Monthly Reporting

Some suggestions…
Hi Lynnete,

I’ve recently redone some monthly reports and while they weren’t specifically training related I think that the general concepts that I used could still be applied, and will hopefully be useful. Apologies if all of this is really obvious!

1) First thing, what are the KPI’s that the report is trying to show? In general there is so much information that can be reported on it is necessary to be selective on what is included.

2) Keep the report simple by including a dashboard with no more that 10 pieces of information on it. This should be able to be printed on one page of A4, and should clearly show the department KPI’s – this will ensure that anyone glancing at the report can clearly see how the month went. More detailed reports can be included if they are needed for people that need the granular detail – again keep these uncluttered!

3) If you’re not already, I find it useful to put the information in context and inlcude a timeline so that seasonal trends in activity can be seen.

4) Revisit the report on a regular basis against it’s objectives to ensure that the reporting items are relevant – if the information is in a database then it’s not necessary to report on everything and what is needed will change over time – what was inteeresting 6 months ago possibly isn’t now.

5) Include a commentary on the figures, inlcude highlights and show actions against lowlights detailing what will be done in the coming month(s) to address them.

6) As a housekeeping thing I also inlcude tables rather than pivot tables, white out the background of the sheet, ensure that all the tables have the same style boxes round them and all the fonts are the same etc……….sad but I think it looks better!!

I hope this helps structure the reports and good luck!

Cheers,
Gareth

2 Responses

TrainingZone says:

April 18, 2007 at 9:28 am

Some suggestions…
Hi Lynnete,

I’ve recently redone some monthly reports and while they weren’t specifically training related I think that the general concepts that I used could still be applied, and will hopefully be useful. Apologies if all of this is really obvious!

1) First thing, what are the KPI’s that the report is trying to show? In general there is so much information that can be reported on it is necessary to be selective on what is included.

2) Keep the report simple by including a dashboard with no more that 10 pieces of information on it. This should be able to be printed on one page of A4, and should clearly show the department KPI’s – this will ensure that anyone glancing at the report can clearly see how the month went. More detailed reports can be included if they are needed for people that need the granular detail – again keep these uncluttered!

3) If you’re not already, I find it useful to put the information in context and inlcude a timeline so that seasonal trends in activity can be seen.

4) Revisit the report on a regular basis against it’s objectives to ensure that the reporting items are relevant – if the information is in a database then it’s not necessary to report on everything and what is needed will change over time – what was inteeresting 6 months ago possibly isn’t now.

5) Include a commentary on the figures, inlcude highlights and show actions against lowlights detailing what will be done in the coming month(s) to address them.

6) As a housekeeping thing I also inlcude tables rather than pivot tables, white out the background of the sheet, ensure that all the tables have the same style boxes round them and all the fonts are the same etc……….sad but I think it looks better!!

I hope this helps structure the reports and good luck!

Cheers,
Gareth
TrainingZone says:

April 23, 2007 at 4:49 pm

newspaper
Headlines? In a Sun/Daily Mirror format? (obviously no page three….)

Then you should be able to get your message across and amuse at the same time. “Training Times”?