It is very important to make a report on the work done in order to briefly, but succinctly state the results of your activities. Are there special rules reporting, what you need to know when starting to write such documentation?

Progress Report - Writing Requirements

Why do you need to write a progress report at all? Reporting helps:

1. exercise control over the performance of their duties by employees;
2. identify problem areas in the work of a particular employee and the department as a whole;
3. find out whether enough efforts have been made to solve the problem;
4. support labor discipline in a collective;
5. justify the cost of paying employees.

What are the main requirements for a report? You need to talk about the results of your work in a businesslike way, briefly, but at the same time indicating the entire amount of work done.

An intelligent report will not only give an idea of ​​how well you have worked, but will also present you in a favorable light - an employee who can express his thoughts in an accessible way, highlighting the main thing and not being distracted by unnecessary details.

Report on the work done - what are the types

From the point of view of periodicity, the report can be weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual.

Sometimes an employee reports on a specific event (for example, how the presentation of a new book was organized, which took several days to prepare and conduct, or a three-day sales training).

The heading of the report should indicate the timing data, for example, “Report on the workshop on personnel office work October 7-9, 2015".

A business trip report is required for all employees, regardless of its duration.

A report on the work done can be written in text form and in statistical form. A text report is a coherent narrative, supplemented by various graphs, diagrams and tables.

And if you prefer a statistical form, then focus on illustrative materials, to which write explanations in the form of text.

Report structure

There is no single standard for writing a report on the work done, as well as an employee's autobiography. Each organization may have its own requirements for the structure of such documents.

For example, the following presentation looks logical: the first section is “Introduction”, in it briefly describe the tasks assigned to you, the methods that were used to solve them, and the result obtained.

In the "Main part" describe in more detail the sequence of your work:

1. preparation for project implementation;
2. stages of its implementation (indicate all resources used: marketing research, analytical work, experiments, business trips, involvement of other employees);
3. problems and difficulties, if any;
4. troubleshooting suggestions;
5. achieved result.

A report in the form of a table will look more visual, structured and concise.

If you often have to compile ongoing reports on the work done, it will be convenient to prepare a template in which you regularly need to enter the necessary data.

And in order not to forget anything important for the past working day, take a few minutes out of your schedule by writing down everything you did. Otherwise, you are bound to miss something.

When you prepare an annual report, analyze the dynamics of the results achieved, comparing with the previous year and giving a forecast for the next year.

As an addition to the main part of the report, attach materials that confirm the stated facts - copies thank you letters and entries in the guest book, publications in the press about the events held, checks and invoices.

It is better to separate the financial part into a separate section, which should be filled out as required by the accounting department of your organization.

The progress report concludes the Conclusion section. In it, you formulate the conclusions and suggestions that have arisen from the work done, if you consider them useful for improving the performance of your organization.

A report on the work done is printed using A4 sheets. Pages should be numbered title page.

When your document is long enough, make a separate table of contents - this will make your report easier to navigate.

There may also be a report like this:

FULL NAME.________
Job title_________
Subdivision_______

Main achievements for the past period:

• in professional activity;
• in terms of personal development.

What failed and why.
The need for additional training.
Suggestions for improving the organization of your work.
Desired areas of responsibility and career development.
Signature_______
The date__________

The ability to write a sensible report on the work done will help you provide concrete evidence that you are working conscientiously, coping with your duties. And, besides, this is a weighty argument for the authorities, if you decide to raise the issue of

Part 1

1. Determine the purpose of the report. Weekly reports may be part of job responsibilities, but the desire to keep a job should not be the ultimate goal of a report. Determine the functions that the weekly report is intended to perform in order to reflect meaningful information in it and use the most effective structure.

   Define the target audience. It is impossible to make a competent report if you do not know to whom it will be intended and for what purpose. This is the only way to understand what information is of the greatest value.

   • Understanding the audience allows you to correctly organize the structure of the report and use the most appropriate words. For example, a report for students elementary school will be completely different from the text intended for the leaders of a large corporation.
   • It is also important to understand what points are already known to the potential reader, and what issues need to be clarified or additional sources provided. For example, when creating a report on legal matters, which is intended for the bar, you do not need to provide a detailed explanation of the laws in force. On the other hand, such explanations are necessary if the report is intended for managers without a law degree.
   • If the report is being written in connection with an internship, research, or other aspect of education, it is important to understand that your audience is not a professor or supervisor, even if they collect papers at the end. Focus on the essence of the project and specific area of ​​expertise to understand your reader.

