One of the responsibilities of the project manager is to create a project report that provides information to each stakeholder at an appropriate level. When working on projects that involve multiple different stakeholders, it is frequently necessary to compile and disseminate a large number of different reports, each of which contains subsets of data and information that is comparable to the others. And to keep up with a project’s progress, it is necessary to update each report on a regular basis. In addition, the reporting format may need to be adjusted to accommodate the various stakeholder.
So, in this article we are going to uncover everything you need to know about project reporting; what are the types of reports and how to tailor those reports to specific audiences.
What is Project Report? #
Project report or project reporting simply refers to delivering a high-level summary of the project’s important facts in a straightforward, user-friendly format. Project reporting is vital to successful project management because it gives the entire team insight into what is occurring and what should be done about it.
No matter what kind of report it is, it will contain information about the project categorized according to its economic, technical, financial, management, or production-related aspects.
The Importance of Project Report #
What is the purpose of the project reporting? Why is this important for your project and for the stakeholder? Well, it is obvious that project reports are essential communication methods for keeping stakeholders informed of the project’s status and development.
However, they are also important for the project managers and assist them in allocating the resources and other ways of securing the successful completion of the project. The majority of project reports will involve comparing effort to anticipated effort in order to maintain the project on budget and on schedule.
Project reports not only allow managers and stakeholders to keep tabs on the status of the project, but they can also identify project risks and work to establish a strategy to counteract them. They help you control costs and stick to your project budget, keep an eye on how your team is doing, and give you more information about the project so you can manage it better.
Due to their amount of detail, project reports are time-consuming to create. Most project managers will use project management software, such as FoxPlan to speed up the reporting process. Easily generate a status report from the project dashboard in real-time. Sign up and register your FREE FoxPlan account today!
10 Types of Project Reports in Project Management #
Project reporting entails more than merely informing your team members of the most recent project changes. In addition to mitigating risk, monitoring budgets and timetables, and developing more precise project plans, you can use project reports.
Here is a summary of 10 types of the most frequent forms of project reports, all of which are essential to the successful completion of a project.
1. Project Status Report #
Stakeholders rely on the project status report to receive a clear picture of how far along the project is in achieving its goals. You might think of the report as a broad update intended to keep stakeholders and project progress, developing difficulties and important points in view at a glance.
Creating your first project status report is simple and cost-free when you sign up for a FoxPlan account!
2. Progress Report #
The progress report is one of the most significant project reports you will generate during project execution. It is a report that provides up-to-date information on your project, including whether or not the timeline and budget are being met. This is another method for informing stakeholders of the current status of the project.
When preparing a progress report, you must be specific. Notate the data, and then compose a quick introduction that includes the project’s title, contact information, a summary of the project’s status, and general information about the project’s schedule, cost, and anticipated completion date.
3. Project Health Report #
Your team’s performance can be tracked and analyzed through a dashboard or health report. Reports like these are typically shared with clients or other stakeholders. As a result, they are able to see data like progress and profitability.
It is also helpful in determining whether the project has veered off course and what steps might be taken to bring it back on course. Reports on project health, milestone progress, profitability, and timeline should be included in project dashboards to provide a holistic view of the portfolio.
4. Team Availability Report #
The team availability report serves a similar purpose to a team calendar in that it displays the schedules of all team members, making it simple to determine who is busy and when they are unavailable. In this manner, stakeholders who’ve been planning for a project or who require feedback anywhere may see which members of the team can be assigned, as well as those who can safely take on extra work, and those that are at full capacity and could need assistance.
With the help of team availability reports, it is simple to get a sense of how much work is currently being taken on by each individual. This makes it possible to manage resources by evenly distributing the work in order to achieve faster results, higher levels of efficiency, and most importantly, to help stop project burnout between teams.
5. Risk Assessment Report #
Risks are often reported by the project manager at least once per month, and the report is usually the result of a risk review meeting. The risk register should always be kept up-to-date, and you should encourage everyone on your project team to do so anytime they think of something to add.
It’s up to you how you portray the project’s risk profile in the risk report, but it should be included. The best strategy is to focus on the risks that pose the greatest threat to the success of your project. Then, make statements on the lower-level risks, possibly outlining how you’re coping with them all.
Read Also: The Guide for Project Risk Management Process
6. Variance Report #
Teams frequently stray from the project’s primary goals without even realizing it. Finally, time and resources are wasted because of this, and the end result is project failure. The project team members and stakeholders can avoid this with the aid of a variance report. As the project progresses, you can keep track of the project’s goals and objectives.
Variance reports are necessary because they ensure that the project’s goals are being met. A variance report helps the team determine if they are actually accomplishing milestones in a project, project objectives, and deliverables on what they set out to do or simply wasting their time.
7. Time Tracking Report #
Time tracking reports allow you to monitor progress on a project and determine whether or not your estimates are being met. The team may also see how much time is spent on various tasks and how much time is spent by individuals on a time monitoring report. Ahead of time, you’ll be able to see any potential budget overruns, which is beneficial for future estimates and assumptions.
8. Baseline Report #
By comparing your original project timeline to the actual project timeline, you can learn from the past and plan for future projects more effectively. Additionally, it’s useful for illustrating the impact of changes or delays on the project’s overall timeframe.
9. Customized Executive Report #
A project report’s intended audience must be taken into consideration when writing it. As a result, your weekly status report to your project team and key business stakeholders will have a different amount of detail than your project board report.
Think big picture when writing project board reports. Those who care about the issues they can help with, the state of the budget, and whether or not you’re on schedule to meet critical milestones will be interested in reading about it.
Board members should have access to a report that is easy to understand. With FoxPlan, you can customize your dashboard and only shows data that are important for your team, project sponsor, or another project stakeholder. Sign up today for free to create a FoxPlan account!
10. Cost-Benefit Analysis Report #
The cost-benefit analysis compares the expected costs of a project to the advantages or opportunities that would result from its completion. It is a method for comparing the amount of profit or potential the project provides to your business in relation to the investment. It is a crucial phase in determining whether the project makes sense from a business standpoint.
This is a crucial step in determining whether the effort under consideration has value. This will allow your organization to utilize its resources more effectively if it continues through with the project, as well as provide documentation in support of doing so. Using a cost analysis, you may monitor your expenditures and spending to ensure that funds are allocated effectively.
FoxPlan: Generate Your Project Report Automatically #
Now that you are aware of the sorts of reports you may generate for projects, as well as their characteristics, you can easily select one based on your requirements.
Generating project reports will be easy and will not be time-consuming when you use FoxPlan project management software. You can easily customize the dashboard to only show the data and information you want to report to your stakeholders. The best part is that your team may record progress in real-time, so you don’t have to hunt down updates whenever a report is due.
Managing your projects with FoxPlan provides you with a significant advantage over the competition and makes it significantly simpler to get work done, as compared to spending hours navigating your project management software or manually entering data into spreadsheets. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for FoxPlan for FREE today and start generating reports for your project!
