Reports are important for businesses to evaluate performance and progress, not the writer. They should be based on facts, not feelings or hearsay, and provide reliable, relevant recommendations to help decision making. If a report fails to communicate clearly to its intended reader or is not grounded in reality, it is useless and a waste of time to produce.

1. Why bother to report?
Ignorance of the significance of reports to the success of an enterprise is one of the
major stumbling blocks in the business growth cycle in Barbados.
It is important that we realize that reports are not prepared for the writer, but
rather for the reader. It is dangerous to prepare or write a report that has coloured,
discoloured, or miscoloured the information so that it says what we want, rather
than what should be said.
99% of all the reports required by an entity are generally about PRINCIPLES,
PERFORMANCE, and PROGRESS; and hardly ever about PERSONALITY. In essence
businesses want to know whether the measures put in place were complied with.
Did they have a significant impact on how business was done? Or, has the business
been able to move forward as a result?
Reports should be based on facts and not on feelings. The facts should be supported
with evidence and not by hearsay. The report and the reporter should establish
reliability, relevance, and recommendation. The report should have an agreed
structure; and be delivered on time.
Reports form an essential part of an organization's decision making process, whether
in the present time or sometime in the future. Therefore, if the reader (being a
rational and knowledgeable person) is unable to identify with the missive of the
report that was prepared for him or her... then the report is useless! Indeed, if the
content of the report was created rather than realised... then the report is useless!
So the question remains: Why did you bother to report at all?
[written in reference to some poor performance evaluations (reports) that passed
through my hands recently]
rmoore