More and more companies are seeking to use their data to improve day-to-day performance. However, a number of best practices need to be followed to design truly relevant reports.
What is reporting?
Reporting is an account that provides an overview of the activity of an organization or a specific department within a company.
This analysis and decision-making tool enables executives and managers to extract relevant data on the company’s situation over a given period.
Unlike the dashboard, the reporting table is a snapshot of the organization at a given moment in time, presenting raw information that needs to be analyzed in detail before it can be used.
Find out more: What’s the difference between reporting and dashboarding?
What are the challenges of reporting for the company?
Originally, reporting was mainly used in the financial sector. Today, however, it is an essential tool for measuring corporate performance at all levels.
It enables management to keep track of the organization’s progress, while employees can draw on it for analysis and useful information to carry out their day-to-day projects.
Moreover, the reports enable the company to better understand the market in which it operates, identify trends, and develop scenarios based on the data collected.
Whether it’s tracking a product’s life cycle, benchmarking against the competition, anticipating future difficulties, or adjusting the price of an offer, reporting is a real asset for the organization.
However, it should not be limited to a list of key performance indicators (KPIs). Data must be highlighted in order to lead towards concrete action. Analysis of past results enables us to identify areas for improvement and forward-looking solutions.
Combined with data storytelling and data visualization, reporting makes complex subjects easier to understand and is suitable for all audiences: managers, data experts, employees, etc.
Reporting: what are the traps to avoid?
However, collecting data, performance indicators, and reporting does not necessarily lead to greater efficiency.
In fact, reports can quickly become unwieldy, overloaded with details of questionable utility. The result is extended meetings, during which a multitude of figures are presented without actually leading to a decision. In the end, reporting can represent a considerable waste of time and money…
To avoid this problem, it’s essential to focus on results. As such, a report is of limited value; it’s the lessons the company can learn from it that are of real importance. Used wisely, this tool can help the organization identify avenues for development and move forward serenely on its various projects.
Best practices in reporting
To maximize the potential of reporting, here are a few best practices to follow:
Use relevant data
As we mentioned earlier, preparing a report can be time-consuming. To avoid this, it’s essential to anticipate and collect relevant information as you go along.
The best way to do this is to use Business Intelligence software capable of automating data collection, processing, and analysis. In this way, aggregated data is much easier to understand and exploit, saving precious time.
Furthermore, it’s best to choose a limited number of indicators. The more synthetic a report, the more intelligible it is; there’s no point in drowning the audience in a mass of information with little added value, which is unlikely to be retained.
Finally, the KPIs chosen must be easy to track over the long term. In this way, they can be compared from one report to the next to measure evolutions or trends.
Adapting reporting to the target audience
The selection of key performance indicators also depends on the audience targeted by the reporting, whether it’s an executive, a business department, an operational manager…
Indeed, the sales director has different expectations than the human resources director or the marketing director. This means it’s impossible to satisfy everyone with a single report. You need to provide each audience with the useful information they need, according to their job and level of responsibility.
In addition, it’s essential to involve the audience as much as possible to enhance the report’s impact. The presenter must therefore encourage interaction and exchange to ensure that the message is properly conveyed. He or she can also distribute the KPIs among different people, to give them a sense of responsibility.
Ensure that the report takes the right form
The visual aspect of a report should not be neglected. In fact, it’s essential to organize and prioritize information, displaying the most important data first.
Good reporting should start with an overview, allowing you to identify major trends at a glance. Then, more detailed KPIs, grouped by theme, can be presented to go into greater depth. Where relevant, comparisons can be made between several metrics.
Providing context
Contextualization is another key to understanding a report. The use of captions, comments, and distinctive colours helps to highlight essential information and facilitate the transmission of the message.
In addition, it is interesting to compare the figures presented with those of a previous period, with competitors’ results, or with the objectives set by management. This allows the audience to better understand the results presented, based on a benchmark.
Use graphics adapted to each type of data
Visual representations are crucial to making figures speak for themselves and information more digestible. However, it’s not always easy to choose the right graphic to express a KPI.
Bar charts, scatter plots, curves, pie charts… the possibilities are numerous. However, using an inappropriate representation can be detrimental to understanding the information or even lead to misinterpretation.
To make the right choice of graph, it is necessary to identify the type of data to be presented and the objective to be achieved. There are four main categories of analysis.
Comparison
As the name suggests, this involves comparing one or more sets of data while also highlighting differences over time.
Examples of graphs to use: bar chart, curve.
Relationships
The aim of this type of analysis is to show a connection or correlation between two or more variables.
Examples of charts to use: scatter plot, bubble chart.
Distribution
Identifies trends or anomalies by showing how variables are distributed over time.
Examples of graphs to use: are histograms, curves, and scatter plots.
Composition
Last but not least, composition involves presenting the parts of a whole at a given moment, but also tracking their evolution over time.
Examples of charts to use: pie chart, waterfall chart, proportional chart, stacked bar chart, area chart.
Which KPIs for which type of reporting?
As we’ve seen, there are as many types of reporting as there are audiences. It is therefore useful to distinguish the main types of reporting and their essential indicators.
Sales reporting
Sales performance indicators are numerous. That’s why it’s important to consider the sales team’s objectives beforehand (as well as individual objectives), in order to identify the most relevant KPIs.
Among the metrics most commonly used in sales reporting tools are:
- Conversion rate
- Retention rate
- Acquisition rate
- Number of sales closed
- Number of lost sales
- Number of customers lost
- Sales generated overall or per salesperson
- Average basket size
- Level of lead qualification
Financial reporting
To improve and sustain a company’s activity, it is imperative to constantly monitor its financial health. To quickly identify strengths to be developed and weaknesses to be corrected, the finance department can rely on a number of indicators, including the following:
- Sales
- Margin
- Break-even point
- Added value
- Overall net working capital
- Working capital requirement (WCR)
- Net cash position
- Days sales outstanding
- Customer collection time
- Supplier payment time
HR reporting
Human resources reporting enables you to track the evolution of performance indicators defined as part of the company’s HR strategy. Here again, a multitude of KPIs are possible. Here is a non-exhaustive list:
- Total workforce
- Distribution of payroll by age, education, job category, or gender
- Average seniority
- Distribution of employment contracts (permanent, temporary, interim, etc.)
- Revenue per employee
- Average salary
- Salary evolution
- Employee turnover rate
- Average recruitment process duration
- Average number of applications per job offer
- Average recruitment cost.
- Employee Net Promoter Score (ENPS)
- Absenteeism rate
- Number of workplace accidents
With these few tips, you can now exploit the full potential of your reporting table and make your data speak for itself, so you can make informed decisions on a daily basis.