2. Arrange information in order of importance. Despite the concise nature of the reports, your document may not be read in its entirety. For this reason, you should place the most important data with results and conclusions at the beginning of the text.

   • For example, if you want to compare and contrast three different trademarks equipment and recommend best option, then start with the totals, and then explain your choice.
   • Typically, the first page of a report is short review results, conclusions and recommendations. Detailed explanations should be included in the main text of the document so that, if necessary, readers can understand the reasons for such conclusions.

3. Understand the typical "fate" of the report. In most cases, weekly reports are necessary for accounting and office work, so they are simply filed and archived. It is better to realize right away that reports are extremely rarely read from beginning to end.

   • This fact is not a reason to be lazy or give up work. inadequate quality. Your reports become a reflection of your work ethic and personality. A weak report is likely to get noticed, so "I knew you wouldn't read it" won't be a good excuse.
   • The entire report should be of high quality and competent, but special attention should be paid to those elements of the text that are read most often. These usually include a summary and conclusions or recommendations. Give them special attention.
   • It is important to understand that the employer may not read the report at all because he has nothing to do or the report is not needed. High-level executives are always extremely busy, so they are able to highlight significant information that allows them to make effective decisions. Such persons will not read the entire report if it is not necessary, but they can always return to it later.

   Part 2

   Report structure

   1. Ask for a sample. Many companies have adopted a standard weekly report format, and managers and management are accustomed to receiving information in certain form. A different report format can cause confusion.

      • Be especially careful with sales reports. Managers get used to the structure of the reports and can find the information they need with just one glance at the page. If you deviate from the accepted format, then the report will become almost useless, because the manager will have to re-read the entire text to find the necessary information.
      • Contact the secretary and ask for a sample so as not to reinvent the wheel. Typically, a company uses a document template with all the options, including margins, fonts, table and paragraph styles.

   2. Consider the reporting method. A printed document or an electronic attachment is designed in a completely different way than a report that is submitted in the body of an e-mail.

      • For example, if the report is submitted as an attachment to an email, then the summary should be included in the body of the email. Then the reader doesn't have to open the attachment to understand the main idea.
      • For a printed report, it is usually necessary to prepare transmittal letter or a title page so that the report can be correctly identified and filed.
      • Regardless of how you submit your report, it is important to include your last name on each page and number them in an "X out of Y" format. Pages can easily split, so it's important to know how many pages the report is on and who the author of the document is.
      • All the necessary information can be specified in the header. For example, type in it: "Peter Ivanov's sales report, week 32, page 3 of 7."

   3. Attach a summary. The summary of the report usually fits in a couple of paragraphs, and each section is transmitted in one or two sentences. The bottom line is that often it is enough for a manager to read only a summary to make the necessary decision if your conclusions coincide with his assumptions on this issue.

      • It is important that the summary be written in clear, accessible and concise language. Do not use jargon and technical terms that require explanation, even if the reader is well versed in industry terminology.
      • The summary is compiled after the completion of the remaining elements of the report. It is not possible to briefly summarize paragraphs that have not yet been written, even if detailed plan. A lot can change during a job.

   4. Consider the structure of paragraphs and sections. Decide on the format and leave a report section plan that will meet the objectives.

      • The plan should be logical and coherent, and take into account the potential readers of the report.
      • Typically, the report consists of summary, introduction, conclusions and recommendations, data and explanations, as well as a list of sources. Extended reports can be supplemented with attachments with important data and a table of contents, but the weekly reports are quite short.
      • Each section should address one issue. Each paragraph within a section describes one idea. For example, if the section of the weekly sales report is titled "Popular Children's Clothing Brands," then one paragraph should be given to each model. If you want to list boys' and girls' clothing separately, use subheadings (with appropriate subheadings) for each brand, within which you'll have one paragraph for boys' clothing and one paragraph for girls' clothing.

   5. Create a cover page or cover letter. A cover page is not required for summary reports, but a detailed report should be provided with a separate sheet indicating the author of the report and brief description tasks.

      • The title page differs from the summary, because it actually contains only the information that is needed for the correct registration and filing of the report.
      • Your organization may have a standard cover page template for weekly reports. In this case, follow the established rules.
      • The title page should include the title or description of the report (for example, "Weekly Sales Report"), the name of the compiler and all co-authors, the name of the company, and the date the report was compiled or submitted.

