Section outline

    • We hear or read reports every day. They cover a whole range of subjects, from news reports, weather reports and traffic reports, to police reports, school book reports, and academic reports (essays). In business, reports serve to provide information on a variety of subjects such as company finances, inventory, sales, annual performance, project status, and many more. So, reports are written and also read for different reasons: the shareholders of a company will read an annual report to find out how profitable the company is; a sales director will read a sales report to find out if the sales team are hitting their targets; clients read progress reports on projects they have commissioned to find out if they are on schedule and on budget, and therefore they should, for example, contain information on what work has been completed and what remains to be done.