Components of a business report Definition: A business report presents objective data that managers can use in making business decisions. The report can contain suggestions and recommendations, but its primary purpose should be to present facts and information. A business proposal spends most of its time promoting suggestions and recommendations. A business report spends most of its time presenting objective facts. Title Page Business reports generally follow a formal structure, unless they are very short email reports. Most moderate to long reports being with a title page. The title page shows the full title of the report, the name of the author and the names of audience members or groups Abstract or Executive Summary The report should also include an \"abstract\" or \"executive summary.\" This brief summary, of about 200 words, presents the purpose, methods, scope, findings, conclusions and recommendations of the report. A high-level business executive might choose not to read the entire report, but instead to read only the executive summary. Write the summary with enough detail to provide a busy executive with the most important elements of the report. Table of Contents The table of contents page usually comes immediately after the title page and before the executive summary. It should show each section of the report by name and page number. List of Figures, Tables, Abbreviations or Symbols A good rule of thumb is that if your report includes more than five figures, illustrations or tables, you should list them by page number, immediately after the table of contents page. If the report contains abbreviations or symbols that might not be familiar to all readers, include those abbreviations and symbols, plus their definitions and explanations in this section. Introduction Start the body of the report with an introductory paragraph, with the heading \"Introduction.\" The introduction should present the purpose and scope of the report, and present background information that might be necessary for readers to know so that they can understand the rest of the report. Body The next heading should read \"Body,\" and this begins the heart of the report. You can include subheadings to introduce the various information categories that make up the body. Consider including tables of data or financial information, charts, graphs and illustrations. Conclusions and Recommendations The body of the report ends with \"Conclusions and Recommendations.\" In this section, you summarize the objective data and findings, and propose recommendations, if necessary and appropriate. Bibliography If your report presents data that you gathered from published sources, show those sources in a bibliography that should include traditional publications, Internet sources and people who you might have interviewed