      Part 3

      Persuasive words and phrases

      1. Think of good headings and subheadings. Such report elements allow the reader to quickly find necessary sections and additional information to help understand the findings and recommendations.

         • Section headings and subheadings should accurately and clearly describe the content.
         • For example, in a weekly sales report, you might use " General trends in women's clothing"," Trends in men's clothing "and" Popular brands of children's clothing ". Then, within each section, subsections can be distinguished, the names of which will reflect clear trends or names of popular brands.
         • Use the same grammatical structures for all headings so that the report looks logical and consistent. For example, if the first heading is "Best Men's Collection", then the next heading should be "Leading in Womenswear", not "Women's Sales Performance".

      2. Use simple and clear sentences. Your report should consist of sentences with the standard Subject, Verb structure to express your thoughts clearly and demonstrate confidence in the conclusions and recommendations made.

         • Reread the draft and cross out everything unnecessary words. In each sentence, find the performer of the action and place it before the verb. Schematically, sentences should look like "Who does what".
         • Get rid of redundant words and phrases like "for today", "for the purpose of" or "for availability".
         • This style may seem boring, but your goal is not to entertain the reader. It is much more important for a report to communicate key aspects and conclusions effectively.

      3. The conclusions must be objective and unbiased. The report often needs to provide recommendations, but they should be based on facts, not personal opinion and feelings. It is important to convince the reader with irrefutable evidence and clarity of thought.

         • Do not use adjectives, as well as other words and phrases with a pronounced positive or negative emotional coloring. Focus on facts and common sense.
         • For example, in a report, you recommend a promotion for one of your sales managers. Back up your recommendation with facts that demonstrate that the person really deserves a promotion, but don't give subjective opinions or appeal to emotions. "Alina regularly performs better even though she only works 15 hours a week" is more convincing than "Alina is very friendly and always tries hard, but she has to work part-time as she looks after her elderly parents."

      4. Use persuasive verbs. If the text is written in the active voice, then the action in the sentence is expressed in one word - the verb. Use concise and persuasive verbs that clearly describe the action.

         • Preference should be given to simple verbs. For example, "selling" is always better than "realizing".
         • Sometimes verbs are needed that express thought processes - think, know, understand, believe, but in general they are inferior to action verbs. Try to expand your statement and turn it into action. For example, you wrote the sentence "I believe sales will increase in the coming months." Expand the statement and outline the reasons for this assumption. Reword the sentence: "In practice, sales increase during the holiday season. I predict that sales will increase in November and December."
         • The text should be action oriented. Reread the report, try to get rid of unnecessary prepositions and replace redundant words with persuasive verbs. For example, "help" can be replaced with "help", and instead of "provide protection" say "protect".

      5. Don't use the passive voice. The passive form strikes out the subject of the action from the sentence, and the object comes to the fore. In some situations, the passive voice is necessary for political or diplomatic reasons, but most often it makes the text confusing and vague.

         • The active voice allows you to emphasize the performers of the action and shows the reader who is responsible. To appreciate the importance this aspect, imagine that in a newspaper article about a fire you came across the following sentence: "Fortunately, all the children were saved." It is necessary to understand who saved these children. If the sentence looked like "Local teacher Ivan Petrov returned several times to the burning building of the boarding school and saved all the children," then the real hero comes to the fore.
         • Also, a valid pledge allows you to find the one responsible for the negative consequences. The phrase "Some mistakes were made" will make the employer wonder who made the mistakes and who should be punished. If you are the one who made mistakes, then accept responsibility and accept the consequences.
         • Pay attention to the verb "to be" to find sentences with passive voice. If you managed to find them, then determine the action performed and the person who performs it, and then change the word order.

      6. Use visual ways to express data. Schemes and graphs are perceived much easier and are located immediately after the paragraph with such information (especially if such data contains a large number of numbers).

         • Choose appropriate visual aids that make things easier for the reader and serve the purpose of the report.
         • For example, use a line chart to show the growth in wool coat sales. This presentation of data is much more efficient than a table with the number of units sold each month, since the table forces the reader to keep all the numbers in mind and compare them with each other to detect trends. One glance at the graph will be enough to understand the essence.
         • First of all, a person always pays attention to visual elements. All graphs and diagrams must be clear and accurate, correctly positioned on the page. Use only those elements that really support your conclusions and recommendations.

