you need it, the key drivers of your business, your definition of success, and other data analysis questions. Once you have the answers, you’ll know how to set the overall performance indicators to monitor different aspects of the performance. 
  • The right KPIs – the KPIs you should include in your reports depending on your audience. Think about the data-driven questions the readers of the report would want to be answered, such as financial data. Remember, you should only include relevant information in your managerial reports.
  • Customer feedback – take this into consideration when making your report, as customer feedback will help you see what you are doing right or wrong.

6 tips for creating amazing management reports

Reporting on insights from customer feedback surveys and product surveys helps in creating a more accurate, data-driven strategy and improving the overall business performance.

Tip 1: Use storytelling – connect the parts in your report with a few sentences explaining each section. Use the opportunity to tell a story about why certain metrics are low/high/not changing since the last report.

Tip 2: Make the report visually pleasing  -  give the most important spots on your report to key KPIs, and secondary or tertiary positions for other metrics. This will help people process your report more easily without getting overwhelmed.

Tip 3: Make the report clear, scannable, and drillable – ensure there’s plenty of white space in your report, contrasting colors, a data range presented next to the data, common metrics everyone can understand, etc.

Tip 4: Make the report visually balanced  – present the most important KPIs in a concise way so that decision-makers can get the information without confusion.

Tip 5: Provide real-time insights in your report - make sure they align with your objectives for effective management reporting.

Tip 6: Keep on improving – test your reports regularly and make the necessary changes to ensure there are no inefficient or redundant data, i.e. duplication.

40 data sources

A case for creating monthly management reports

Organized and regular monthly management reports will ensure the strategy of your company stays on track. Here’s what they should include:

  • A branded cover page  – to make your report look more professional, make sure you include the logo or seal of your organization. You can do this easily with Whatagraph as there are different customization options to make your report look on-brand.
  • Mission, vision, and values  – these statements summarize your company’s strategy and reinforce its identity.
  • Table of contents  – include it in the beginning to make it easier for everyone to find what they are looking for. Especially for internal use, it makes it easier to find the right KPIs and initiatives quickly.
  • Organizational scorecard views  – include a thorough overview of your department or organization scorecard that would be organized in the order that it’ll be read.
  • Detailed Pages  – your monthly management report should have at least one detail page focused on each of your strategic goals or objectives.
  • Charts  – use them to present information on KPIs and discuss your measures. Make sure they are easy to read, have clear targets, and are consistent throughout the report.
  • Project Overviews  – your monthly report should only review the projects that drive your strategy instead of all projects.
  • An online version  – use a cloud-based software solution for your monthly management reports.
  • A customized time-stamped footer  – things you can include in the footer include the name of the report, confidentiality statements, and copyright information.

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How to create a management report in 4 easy steps

You may be thinking that these types of management reports are complicated and take a lot of time to prepare. No matter your business needs, you can create management reports and dashboards in minutes.

Step 1: Create a Whatagraph account. This data visualization and management reporting system takes just a few moments to sign up for.

Step 2:  Start with a report template. You can find more than 100 different templates for reports in our library. This shortens your reporting processes and lets you find the best template for your use case in minutes.

Once you choose a template, it will be automatically populated with all the right widgets and metrics for that use case. 

Step 3:  Connect your data sources (Whatagraph has more than 40 of them available) and your data will populate in front of your eyes.

Step 4:  Schedule your report so it gets sent out to the right people at your desired time interval. For example, you can set it up, so your manager gets it once per week or once every month.

Now sit back and relax. You’ve set the management report up once and it will arrive every week or month with fresh, accurate and up-to-date data in a visually pleasing form.

Create your first report in minutes instead of hours

No more Excel or Powerpoint - reporting tools such as Whatagraph are the future of creating management reports. Save time on reporting and impress your managers, all in one move.

Sign up for your free trial of Whatagraph and start creating amazing management reports today!

Published on Apr 17 2020

Mile is the head of content at Whatagraph in charge of all content and communications for Whatagraph’s marketing data platform. A marketing heavy with almost a decade of SaaS industry experience, Mile has managed multiple content marketing teams without losing an ounce of his writing passion. The author behind some of the most-read pieces on our blog.

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Helping Innovators Become Better Managers

March 1, 2018 By Rodrigo Caetano

SWP 023: How to Write Reports to Senior Management

How to get your point across when writing reports to senior management?

Find out the best way to get your message across when writing executive reports, so senior management will read your emails and act on them.

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Creating a cybersecurity report for senior management in 2024.

