Business & Financial Report Writing

2 Part Course | Develop, improve and hone your report writing skills. Master the different styles of reports needed to meet internal, external and even regulatory needs.

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A one-day Business Report Writing course presented over two-half days in a virtual class from 9:30am to 1:00pm UK time

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Download: Course Outline

Business Report Writing Course Outline: Part One

Introduction to Business Reporting

What is business report writing?
What are the key goals?
What does a report achieve?
Adding value to the business
Making the business more effective
Reporting outcomes
Getting things done
Recommending changes
Suggesting courses of action
Business Reporting Training Icebreaker - compile a report based on a request from your imaginary boss, based on some specific data. Can you reach any conclusions?

Your Objectives & the Recipient’s Objectives

Focus on the recipient
What is their style, experience, purpose and expectation?
What is the report’s objective?
What is the recipients’ knowledge, intentions, and seniority?
What is the report meant to achieve?
Are there any sensitivities?
What is expected of you as the writer?
Case Study/Practical Example: Using a specimen example, you must decide what must be covered and what can be left out of the main body of the report

The Report Writing Process

Managing the process, collecting data, establishing the facts
Planning – set realistic and attainable timetables
Preparing the structure
Business brainstorming with others
Testing your report – read it “cold”
Enlisting a second and honest reader
Drafting - Don’t over-elaborate or over-edit
Revising – is it too wordy?
Case Study/Practical Example- Looking at real business report writing examples of an executive summary and deciding what changes would improve it

The Report Template

This session of the business report writing course commences with objectives, scope, statement of problem or remit
Executive Summary
Report Body
Conclusions
Recommendations
Supporting papers
What order is best for the above?
Case Study/Practical Example: You are given a brief section of a report to edit. Can you improve it by doing so?

Part Two

Writing the Report

The Report Paradox
State the objectives
Reader-focused structure and style
Effective conclusions
Recommending solutions
Overcoming “writer’s block”
Annexes, Appendices, Glossary of Terms, etc.
Exploring a sample report and considering the options for study/Practical Example

The Executive Summary

What is expected?
What level of detail?
Good summaries
Poor summaries
Best practice recommendations
Case Study/Practical Example: Compare our own summaries with examples from industry and commerce

Writing Effectively

The structure of persuasion
How are decisions made: time, recognition, single issues, sensitivities
Establishing credibility; using credible data, your qualifications, and the goals of the business
Overcoming potential sticking points
Taking care to deal with “sensitivities” tactfully
Avoiding controversial content
Saying what you mean but avoiding too much frankness
An example which is not very effective. How would you improve it?

Policy & Procedure Writing

Overview
How do these differ from other reports?
Are they mandatory or advisory? If there is a mix, is this clear?
Defining the scope
Who is going to use it?
What is the document meant to achieve?
Definitions
Principles
Is it user-friendly?
Is it indexed effectively?
Do’s & Don'ts examples

Wrap-up/Common Pitfalls

The review process
Grammar and punctuation, spelling & typos
Proofreading & checking techniques
Fused and fragmentary sentences
Commonly misused words and phrases
Irritating buzzwords
An example of a report that misses the target, as well as an amended version that doesn’t. What are your views, and do you agree?

Redcliffe’s business report writing courses are delivered by a trainer with a highly successful, long and varied “fast track” career at Lloyds Bank. His expertise led him to a very senior management position in the bank’s private banking and wealth management division at an early age.

After being “headhunted” to join a merchant bank at the main board director level, he now has over 40 years of experience in the UK banking and financial services sector.

A key feature of his duties during his career was delivering first-class reports and training others to do so. The range of reports included compliance, risk, credit, project finance appraisals and board submissions.

Our trainer has been a freelance training consultant since retiring, offering professional course sessions in several technical areas of finance. He is currently an external Master Trainer at both HSBC and Bank of China, where, in addition to report writing, he has delivered major projects on a wide range of topics. As an accomplished global trainer, he has delivered extensive programmes in the UK, USA, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

He is a highly adaptive, hands-on and highly sought-after private banking and wealth management facilitator who always receives excellent feedback from delegates. He is comfortable training at any level of seniority and experience, from “black belts” to novices. In addition to his financial report writing course specialism, his expertise includes Risk Management, Trade Finance, Regulatory Compliance, FCC & AML and all aspects of Corporate, Private and retail Banking. He is also a highly experienced soft skills trainer and has completed numerous “train the trainer” assignments.

