Writing a monthly report is a valuable tool for presenting your accomplishments and current tasks to your company. As you review your most recent performance and productivity levels, the report production process can also give your team accountability. Let’s see a detailed monthly report format that will help us write or create a good monthly report.
What is a Monthly Report?
A monthly report summarizes all of the actions that occurred and is ongoing on a project during a particular month. Monthly reports are used by project managers to notify clients of scope creep, threats to the schedule, budget, or resources, and other issues. The monthly report also offers an overview of the project’s tasks that still need to be accomplished.
Monthly reports should be brief but comprehensive, covering important activities and actions done as well as goals for the next month.
Basic Components of a Monthly Report
#1. Label and Title
To ensure that anybody reading your report understands what it’s about, title and label it clearly and precisely, including key information such as the type of report, the time period covered by the report, the date of report submission, department or team name, and your own name. Let’s the format of the title of a monthly in the example below.
Example:
SMARTASSET.COM
JANUARY 2020 COMPLIANCE TEAM MONTHLY REPORT
Compiled by Jane Reed
Date submitted: February 3rd, 2020
#2. Format
Before you write your first monthly report, check with your supervisor to see whether there is a specific template you should follow. So, if your organization or department does not have a template, ask your boss if he has any preferences for the layout of your report.
#3. Current Achievements and Statuses
Use bulleted lists to present all that has been achieved throughout the month and the status of any continuing initiatives, concisely.
Example:
- Completed a line-by-line review of each state’s appraisal licensing regulation standards.
- Approval applications for Introduction to Real Estate Appraisal have been submitted to Illinois, New York, and Montana; the projected turnaround time for Illinois is three weeks, and four to six weeks for New York and Montana.
- Alabama and Georgia have approved the course.
- In California, I attended an industrial convention.
- The certification process for developing continuing education has been completed.
Describe your objectives for the coming month.
Your monthly report should include providing information about the upcoming month’s planning. While this piece does not have to be extensive, it should emphasize that you and your team have established hard targets for the near future.
Example:
March 2020 Objectives and Plans
- Begin reviewing the real estate broker licensing laws in each of the 50 states.
- Submit applications for Intermediate Appraisal course approval to South Carolina, Arkansas, Texas, and Indiana.
- Stephen and Christine will attend the Florida Appraisal Board’s quarterly meeting in Orlando.
- Begin the course design process for three new real estate CE courses.
Give a summary
When necessary, write a summary of where things stand for your team or your individual job.
Example:
The compliance team had a productive month in January 2020. We finished our review of state appraisal licensing regulations, submitted three-course approval applications to state regulatory bodies, received course approval from two states, attended a networking event in California, and completed a nine-month certification process so that we can move forward with developing continuing education programs. Julie Connor deserves special recognition for her hard effort in contacting 50 regulatory boards by phone and email to confirm that our data was correct.
Other Things to Consider
Here are some other things to think about when you want to write a monthly report:
Your supervisor may request a quick financial overview of your expenses for the month. Including a table within your document may be the most effective approach to convey your numbers.
While the purpose of a monthly report is to provide a quick account of your actions for the month, it is also important to thank colleagues who were members of your team or who aided you. Make sure to include their names in the report and, of course, that their names are spelled correctly.
When you want to create a new monthly report, go over prior ones. Certain projects and activities, such as submitting applications to state authorities, can take a long time to accomplish. Make a thorough accounting of everything you’ve done and accomplished.
How to Write or Create a Good Monthly Report
Project reporting is an effective tool for both on- and off-project management. The monthly progress report is often a book of record that can be referred to in the event of a legal dispute. All project members have a professional duty to accurately report the project to the best of their ability using the available data at the time.
The monthly report is also a mechanism for influencing significant change on a project. However, if no one reads the report or if it is too complicated, it loses its purpose and efficacy. Here are five pointers to keep in mind while you write or create your monthly report to ensure they bring significant value to the project.