      7. Don't use jargon. Each branch of knowledge or activity has its inevitable terminology, as well as buzzwords that are often used in books and articles. Sometimes they are useful, but in most cases, jargon only gets in the way of clearly and competently expressing the main idea.

         • Try to make a list of professional jargon so you don't overuse such words in your report. Finish the text and search for keywords to replace unwanted lexical units.
         • It should be understood that a large number of buzzwords will not show the reader that you are "in the know", but will have the opposite effect. The director and managers are often older than ordinary employees and have seen many such words in their lifetime. If you abuse jargon, they will think that you are too lazy, poorly versed in the topic, or just want to impress.
         • It is also best not to use overly complex terms. For example, a report on a legal dispute should not contain an excessive amount of legal gibberish.

      8. Correct all errors. A large number of typos and grammatical errors only distract the reader and create a negative image of the author. Write a draft report in advance so that you have time to work on the bugs.

         • Check spelling and grammar in a word processing program on your computer, but don't rely solely on automatic corrections. Such programs can miss a lot of errors, especially in similar words ("seals" instead of "gloves").
         • Read the report backwards to find any errors. If the topic of the report is close to you, then it is very easy not to notice the mistake, because the brain can automatically “think out” the missing words or letters in the text. Read backwards to understand individual words.
         • Read the report aloud to notice errors and stylistic flaws. If you can't read a sentence or paragraph without a hitch, then it's likely that your text is overloaded and the reader will also get confused. Rewrite bad sentences.

Have there been cases in your practice when you tirelessly plowed your arms, legs and other parts of your body 24 hours a day. Perfectly prepared object for sale. Already rocked the market with their commercial proposals, outlined a plan further action and, in complete harmony with yourself, expect a natural result in the form of a transaction and the subsequent receipt of honestly earned commissions.

But at some point, your client’s number is displayed on the phone screen and you, without suspecting anything, calmly pick up the phone. But instead of gratitude, you hear a lot of complaints, starting with the fact that you do nothing at all and ending with the requirement to terminate the contract and threats. Familiar?

Before you resent, put yourself in his place ...

The person has entered into an exclusive contract with you. He has entrusted you with perhaps the most valuable possession he possesses. He believed you, he decided that you were almost a magician only and capable of helping him. But then, all the time that you work tirelessly, he DOES NOT HEAR AND KNOW nothing about you and your work! Accordingly, the suspicion grows that nothing is happening. Moreover, there will always be “good advisers” from among relatives, friends and acquaintances who will drip him on the brains and intimidate with horror stories about "deceivers", about "black realtors" and about "how expensive it is, but for such a job." Therefore, after 7-10 days, a completely logical and natural explosion occurs.

In fact, there is a very simple way to prevent such a development of events. It is enough to send the client a weekly report on the work done.

Regularly, according to a pre-formed template, draw up a report that will list all the actions and activities performed in the past. And send it to the seller by mail. And the client is satisfied - he understands what is happening, that they have not forgotten about him, they work on his topic, and you will always be protected from unreasonable claims.

Now we will form the requirements for the document "Report on the work done":

What must be in the report

• Contract number
• Agent contacts
• List of actions performed and activities carried out
• Report creation date and signature

Transfer Methods

• Email
• print and hand over

Report transmission time

• Friday evening is optimal (when you have the results of the week's work)
• Or after the last inspections on the weekend

IMPORTANT!

• If your report contains a list of Internet resources on which you placed ads, be sure to indicate links to these ads
• If you have published in the media, attach photo or screenshot ads
• If you have created a separate presentation don't forget to attach it to the report

By following these simple steps, you will quickly reduce the number of such calls to a minimum. And, by the way, it will become much easier for you to control the situation. Well, in order to simplify this already dustless job of creating reports as much as possible, we suggest you download an example of a ready-made template.

about the author

Tatiana Porubaimikh. Organizer and head of the consulting center Arsenal consult. Concurrently, the ideological inspirer of the project and the generator of ideas. Also a consultant. Main direction: marketing and copywriting. Tatyana is a marketer whose portfolio includes successful completed projects in a wide variety of directions.

