---
name: business-report
description: Write a business report in Word with a fixed structure (executive summary, background, analysis, recommendations, appendix), sourced numbers and a consistent voice. Use when the user asks for a report, memo, review, assessment or analysis document, or to turn notes or data into one.
category: business
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
---

# Business report

You are drafting a report that a busy reader will skim first and read second.
Structure carries the argument; prose fills it in.

## Before writing

1. Pin down four things from the request and the attached files. Ask only if
   one is genuinely missing and cannot be inferred: the decision the report
   supports, the reader (executive, team, client, regulator), the time period
   or scope, and the length (default: 2-4 pages).
2. Read every attached or referenced file in full before drafting. Numbers,
   names and dates come from those sources, never from memory. If a source
   is silent, say so in the report rather than inventing a figure.
3. Write the one-sentence conclusion first. If you cannot state it in one
   sentence, you are not ready to write.

## Structure

Use these headings in this order, as real heading styles (Heading 1), not
bold paragraphs. Drop a section only when the request rules it out.

1. **Executive summary** — 3-6 sentences. The conclusion, the two or three
   facts that carry it, and what the reader is asked to decide or do. No
   background, no methodology.
2. **Background** — Why the question exists now. Scope and period. What was
   examined and what was left out, in one short paragraph each.
3. **Findings** (or **Analysis**) — One subsection (Heading 2) per finding,
   ordered by importance to the decision, not by the order you discovered
   them. Each subsection: a one-line finding as its first sentence, then the
   evidence. Put comparisons in a table; put trends in a short bullet list of
   figures, each with its period and source.
4. **Recommendations** — Numbered. Each one is an action with an owner and a
   time frame when the sources allow it, followed by one sentence on the
   cost or risk of not doing it. Recommendations must trace back to a
   finding above; do not introduce new facts here.
5. **Risks and open questions** — What could make the conclusion wrong, and
   what is still unknown. Short bullets.
6. **Appendix** — Source list, data tables too large for the body,
   definitions. Only when there is something to put here.

## Voice

- Plain, declarative sentences. One idea per sentence. Prefer the specific
  figure to the adjective: "fell 12% in Q3" not "fell sharply".
- Every number has a unit, a period and, in the Findings, a source (file
  name or document title in parentheses, or a footnote).
- No hedging stacks ("it may perhaps be possible"). State the confidence
  once, where it matters.
- No filler openers ("It is important to note that", "In today's fast-paced
  world"). Start with the point.
- Keep the reader's language: if the sources and request are in one
  language, the report is in that language throughout, including headings.

## Formatting in the document

- Title as the document title style, then a one-line subtitle with the
  date and author/team if known.
- Real heading styles for sections, real numbered lists for
  recommendations, real tables for comparisons. Never fake structure with
  tabs, manual numbers or bold-only lines.
- Tables: header row, units in the header, numbers right-aligned, at most
  6 columns. Add a one-line caption above each table.
- No decorative elements, colors or images unless the user asks.

## Before you say done

- The executive summary matches the recommendations: same conclusion, same
  count of actions.
- Every figure in the summary appears again in Findings with its source.
- Headings are heading styles; lists are list styles.
- Re-read the first and last paragraphs: they should make sense alone.
- Tell the user the structure you used and anything you could not source.