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What is operational planning?
Operational reporting is a reporting procedure that details the ins and outs of a company’s day-to-day deliverables, often concerning production. Typically, operational reports are short-term and use hourly, daily, weekly and monthly information. Operational reports use low-level data to paint a picture of the present, what will occur in the immediate future and identify immediate operational needs. Executives use operational reports as support for quick decision making. -
What kind of information is in an operational report?
In an operational report, you’ll find information like:
- Immediate deliverables
- The resources required to produce those deliverables
- The deliverables produced
- Production surplus or deficits
- Production records
- Cost structures
- Resource costs
- Detailed-processes
- Revenue
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Why are operational reports important?
Managers use operational reports for detail-driven decision making in a fast-paced environment. Since operational reports contain real-time information, stakeholders can act quickly on the results to improve efficiency. -
How are operational reports used?
Different departments and industries use operational reports in different ways.
Finance: Operational reports aid Finance in identifying inefficiencies.
Finance uses operational reports to monitor specific financial data and process inefficiencies and make decisions for the present or immediate future. Thus, real-time, detailed information is necessary for thorough operational reporting and quick decision making.
Manufacturing: Operational reports help manufacturing companies improve production.
Manufacturing uses operational reports to monitor the production chain and make daily improvements to resource use, costs and efficiency.
Retail: Operational reports help retail conserve resources and improve margins.
Retail and other customer-facing businesses use operational reports to monitor store efficiency, improve inventory, measure employee productivity and sales.
How to improve operational reporting:
- Improve access to granular, real-time information.
- Automate data collection and tracking.
- Use dashboards to see performance and production data in real-time.
- Access pre-built reports that populate automatically with the latest operational data.