20 Types of Reports and
When to Use Them
by Jessica LaPublished on October 12, 2022October 13, 2022 · Updated on October 13, 2022 · 12 minutes
If the many types of reports used in businesses make you want to
scream, you’re not alone.
It can get overwhelming – from internal reports about sales
activities to reports you need to submit for external collaborators.
However, the reality of modern business is that they require
several business report types to achieve success.
A Unito report revealed that over 75% of respondents said reports
provide valuable insights almost every time.
The chances are high that you’ve had to write certain types of
reports, whether you realize it or not. Irrespective of your role,
you’ll likely need to write reports, whether occasionally or once in
a while.
And to ensure you’re writing the appropriate report for specific
situations, you need to recognize the different types of reports
and how to write them.
Below, you’ll discover an exhaustive list of business report types,
what they do, when you need them, plus examples and
templates.
Let’s get into it.
Table of contents
What is report writing?
1. Formal report
2. Informal report
3. Audit report
4. Marketing report
5. Progress or periodic report
6. Trend report
7. Analytical report
8. Evaluation report
9. Client report
10. Sales report
11. Proposal report
12. Survey report
13. Research report
14. Financial report
15. Incident report
16. Project report
17. Annual report
18. Lateral report
19. Vertical report
20. Event report
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What is report writing?
Do you remember those report cards you received at the end of
every school session? The details of how well you perform
academic and extracurricular activities during the year.
This is what reports do.
Reports are documents detailing the results or findings from a
process, project, or investigation. They can also refer to a well-
detailed analysis of specific data sets or situations.
In business communications, report writing is the process of
preparing formal documents that elaborate on a specific topic.
Report writing often uses facts, tables, graphs, charts, etc., to
explain its findings for easy comprehension.
Since any report aims to educate and inform, preparing
the perfect report that focuses on the target audience is crucial.
Some reports also present available options and
recommendations based on their findings.
20 report types, examples, and templates
While numerous types of reports are used by businesses, these
are the most common ones we’ve seen use almost daily.
1. Formal report
Formal reports often carry objective information that is in-depth
and straight to the point without personal references. These
reports require careful structuring based on the organization’s
style and purpose.
Formal report classification includes accounting reports, functional
reports, and other lengthy reports.
2. Informal report
An informal report is the opposite of a formal report. It lacks strict
structuring, contains short messages, and uses casual language.
Businesses intending to pass quick critical information often use
informal reports. Informal reports pay more attention to fast and
effective communication than formal structuring.
Again, other types of reports fall into this category, including
digital postings, emails, memo reports, and some forms of internal
reports.
3. Audit report
An audit report is a formal report created by an auditor about the
financial status of an organization. Audit reports are written using
generally accepted auditing standards.
However, these formats may vary slightly depending on the
audit’s circumstances. An example is an end-of-the-year audit
report for an organization.
4. Marketing report
Marketing reports give detailed information about marketing
campaigns. They are used for monitoring marketing activities and
informing about marketing strategies that work or require
improvements.
5. Progress or periodic report
Progress reports, also known as periodic reports, are reports
generated at specific intervals. Depending on the report needs,
they could be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual
reports, or they may even use regularly scheduled dates.
Progress reports are used to supply progress or performance
information. Other business report types could also qualify as
periodic reports if they are made available at intervals.
Examples of progress reports include analytical reports, Google
analytics reports, and inventory reports.
6. Trend report
Sometimes called trend analysis reports, trend reports analyze
everyday business operations and compare them to forecasts.
This report helps businesses discover recent industry trends and
how they can benefit organizations. They also reveal important
details about marketing campaigns and tell you the reach of your
messages and their influences on marketing.
Examples include Google Analytics reports, surveys, and
statistical reports.
7. Analytical report
Analytical reports have gained prominence in recent years due to
the growing importance of business data analysis.
The last few years have seen data analysis ingrained as part of
standard business practices, and the industry expects to reach
$68 billion in annual revenue by 2025.
Organizations leverage data-driven insights that make analytical
reports one of the most common reports used. Analytical reports
can suggest recommendations to improve businesses by
leveraging data insights to evaluate performance.
8. Evaluation report
When an organization rolls out products, services, campaigns, or
processes, they need to evaluate the success periodically or after
the program.
An evaluation report documents a product’s effectiveness if a
service meets expectations or if a campaign is successful.
Evaluation reports also highlight findings and make
recommendations based on the performance. It is a formal, in-
depth report, sometimes including background information,
definitions, results, forecasts, and recommendations.