#1. Graphic Design
When you write your monthly report replace text with a table or figure whenever possible. When it comes to developing straightforward, easy-to-understand reports, the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” could not be more true. Large volumes of data can be easily explained using charts and other measures. We follow the rule that the higher up the food chain your report goes, the more important it is to summarize the data to a “fifth-grade level.” This is not to say that senior managers are fifth graders, but their time is limited, and a confusing text-driven report can leave them in the dark about the real project issues.
#2. Substitute Long Complicated Sentences for Short Meaningful Statements
Many project team members make the mistake of typing long-winded sentences when they could say far more with much less. Project reports aren’t supposed to be enjoyable. They should be a chock-full of facts, numbers, and observations. So, an excellent report should show where the project is, where it is heading, the significant concerns, and how they address those issues.
#3. Page Numbers Should be Included in Table of Contents
A reader may just require one fact, figure, or statement from your monthly report. Make it simple for them to find the information they require. Make sure each section is well-named and has a page number in the table of contents. Nothing frustrates readers more than picking up a report and seeing that the table of contents lacks page numbers. If you don’t want to include page numbers, call it a “Report Outline” rather than a “Table of Contents.”
#4. Check The Body of the Text for Attachments
Attachments to the report are included to provide readers with more information as needed. Create a remark or an observation in the monthly report and send the reader to the appropriate attachments if they want to examine the supporting data or information.
#5. Craft a Powerful Executive Summary
A monthly report is not the same as a college dissertation. The truth is that most readers will only read the executive summary and a few other sections. So, use the executive summary to make your argument and inspire project-wide action. If there are problems, don’t be afraid to bring them up. If you don’t handle concerns immediately, they will come back to haunt the project team.
Types of Monthly Report
Monthly reports are classified into three types:
#1. Monthly Status Report
A monthly status report is frequently given to the supervisor as an update on the employee’s plans and activities. It will almost certainly be sent to the supervisor’s manager as an addition to his own report. It also acts as a record of an employee’s work history and is a useful resource during annual performance assessments.
#2. Monthly Project Report
This form of a report does not require as many specifics as a weekly project report, but it does provide a higher-level view of the project’s developments. Stakeholders are typically interested in tracking the budget, expenditures, project output quality, and risks, problems, and issues influencing the project.
#3. Monthly Progress Report
Contractors, on the other hand, create a monthly progress report to give the client an idea of where the project stands at the moment. Because of their locations, the client and contractor may not see each other on a regular basis. The client may not have enough time to keep track of the project’s progress. A monthly project status report acts as a critical channel of communication between the contractor and the client, in this case, so the report should be as complete as feasible.
How Should I Introduce a Report?
A summary or introduction is always the first piece of your report that you begin writing. This should only take up one or two pages to give your reader a quick overview of your findings or outcomes.
How Do I Create a Brief Report?
A brief report includes important details about a certain subject that are aimed to educate the reader. A report may be delivered orally or in writing as a memo or letter. It often includes an overview of the report, some background information, a clear goal, and a conclusion.
What Do Reports Serve As?
Research findings are presented and discussed in reports. The justification for the research, a description of the research methodology, the findings, results, a logical discussion, and conclusions/recommendations are all given to the reader.
Is an Introduction Necessary for a Report?
And the introduction is crucial to any report. The reader must be convinced that the report contains information worth reading in this section, which is frequently the most read.
Summary
It is critical to remember that the report should be clear of any grammatical or typographical problems and that how the report was presented represents the personality and professionalism of its writer.
Frequently Asked Questions on Monthly Report
What makes a good monthly report?
A good report includes all of the information your management team requires to make decisions. Include a high-level overview of your organization’s or department’s scorecard to make this easier for them. This scorecard’s content should be structured in the order in which it will be read.
What is monthly management report?
Monthly management reports are documents that review and evaluate your company’s financial and operational performance on a monthly basis. These reports allow your management team to track your company’s past and present performance and make informed business decisions.
What is monthly progress report?
The term “Monthly Progress Report” or “Progress Report” refers to a progress report of the Works that meets the standards as directed by the Owner/Project Manager.
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