Reading a report

Reports are written to be read by someone with ten minutes, then re-read by someone with an hour.

Start at the top

The conclusion comes first. If your house style says otherwise, tell us in your voice under Settings, then Organization and we write it your way — but by default the first page answers the brief, and everything after it is the evidence for that answer.

Then the evidence

Under the conclusion sits the working: the companies, the people, the numbers, and the reasoning that connects them. Nothing here is decorative. If a figure is in the report, it is because it changed the answer.

Every figure is labelled

This is the part worth learning, because it is what lets you answer "how do you know that?" without coming back to us. Three labels, and they mean different things:

• Fact — printed on a cited primary or government source. A filing, a bureau release, a company's own page.
• Estimate — modelled or triangulated from cited sources, and given as an honest range rather than a single number pretending to precision it does not have.
• Inference — reasoned from evidence, and not directly stated by any source.

An inference is not a weaker fact; it is a different kind of claim, and it is labelled so you can decide how much weight to put on it in front of a client. A report that labelled everything the same way would be easier to read and worth less.

Then the sources

The Sources screen at the foot of the report lists every source behind it, under the section that used it, with a count of how many were consulted and how many figures they carry. Follow one before you send the report on, particularly for the numbers you expect a client to challenge. It takes a minute and it is the difference between defending a report and reading from it.

What the marks mean

A report you have not opened is marked Unread on the dashboard and its row is tinted. Opening it clears the mark. A report still being researched shows as In progress and has no link yet.

If something looks wrong

Tell your account manager, with the section and the figure. A wrong number is worth fixing in the report you are holding, and it usually points at a profile answer that will keep producing the same problem until it changes.