This report can assist with the decision-making process and show
transparency to stakeholders.
9. Client report
Since businesses deal with clients, they need a client report
detailing their relationship with each client and their work
activities. Client reports are used to give clients clarity of the
progress of projects and help the business with management
decisions.
Client reports are created and delivered according to the agreed
time frame. For example, it could be weekly, monthly, quarterly,
etc. This makes the report a periodic report.
Meetings and discussions with clients could also accompany it to
explain the content. As a result, client reporting helps a business
build trust.
10. Sales report
The sales department reports a business’ sales performance to
executives and the board through the sales reports. Members of
the sales team could also make a sales report for other group
members or the team manager.
A sales report details the performance of a business for a
specified period. They can also reveal happenings on the field to
inform decisions.
This type of report highlights sales volume, revenue from the
sales, leads, etc. They may be used to set key performance
indicators or formulate an entire business target.
Examples of sales reports include periodic reports that track how
sales perform for the specified period. For instance, a weekly
sales report will track weekly sales, revenue, leads, etc.
11. Proposal report
Businesses go into partnerships and other forms of business
relationships. But before this happens, they establish the specifics
of the relationship through a proposal report.
Proposal reports are official documents highlighting how a
business intends to help another.
Proposal reports are sent in response to a Request for Proposal
or RFP. They contain specific steps the business will undertake to
assist the recipient business.
Since a company usually receives business proposals from many
businesses, aim for thorough and precise proposal reports.
12. Survey report
Survey reports are documents that help a business highlight the
findings from a survey. It does its best to summarize the
responses of a survey and objectively present the information
while using visuals like tables, graphs, charts, and infographics to
make reports easy to read.
13. Research report
Research reports are documents created to communicate the
findings from the research – whether business or scientific –
related to the company. Experts in the field usually do it.
Sometimes, a research report can uncover information requiring
urgent attention.
The content in a research report includes the research process,
findings, conclusions, recommendations, and limitations.
It will inform a business about essential market needs they need
to attend to and how their products or service affects the public.
For example, some social media platforms are looking into how
they influence young people.
14. Financial report
Financial reports and budget reports are often used
interchangeably, but they are not necessarily the same.
Production and finance departments are typically in charge of
these reports. Financial reports are formal documents that explain
a business’s financial status and performance. Examples of
budget reports include weekly or monthly financial reports that
detail the economic activities for the period specified.
On the other hand, budget reports are concerned with the pre-set
budget conditions and how they compare with the company’s
financial situation. They help businesses make proper financial
decisions and can be used to compare milestones over a specific
period.
15. Incident report
Although businesses put measures to prevent accidents and
other undesirable incidents, they can still happen in the
workplace. And when these incidents occur, additional steps may
be required to avoid a reoccurrence. An incident report is an
informational report that details the facts of an incident.
Incident reports may also reveal unusual occurrences, safety and
health issues, security breaches, near misses, damage, etc.
It highlights the cause, exact occurrence, and ways to prevent
incidents in the future. Specific industries, such as insurance
companies and security agencies, may also require them
16. Project report
Also known as a project health report, project reports help the
organization give information about specific projects.
Businesses generally embark on projects, and making reports
about each one allows them to track progress and assess
performance effectively.
Project reports contain the objectives, which can help ensure
compliance from everyone overseeing the project. It also makes it
easy for stakeholders to give feedback, edit, assess financial
17. Annual report
Annual reports are comprehensive reports that give in-depth
details about a business in the preceding year. It details the
financial statements and achievements for the specific year.
They could qualify as external reports since many organizations
release their annual reports to the public. In some instances,
releasing annual reports may be a mandate for some businesses.
However, companies mainly design annual reports to review the
company’s business during the year. They help stakeholders
become aware of the performance and inform shareholders and
others about the financial performance.
18. Lateral report
Vertical and lateral reports are terms used when referring to the
direction of a report. Lateral reports describe those that move
between members at the same organizational level.
Examples of these types of reports are informational reports
exchanged between team managers, short reports between
members of a team, or comprehensive reports between
departments.
19. Vertical report
A vertical report is a report shared between different
organizational hierarchies. It could be from a higher level to a
lower level or vice versa.
Examples include business reports from employees members of
an executive team or managers to their team members.
20. Event report
Businesses organize many events, and event reports analyze
each event’s success.
Event managers prepare these reports, and it works by
comparing event results to the set goals. It determines an event’s
success and serves as a blueprint for future events.