Improving the efficiency of the sales department in 50 days Ryazantsev Alexey

Report template package

Report template package

1. Activity report

The activity report quantifies the activities that managers have completed during the day, as well as the day's totals. The following are entered in the table:

Month, date and day;

Delay, in minutes;

Number of new cold calls;

Number of exits to decision makers (DM);

The number of sent commercial offers (CO);

Number of repeated calls;

Number of successful calls;

Number of appointments;

Number of meetings held;

Number of invoices issued;

Amount of payments, in rubles;

A mark is made that the call log (the next day) is filled out and sent to the head of the ROP sales department (Table 5.2).

This is one of the most powerful tools in the sales department. By implementing it, you will be able to maintain labor productivity, as over time, managers begin to perform fewer targeted actions. In addition, you will be able to control how many actions managers perform and see how the conversion and payment amounts change.

Report completion time: 10 minutes.

2. Work log

The work journal is one of the main working tools of a sales manager. It is prepared at the end of the working day for the next day. Contacts for touches are entered into it. At the end of the working day, the completed work log is handed over to the head of the sales department for e-mail– if the system is not configured common use documents or CRM.

What data is recorded in the work log.

Organization.

LPR name.

Phone and e-mail.

Call result.

Source for collecting contacts (so that managers do not choose low-quality databases on their own) (Table 5.3).

Table 5.2. Call log

Table 5.3. Work Log Example

This tool helps you quickly get to work in the morning and make calls in a block in two to three hours, rather than searching the Internet for contacts of organizations one by one. average speed manager in this case will be five or six contacts per hour. And having a work journal, people come to work and can immediately call ready-made contacts.

If the list is not made in the evening, you can be sure that the manager will easily devote this important process all the first half of the day.

3. Checklist "Schedule of the day" (table. 5.4, 5.5)

Table 5.4. Sales manager checklist

It is important that the work in the department is built in blocks: one block is two to three hours, within which one type of work is performed (mostly). Turn off multitasking for your managers and you can increase their productivity by at least two and a half times. Don't believe? Schedule a trial month and see for yourself.

Scientists have proven that it takes about 30 minutes for our brain to peak and enter a state of flow. And in order to get out of it, a small switch to another thing is enough, even for 30 seconds. This is important to understand. Therefore, you can not give managers the opportunity to call all day. They should have a call block. Same with other tasks.

The second plus here is the psychological aspect: when you set yourself a time limit on a task, you complete it much faster than if you had a lot of time to complete it.

4. Base for boosting warm clients

The base for boosting customers is necessary in order not to lose potential clients who contacted you - they were sent offer, maybe they held meetings, but it didn’t come to a sale. Our statistics show that at this stage, 20-30% of transactions fall off - just because they simply forgot about the clients, hoping that if they decide, they will call themselves. Work should be carried out with all warm clients, the dates of the next calls and the boost to the transaction should be determined (Table 5.6).

After filling the database, the manager enters the schedule into his calendar and sets a reminder on the phone. Or fills out your Google calendar and puts a SMS reminder in it. Very comfortably.

5. Meeting report

Employees fill out a report on the meeting after the meeting. It fixes the subject of the meeting, the main agreements and the dates of the next touch.

The report is important because it allows management to monitor the meetings actually held and their effectiveness.

Table 5.5. Checklist for Sales Manager

Table 5.6. Sales boost base

Often there is a problem when managers set up meetings for themselves, while they themselves go about their business.

Sales manager meeting report

Date _______________ Name of manager _________________

Company name ________________________________

The contact person _______________________________________

Manager's Notes:

Meeting result:

Further actions:

Next steps for the client:

6. Reporting of the head of the sales department

The report on the results of the sales department is filled in by the head of the department and thus enables the director of the enterprise to control the sales performance for the department as a whole and the results of each manager (Tables 5.7, 5.8).

You can add any other metrics, such as the number and volume of upsells, sales of partner products, and so on.

Table 5.7. Sales department report

Table 5.8. Sales report of a specific manager

7. Audit of the client base

The head of the sales department conducts an audit of the client base once a month / quarter. Based on the results of the audit, he fills in a report table (Table 5.9).

Table 5.9. Audit of the client base (according to ABC segmentation)

8. Reporting of a sales representative (merchandiser)

Used for detour control outlets subordinated to the sales representative (Table 5.10).

Table 5.10. Sales representative daily report

9. Base key clients

It is important that managers keep a database of key customers. Because you need to maintain communication with them of a completely different quality. Business is based on this part of your base, and it is very important to establish system touches in it.