Develop, improve or hone your report-writing skills as required.
Hit the ground running on project report writing as soon as you return to your regular work roles.
Practice completing several aspects of a report and the different styles of report needed to meet either internal or external and even regulatory needs.
Empower you with confidence that you are already a competent report writer; practice is now needed.
Writing a sharp business report (e.g. commercial, financial) for either internal or external recipients (know your audience).
Business reporting training emphasises the importance of the executive summary.
Learn a shortcut to begin writing reports and avoid writer's block.
Identify and justify the key conclusions and recommendations.
Understand that a clear and concisely written report is often the most effective.
Recognise what can be removed or left out, including unnecessary detail which should be moved to an Appendix.
How to apply common sense and logic to convey what is important. Explaining why it is important, what the report reader needs to do and when.
Remember at all times to ask the “so what” question to avoid too much information and detail.

Redcliffe Training has been established for over 20 years; we are proud of our first-class reputation for delivering effective report-writing training sessions.
This professional report-writing course director is not an academic teacher who teaches from a textbook. He is a hands-on practitioner with years of report writing experience - both good and sometimes not-so-good. He will bring this vocational experience into the process to bring the learning points alive and make them more relevant.
We recognise that some delegates find different styles of report writing more challenging than others. This course is designed to break the process down into easy-to-follow stages. We review each stage as we complete it and brainstorm any areas where our efforts could be improved.
Having fun as well as learning new skills is a prerequisite: active participation is encouraged, and all delegates will get the opportunity to practise report writing in a non-threatening environment.
Redcliffe is pleased to have been appointed as Master Trainers to two of the world's biggest banks so we are always at the cutting edge of reporting requirements in practice. We are well aware of the main challenges and difficulties, and we tackle these very early on.
This report writing course contains several highly interactive and enjoyable case studies to enhance learning points. All delegates report that these are a high point.
We are always judged by our results which speak for themselves, and the feedback received from previous delegates has always been excellent.

This business report writing training course is a ‘must know’ for:

All report-writing or report-creating staff looking for either a refresher or an opportunity to hone their report-writing skills
Managers and Team Leaders who review reports and are responsible for coaching staff on improving report-writing skills
Compliance & Risk Officers
Internal Audit Staff

As this is such a critical skill in almost all industries, anyone likely to be exposed or invited to participate in reporting formally to key stakeholders will gain valuable insight with this course.

Effective report writing is one of those essential skills that look easy until you try to create one for the first time. We know what we want to say, but how do we say it concisely? How do you extract an executive summary, recommendations and conclusions if you still can’t decide where to start?

Redcliffe’s effective financial report writing course deals with these issues from the very outset and provides you with useful and effective suggestions for overcoming these initial barriers.

High-quality report writing requires both practice and experience. There is no shortcut. However, the journey for some is harder than it should be, as the pressure of most working environments means that not enough attention is paid to the “basics”. We address this challenge and offer practical solutions.

There is no doubt that report writing is an essential skill and an invaluable communication tool for both the individual and the business. But it takes practice to become good at effective report writing and it helps enormously if you understand what matters and what matters less for both the individual and the business that employs them. The ability to create succinct, cogent and effective reports is extremely important and is a prerequisite skill for all levels of management and supervision.

Our technical course will take you through the process of report writing and will concentrate on the key skills needed to create effective business reports as quickly as circumstances dictate. We will write a report in stages as we proceed through the various subtopics. We will highlight examples of good practice as well as poor practice and will concentrate on the key requirements for any business report: namely a strategic overview, an executive summary, a list of recommendations and/or a set of conclusions together with enough detail – but not too much – to support the recommended outcome.

I will definitely follow the ES guidelines in the future.
I will be primarily guided by the guidelines regarding the structure of the report, as well as who the report is intended for.
Really helpful in report writing techniques, intuitive exercises and thought-provoking questions.
As someone pretty new to report writing, I found it gave me a solid understanding and foundation to build on. Having someone very experienced share their learnings, common pitfalls, things to avoid and what good looks like is definitely beneficial. I will be sure to retain the packs and refer to these when writing a report in future. I believe it will support me in reducing the drafts required.

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(min. 50 participants)