Edward Kost

Edward Kost

A cybersecurity report shouldn’t be feared. Instead, it should be regarded as an opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of your cybersecurity program, and while management is brimming with delight over your efforts, maybe also a chance to sneak in a request for that cyber budget increase.

The problem, however, is that most CIOs and CISOs struggle to put together a decent cybersecurity board report, and as a result, risk management programs fail to receive the funding required to achieve a competitive security posture .

Thankfully, you don’t need to go back to school and complete a writing degree to produce a persuasive cyber report. You just need to follow some strategic best practices.

To learn how to put together an effective cybersecurity report optimized for senior management teams, read on.

Learn how UpGuard streamlines cybersecurity reporting >

3 Best Practices for Preparing a Cybersecurity Report for Senior Management

Whether you're creating one for board members or senior management, a cybersecurity report needs to be adapted to your organization’s unique cybersecurity strategy and reporting objectives. Detailed step-by-step walkthroughs are of little use since they risk pigeonholing you into a reporting style not aligned with your company's standards.

A much safer alternative is to provide a best practices framework outlining the key components that should be addressed and the primary expectations of your intended audience, which in this case is senior management.

1. Understand the Reporting Expectations of Senior Management

An effective cybersecurity report begins with an accurate understanding of your target audience. Board members and senior management staff have differing duties, so a cyber report for each group needs to be designed with a specific approach.

The board of directors is primarily tasked with setting the organization's overall strategic direction, which could include the design of a cybersecurity governance structure ensuring compliance with relevant regulations. So, a cybersecurity board report for board members would need an increased focus on communicating alignment with corporate objectives and compliance KPIs .

Learn how to put together a cyber report for the board >

On the other hand, senior management staff are tasked with implementing the board's strategic initiatives by overseeing the day-to-day operations of cybersecurity teams. They're also responsible for reducing the impact of cybersecurity incidents and cybersecurity threats by overseeing data breach mitigation efforts , the implementation of security policies, and the testing of security controls.

Learn how to write the executive summary of a cybersecurity report >

The board is responsible for setting strategic goals and compliance objectives against the organization’s risk tolerance and risk appetite. Senior Management ensures these security policies are implemented across the organization’s security program.

As such, senior management is primarily interested in operational metrics impacting the organization’s cybersecurity posture and any threats to achieving stakeholder objectives.

Some examples of such information includes:

  • An update on vulnerability remediation and cybersecurity risk patching efforts.
  • Performance summaries of Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) and Vendor Risk Management (VRM) programs .
  • Any changes to the organization’s risk profile - such as increased susceptibility to phishing, malware, or ransomware attacks.
  • The presence of alignment gaps against cybersecurity frameworks, such as NIST CSF and ISO 27001 .
  • The emergence of new vectors across internal and external attack surfaces, such as Zero-Days.
  • The state of third-party vendor vulnerabilities increasing the risk of supply chain attacks .
  • The impact of incident response efforts.
  • Penetration testing results.
  • The details of any cyberattacks that have taken place.
  • The roll-out of information security initiatives in response to regulation mandates, such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and sensitive data encryption technology.

Learn common tactics for bypassing MFA >

Here are some examples of reporting features conveying some of this information. These examples have been pulled from cybersecurity reports in UpGuard’s report template library.

Vendor Summary Report Benchmarking Vendor Cybersecurity Performance Against Industry Standards.

Snapshot - UpGuard’s vendor summary report.

Vendor Security Score Distribution Indicating The Overall Security Posture Trend Across The Third-party Attack Surface.

Snapshot - UpGuard’s board summary report.

Security Rating Changes Over 12 Months, Indicating Overall Cybersecurity Posture Improvement or Decline.

Snapshot - UpGuard’s board summary report.

Note: Not all senior management and C-Suite staff expect a separate cybersecurity report addressing all these details. Some are perfectly content with the cybersecurity performance updates outlined in general board member cybersecurity reports.

When this is the case, a generic cybersecurity board report template can be used for all parties.

Learn more about UpGuard’s cybersecurity reporting features >

2. Clearly Articulate Your Efforts in Addressing Supply Chain Attack Risks

Thankfully, board members now understand the importance of cybersecurity investments and are more open to using security insights to influence their decision-making. This increase in enthusiasm, however, doesn’t translate to a corresponding increase in cybersecurity knowledge.

Board members understand that having an arsenal of the latest cybersecurity tools decreases cyber threat impact, but that still doesn’t quite address their fears of cyber attacks. A survey by the Harvard Business Review found that most board members believe their organization is at risk of a material cyber attack despite investing in protective measures.

