Consulting Report: What is it and How to Create it?

Whenever we are faced with a dilemma or we’re simply clueless about something, our immediate reaction is to ask the person next to us for advice.

And if it’s something a little more serious, then we seek the help of an expert or a professional.

That’s why we go to a doctor when we are sick or consult a lawyer when we have legal issues. Because they are professionals who can help us in times of need.

Just like that, in business, we hire consultants to solve problems that we have no clue about. These consultants offer their professional advice or expertise to a business regarding their issues and help them grow.

Most consultants create a report for their clients, called the consulting report. These reports offer detailed insight into a company’s problems and are extremely crucial to the growth of the business.

It’s the best way for a consultant to showcase their knowledge and skills and put them into practice. So if you are a consultant looking to write the perfect consulting reports for your client, then you have come to the right place!

Here, we will take a look at the meaning, importance, and steps involved in creating an efficient and effective consulting report! We even have a surprise for you at the end. So with further ado, jump right in, folks!

What is a Consulting Report? (Definition)

Simply put, a consulting report is a document that provides expert knowledge and solutions for technical problems.

It’s written by consultants or experts (specialized in a certain field) for people or organizations who lack the knowledge or experience in that specific field.

Employees discussing consulting report of their clients

As a consultant, you provide your expertise to help solve problems and issues faced by your clients’ business, for which they neither have the time nor knowledge to solve on their own.

A consulting report usually contains the descriptions of the problems that your client is facing, an examination or study of those problems from the perspective of your perspective, and finally, a set of recommendations or solutions to their problems.

This could be related to any problems or issues for which they possess little to no knowledge. That’s why there are different types of consulting reports, such as competitor analysis reports, cybersecurity reports, social media reports, industry reports and many more.

Consultants ensure that they follow a simple format that includes a front matter, body, and back matter in order to guide you in laying out and presenting their insights in a professional manner.

Now let’s try to understand why there is a need to create these consulting reports for businesses.

Why Create a Consulting Report?

Let’s face it, managing a business is not an easy task.

You know that most business owners or managers probably have many hats to wear. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have all the skills and knowledge to solve every single problem in their business.

That’s why they seek the help of consultants like you who can provide your temporary expertise service for solving their issues. After all, your services are absolutely necessary for the growth of their business.

With a consulting report, your clients will have the solutions to their problems without batting an eyelid. Not only that, a consulting report:

Provides clarity to your client by focusing on defining the key issues related to their problem without using unnecessary jargon or terms.
Offers an accurate analysis of your clients’ business-related problems through facts and figures
Presents an array of effective and diverse recommendations and solutions for their problems
Helps in the decision-making process of their business
Acts as a valuable and reliable source of information for future reference

The benefits of consulting reports are just too good to be sidelined and that is why it is important that you create one in the most perfect way possible.

So without further ado, let’s dive straight into the steps involved in creating a consulting report!

How to Create a Consulting Report? Follow these Steps!

Down below is a simple and detailed step-by-step guide on how to create a consulting report for your clients.

Step 1. Make a Title Page

While writing a consulting report, the first thing to do is to create a title page for your report. This is meant to inform the client about the topic and details of the report at a single glance.

A consultant checking out data of her client

Here, you will include your name, your company’s names, the name of the report, your client’s name, and the date when it is written.

Step 2. Include a Table of Contents

The next thing to include in your consulting report is a table of contents. You can list down the general sections of your report and its corresponding page numbers and even include sub-headings or sub-topics if you want.

This will give the reader’s the option to skim through the contents and go to the section that is important to them, instead of reading through the entire report.

Step 3. Create an Executive Summary

An executive summary refers to a section that deals with what the topic is all about in a brief manner. This is to ensure that your readers have a rough idea of the report’s content and encourage them to read on.

In this section, you emphasize the gist of the report and provide a concise explanation of all the important sections by highlighting the problems, analysis, findings, recommendations, and conclusions.

Step 4. Write an Introduction

After writing your executive summary, the next step is to write an introduction for your consulting report. This section is where you create the first impression of your report to your readers.

Here, you will set the tone for the rest of your report and address the main issues and problems that require your attention and expertise.

You can do this by making an outline of your report in which you will explain the purpose of creating it, provide brief details about the problems and mention the approaches and methods you will use to analyze it.

Step 5. Write the Analysis

The analysis will be the bulkiest section of your consulting report.

