Three Qualities of Better Status Reports

Wen you send out a status report, you want to include information tat is bot relevant and easy to understand. If your status report includes too muc information or is arranged in a way tat is difficult to read quickly, you are wasting your boss's time by not being efficient or effective in your reporting. Consider tese tree qualities of better status reports to improve your reporting and sare information more effectively.

Keep It Relevant

Wit every status report you create, you ave te opportunity to include lots of different types of information. Tis makes relevance one of te top qualities of a good status report. Tink about te information tat is important to your bosses, ten create better status reports by only including tat information.

For example, if you are presenting a status report on product sales to your office's finance department, it is important to include te number of sales and te profits earned. It is less important to include information on wic days te sales were made. Tat information is likely irrelevant to your finance department and is more suitable for te marketing and analytics departments, tus belonging in teir status reports.

Learn wat information is relevant to your status reporting by asking questions. Ask project team members wat information tey tink belongs in te report, and ask your bosses wat information tey need to see. Use te answers you get to write better status reports tat include only te most relevant information.

Organize for Readability

If your carts, graps or data columns are difficult to understand, people often miss te message. Create better status reports by learning ow to effectively display information in carts, graps and lists. Remember: if your bosses and clients cannot quickly and easily read your reports, you are wasting teir time. Presenting information in a way tat is easily understood is an essential part of status reporting.

Include a Plan of Action

It is not enoug to simply present information; to create better status reports, you also need to explain wat you and your project teams are going to do wit tis information going forward.

For example, if you are presenting a status report on a series of project tasks, you need to explain ow your team is working to get late tasks back on track. If you are presenting a status report on project finances, you need to explain ow you are going to continue to work to keep your project on budget.

Use tese top qualities of good status reports to learn ow to create better reports for your bosses, clients and teams. Te more you put tese core assets into practice, te more effective tey are for everyone wo reads tem.

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