An HBR survey of 600 board members found that 65% of respondents still believe their organizations are at risk of a material cyber attack within the next 12 months despite investing time and money in cybersecurity initiatives.

To address these concerns, your report should outline tangible efforts in addressing significant cyber attack risks, particularly of a type responsible for the most gut-wrenching anxiety amongst senior management - supply chain attacks .

Your organization’s degree of supply chain attack resilience is measured by the strength of your Vendor Risk Management (VRM) program . Communicating VRM performance while remaining sensitive to limited cybersecurity knowledge is best achieved with graphical elements, such as a Vendor Risk Matrix.

Learn how UpGuard streamlines Vendor Risk Management >

A vendor risk matrix indicates risk criticality distribution across your third-party attack surface. This reporting feature is an excellent option for concisely community VRM performance as it illustrates the degree of residual risks still impacting your organization despite implemented security controls.

Vendor risk matrix illustrating risk criticality distribution, which could be indicative of the emergence of new attack vectors.

If more details about the remediation efforts of particular critical vendor risks are required, you could supplement your cybersecurity report with a risk assessment result summary for each vendor in question.

Watch this video for an overview of the risk assessment process. It may inspire some ideas of information you can pull from the process to include with your report as evidence of your critical Vendor Risk Management efforts.

Learn more about UpGuard's vendor risk assessment features >

3. Speak in Terms of Financial Impact

Information technology concepts may fly over the heads of some senior management staff, but there’s one language that is sure to get everybody’s head nodding - finances. Explaining the performance of cybersecurity programs in terms of financial impact is the best way of ensuring senior management understands the impact of your efforts.

Understanding the financial impacts of specific remediation tasks helps senior management make informed decisions about which aspects of a cybersecurity program are performing the best.

In a cyber report, financial impact can be represented in two different ways:

  • In terms of damages caused by cyberattacks or risks associated with prospective vendors
  • In terms of resource bandwidth required to respond to cybersecurity risk .

The former is calculated with a methodology known as Cyber Risk Quantification (CRQ) . The latter may require a more nuanced approach involving a remediation weighting system quantifying the impact of response efforts.

Learn how to create a vendor risk summary report >

Using the UpGuard platform to illustrate the application of this approach,  the impact of selected remediation tasks is represented as a projected improvement to an organization’s security posture. Not only does this help security teams prioritize the most impactful remediation tasks (an approach supporting efficient and cost-effective remediation planning), it also helps senior management understand how previous cyber solution investments are being utilized.

Remediation impact projections on the UpGuard platform

Also, by considering the costs involved in each remediation task and then determining which response efforts have the greatest positive impact, a case can be made for increasing cyber investments in areas showing high levels of potential improvement.

For example, if the data indicates that outdated web server software accounts for a majority of your risk exposure, a case can be made for either investing in a server upgrade strategy, or an Attack Surface Management tool for keeping track of vulnerable internet-facing assets.

Senior Management Cybersecurity Reporting By UpGuard

UpGuard offers a library of cybersecurity reporting templates consolidate cybersecurity performance insight commonly required by senior management teams, including Vendor Risk Management performance, supply chain attack susceptibility, critical risk distribution, etc.

UpGuard's library of cybersecurity report templates.

UpGuard's board summary report can also be instantly exported into editable PDF slides, significantly easing the burden of preparing for board and senior management presentations.

UpGuard's board summary reports can be exported as editable PowerPoint slides.

Reviewed by

Kaushik Sen

Kaushik Sen

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IMAGES

  1. Looking Good How To Write A Good Report Senior Management Board Meeting

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  4. Report To Senior Management Template (6)

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  6. How To Write A Simple Report Example

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COMMENTS

  1. How to Report to Senior Management without Being Nervous

    It could be as simple as, "Thank you for the opportunity to update you on our project" or "The purpose of our meeting is to . . . " or "As you will remember, at our last meeting you challenged us to . . ." If your manager, or senior management team, gives you 10 minutes, it's best to prepare a seven-minute presentation.

  2. How to Present Performance Reports to Senior Managers

    What are the best ways to present performance reports to senior management? Powered by AI and the LinkedIn community 1 Know your audience 2 Define your purpose and scope 3 Choose the right...

  3. How to Present Quality Reports to Senior Management

    What are the best practices for presenting quality reports to senior management? Powered by AI and the LinkedIn community 1 Know your audience Be the first to add your personal experience 2...