To do the analysis, you must first conduct research, which can be through surveys or studying documents. With this data, you create an analysis that can be easily understood by your client.

Write a descriptive heading for the issues you are planning to address, then list down all the issues and their details, and describe the analysis with the help of data and statistics.

Step 6. Include a Recommendation List

Now that you have written a detailed section for the analysis, the next step is the provide a list of recommendations or solutions for the problem or issue that is being dealt with.

List all the possible solutions and make sure to provide more than one alternative for the client to choose from. Use concise and easy-to-understand language or bulletin points to write down the recommendation list.

Step 7. End with a Conclusion

End your consulting report with a tight conclusion, where you can summarize all that has been discussed in the report.

In this section, you will briefly explain what has been achieved by the consulting report, sum up all the details about the findings and recommendations and even detail what is to be expected by the client.

Try to make sure that your conclusion is concise and does not exceed more than two paragraphs.

Step 8. Include the Appendix (optional)

Finally, we come to the appendix. Here you can provide all relevant citations such as bibliographies, references, photographs, or any information that will support or back your consulting report.

This section is optional, so it is completely up to your choice whether you include it or not… and voila! That’s everything you need to know in order to create an amazing consulting report for your clients.

But we know that creating a consulting report is not the easiest task out there, that’s why we want to let you know that there is a tool that can make that process much easier for you.

No idea what we’re talking about? Why don’t you scroll down and find out for yourself!

Bit.ai: Tool for Creating All Sorts of Reports

It’s hard enough that you have to do research, then analyze problems, and then come up with solutions while creating a consulting report.

But, in this day and age of technology, no one should be fretting over writing reports. That’s why we present to you Bit.ai!

Bit.ai: Tool for creating proposals Bit is a new-age cloud-based document creation and collaboration platform, designed exclusively to satisfy all your documentation needs. It’s the perfect tool for creating a consulting report!

Why do we say that? Check out these features of Bit:

1. Plethora of Templates

Bit has an extensive template gallery that provides you with over 70+ ready-made templates from which you can choose your favorite one! Pick a template for your consulting report, put in your content, and customize it wherever and however you want!

2. Design Automation

Bit takes care of the formatting of your entire report. Just put in your content and Bit will handle rest. Not just that, Bit offers design automation which allows you to change the layout and color theme of the document with one click, making your consulting report visually appealing to your clients.

3. Rich Media Integrations

Your consulting report might require you to include tables, charts, images, etc. in the document. With Bit, you can do just that! Bit supports over 100+ popular tools like YouTube, Typeform, LucidChart, Google Drive, etc. So you can seamlessly add rich media elements to your document within a few seconds!

4. Client Portal

Bit allows you to invite your clients into your workspaces through guest access. With this feature, you can give them access to the document as read-only or comment-only. This way, you can communicate in a hassle-free manner with all your clients!

5. Live Analytics For Your Report

Another amazing feature of Bit is that it lets you share your documents with your clients via a “trackable link”. With this link you can get live analytics and insights about your report, such as who viewed your report, how much time they spent on your report, and even how far down they scrolled in your report.

A client analysing consulting report

This is a great way to find out where your reader lost interest so that you can make the changes accordingly the next time around.

6. Multiple Workspaces

While writing consulting reports, you will have to deal with loads of information from multiple clients. This can be a chaotic process. But not with Bit around, because it lets you create infinite workspaces and folders around clients and their companies. This will help you store all your information and keep your work organized.

Not to mention, Bit is super user-friendly and any newbie can easily dive into it without any hassle. All-in-all, Bit is an amazing tool for all your reporting needs. So what are you waiting for? Organize and work efficiently with Bit by your side!

Our team at bit.ai has created a few awesome business templates to make your business processes more efficient. Make sure to check them out before you go, your team might need them!

Conclusion

Consultants play an important role in the business world – be it a small business, large business, or even start-ups. Their best work is always displayed in their final product, which is a consulting report.

A consulting report offers expert insight into the chosen subject and helps a business correct its mistakes. That’s why writing one requires careful consideration.

In this blog, we have provided you with a step-by-step guide on how to write consulting reports and even introduced you to Bit which will help make the writing process easier.

Now all you have to do is put on your consulting hats and get ready to write a consulting report!

Consulting Report: What is it and How to Create it?

What is a Consulting Report? (Definition)

Why Create a Consulting Report?