Your Guide to Concise Status Reports

First in the Essential Business Documents series

Reports communicate to people who need to know. First, determine what purpose the report serves. Get specifics about the assignment: who will use the information, and how it will be used. This will determine the focus of the report, guiding your research and analysis. Your focus should meet the needs of the target audience of the report: status information, predictive analysis, evaluation, or planned course of action.

· Is it a regular status report for a department or a status update on an ongoing project for the supervisors?
· Is it a decision-making tool to analyze possible courses of action?
· Is it a follow-up report on a project to evaluate whether standards were met?
· Is it a plan of action, stating details of tasks, responsibilities and timelines?

Since the status report is the heart of intra-office communications, this first in a series of four articles will show you how to create a successful progress or status report.

Status Reports: Write this type of report with the initial project or job assignments in front of you. Are the timelines and standards that were originally set being met? Is communication flowing properly? Have any new issues come up since the last report? Are there continuing issues that are unresolved? What are the expectations for the immediate future? Are additional resources of time, budget, staff or equipment needed to complete the project or continue the department’s work? How will budget cuts affect the department or project? What cost-cutting measures will be used to avoid layoffs?

Measuring current progress by the initial goals of the project is essential to any status report. Use a chart to express completion level of goals or timeline for greater clarity. A positive tone overall is always appropriate, even if there is bad news to deliver.

Bold headings and subheadings make it easy for the recipient to find his way through your report. Paragraph titles which may be useful for a Status Report include:

Project: Briefly describe the project, its parameters, requirements, timetable and budget.
Goals: Several goals may be involved; briefly state them here.
Timeline: Stages of the project, deadlines and projected completion date. Show meetings or appointments that were kept or cancelled.
Issues: Separate paragraphs for each major issue.
Budget: Required funding used and amounts still needed.
Staff: Who is involved in the project; kudos for anyone going beyond the call of duty is appropriate.
Summary: Overview of the essentials contained in the report. This may appear at the beginning or the end of the report.

Research for your report simply means communicating with the people involved in each of the above areas, evaluating the project as a whole, and bringing it all together.

See a sample Progress Report on our website.

If your time is limited and you would like assistance writing your report, WordBuilt offers both development and editing of business reports. Contact us for further information.

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Watch for more in the WordBuilt series
Essential Business Documents

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