  4. Executive Reporting: Management Reporting Best Practices & Report

    Identifying Issues and Risks No matter how successful your strategy is, there will be times when some tactics fail or a factor that's out of your control threatens your business. Executive reporting informs the C-suite about potential issues and risks timely, so they can react promptly and prepare to prevent them from becoming bigger.

  5. How to Write a Management Report (Free Template Included)

    Provide incomplete information instead of waiting until you have everything you need. Write with a lack of clarity which could result in confusing the audience. Include irrelevant information which does not help your audience draws conclusions. Make the report unnecessarily long as it should be clear and concise.

  6. 7 Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Reports for Senior Management

    Before you even start writing, you should delimitate your report and categorize it as follows: Abstract, Introduction, Background, Method, Findings, Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, Conclusions and Recommendations.

  7. How to Present to Senior Executives

    Define your objective. The first step in presenting your ideas to senior executives is defining your objective. Before you start, you need to know what you want to achieve. The second step is to be sure that the person presenting their ideas and the people who are hearing them understand each other's needs.

  8. How to Write for Senior Executives

    1. Provide an executive summary. When you write a report or a similar document, state the primary message at the beginning. Do not state simply what is to come, as in "This report presents research that will . . . ." Instead, state conclusions: "Extensive research demonstrates that . . . ."

  9. Management Reporting Best Practices & Report Examples

    Table of Contents 1) What Is A Management Report? 2) Financial vs. Management Reports 3) Management Reporting Best Practices & Examples 4) Management Reporting Trends & History 5) Importance Of Management Reporting 6) Types Of Management Reports 7) Management Reporting System Functionalities 8) Best Practices Summary

  10. How To Write a Management Report in 5 Steps

    1. Set goals for your staff Managerial reports are useful for you and the rest of your management team, but also for the recipient. It gives them a thorough appraisal of your department's output and performance.

  11. How to Brief a Senior Executive

    What are your boss's "tells"? How do they engage with material? And whom do they look to for endorsement? Knowing these things ahead of time will help you react effectively to pushback and pivot...

  12. Management Presentation: 8 Tips, Examples & a Template

    A management presentation is a high-level summary to senior executive that optimizes reports to include only the details relevant to directorial decisions.They are notoriously difficult to navigate for two reasons: 1. most executives do not have working knowledge of the nuances in each department, 2. presenters rarely have time to understand executives' preferences.

  13. Management Reporting: 8 Best Practices to Create Effective ...

    3. Keep the report to the point. Your management report needs to be "clear and concise" in the words of James Khoury of Zendbox. After all, the purpose of such a report is to make things easy for the management. Two things that can help here: Use simple words. Any jargon or difficult words will only make the report challenging to understand.

  14. Management Report: How To Create and What To Include [+Tips

    1. Title A management report is simply a document in the form of a report that serves to measure your business' performance and helps in your decision-making process. For this reason, it's important that it has a title.

  15. How To Write a Report for Work (With Examples)

    1. Identify your audience Knowing who will be reading your report is an important step in determining how to format it, what to include and the tone you should use when writing it. For example, if you are writing a sales report for your manager, will anyone else be reading it?

  16. How to Email an Executive: 6 Tips from Senior Management

    Tip #1 - Get to the point and be succinct. This one may seem a bit counterintuitive. After all, they're senior management, shouldn't you include as much info as possible in your correspondence? Dealing with hundreds of emails is part of every executive's job, which is why getting straight to the point is important.

  17. How To Write a Report in 7 Steps (Plus Tips)

    Knowing how to write a successful report can make you a valuable asset in your current workplace or an appealing candidate for new employers. Here are some steps to follow when writing a report: 1. Decide on terms of reference. Many formal reports include a section that details the document's "terms of reference" (or ToR).

  18. What Are Management Reports and What Should They Include?

    Foster continual business growth; What should management reports include? Here's what to consider when creating a good management report: Strategic goals and objectives - start creating the report with the end in mind.

  19. How to Write Management Reports

    Learn how to write management reports using simple steps. If you need to write a status report or an extensive research report, learn a report writing technique to help you get your point across in a more efficient way.

  20. Creating a Cybersecurity Report for Senior Management in 2024

    1. Understand the Reporting Expectations of Senior Management An effective cybersecurity report begins with an accurate understanding of your target audience. Board members and senior management staff have differing duties, so a cyber report for each group needs to be designed with a specific approach.

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    Edit and Download. Present your company's attendance rates for the month with this colorful report template. Highlight an attendance overview and leave vs attendance with a pie chart and donut chart respectively. Use 3D graphics to visualize the information and make the report more amenable.

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