Speaker 1: You've slaved day and night to get the work done for your client. Now, it's time to present your findings. The last thing that you want after all this hard work is for the client to skim or not even read your entire report. Avoid this scenario by using a consulting report template that organizes your ideas in a way the client will easily understand. A happy byproduct? You look professional and results-driven. Your credibility is reinforced. A win-win for you and the client. By the end of this video, you'll be able to present the results-driven value of your business to impress clients. Let's maybe even go back to the beginning. And no, not time, but your reporting. What even is a consulting report template? A consulting report is a document containing a consultant's expert understanding and advice on a certain subject. For example, a competitive analysis report that looks at the strengths and weaknesses of a company's key competitors. A consulting report is usually prepared by an expert for a client or company that doesn't have the time or knowledge to do the necessary research and write up a report. Reports are usually a part of every consultant's job description. Here's an example of a consulting report template. In short, a consulting report template shows a problem the client is facing, an examination of the problem from the consultant's perspective, and recommendations or solutions to the problem. The consultant may use a consulting report template to help them lay out and professionally present these insights. Regular project status reports deliver updates and flag any issues you're facing. They also show what you still need to do. The result? Better communication and a way to build and maintain trust with your client. Pro tip. Pick your project status report template based on the time period you're reporting on. So if it's weekly or monthly or quarterly, use this project status report template for any time frame. All the essential information is neatly laid out in bite-sized sections perfect for busy clients. The icon checkmark chart makes it easy for clients to check whether the project's on track, on schedule, suffering from scope creep, or on budget. Progress report examples. Zero in on your accomplishments to date with a progress report. Lay them out in point form, making them easy to scan and easy to reassure your client that you're making progress. Here's one monthly progress report example. Projects with multiple players can easily sink into disorganization. The progress report example clearly assigns ownership to different parties. This can include the client, so they know exactly what they're responsible for, and what you're responsible for. Pro tip. Use Venngage's team features to quickly share your project status reports with the client and other stakeholders. Email it to them directly or grab a private link. Update the report and let everyone know immediately. The Venngage for Business plan gives you access to this feature right now. The project report status template relies on a simple chart with checkboxes to show the overall project status. The focus of this report is on timetables. When milestones are expected to be completed, plus overall revised completion date, it's best for a quick update where not a lot of explanation is needed. The report title page is simple but easy to customize and can be adapted for any industry. Marketing consultants use social media reports to report on their progress. The tricky part? Presenting the report so your client actually understands it. Here are two hacks to make a better social media report. Focus on the stats that actually matter. Use a report format that is easy to understand. Use a social media report template with simple charts or graphs. This social media report template uses icons to highlight key stats to help explain results, a funnel for conversion rate, money to stress savings. Design pro tip. Use icons to capture your point. Try bright and colorful illustrated icons for creative industries like marketing and simple line icons for more conservative fields like management consulting. Here's how icon replace works in the Venngage template editor. Clicking replace will open our library of thousands of free creative icons. Select one to automatically replace an existing icon in the social media report template. This social media report template has the same format as the other example but with a different color scheme and icons as you can see. This consulting report template takes another approach. Nothing but stats. No words are necessary. The stats speak for themselves in this progress report example. The up and down red green icons quickly let a marketing consultant tell the client if the stat is good or bad and everything in this social media report template is nicely segmented by channel. Pie charts simply and effectively communicate user breakdowns and growth opportunities. The client will appreciate the clear overview and your attention to progress and growth. Here's another version of this consulting report template but with a different color scheme. Design pro tip. Marketing consultants can use this social media report template for any industry. It's not just for marketing consultants. Click any text box to change the content. Delete or copy text boxes as needed. Click any icon to replace it. We have thousands of professional icons you can use for free. Recommendation report templates. The clients hired you to help solve a particular problem at their company. You've sweated through hours of problem solving. Now it's time to present your findings. Your next challenge is to make a recommendation report that communicates with those findings in a way the client will understand. You can use this quick one pager consulting report template to outline your growth goals or any other recommendations you may have. This recommendation report example has a bold look and is hyper organized with a report title page, introduction, table of contents, and divider pages to help your client quickly grasp your ideas. Pro tip. Add jump links to your table of contents to make navigating your document even easier. In the Venngage editor, select the text you want to hyperlink, click on the link icon in the top bar, and then select the page it should take your clients to. When downloading the document, you can download it as an interactive PDF. This recommendation report example works for real estate, but you can adapt it in any way you want with icons, text, and photos to fit your industry. Create a more graphic recommendation report with this case study template. Design pro tip. Brand your consulting report template in one go. Open the My Brand Kit tab. We'll pull you or your client's brand colors from any website. Or you can set the colors manually. Click once to apply this color palette to the entire recommendation report. No design experience required. Business case study templates. Consultants can use business case studies to promote how they helped past clients scale their marketing, growth, or other efforts. A business case study educates potential clients. It also shows the benefits that they'll get from hiring an independent consultant. As a result, a business case study helps convert potential clients to new projects. Here are two uses for business case studies. Number one, to present to new clients as proof, part of their portfolio. And number two, to establish themselves as thought leaders. For example, offer business case studies as downloads in their business blogs, newsletters, social media ads, guest blog posts, or ebooks. Here's a business case study template. A business case study usually has the following content. A problem a company or sometimes a specific decision maker needs to solve. Context of the problem. Available solutions. Why the winning solution was picked. And results of using the solution with data to back it up. This business case study has most of these sections. It also elevates the typical business case study with a contrasting background color and font and bold rainbow graphic. Design pro tip. Use different color text to highlight important information. In the example, hot pink, it's used to drive the eye to the title, custom recommendations, and important stats. This business report effectively sells the consultant services thanks to client recommendations, a bar graph of results, which you can customize within the template. Top deliverables explained twice on the third page using icons and subheadings. Context is provided on the report title page to show the clear need for the service. Results are on page one. There's no need to bury results farther down in a business report. Design pro tip. Build charts and graphs within the Venngage editor and add them to your business report. Enter your data in a spreadsheet or import your data directly from a Google sheet. Watch the chart or graph transform automatically. The below consulting report template works as both a business report and presentation. It also makes great use of different types of charts and graphs to present information. Here's another case study template that uses contrasting font colors and icons to highlight results. Design pro tip. Use color psychology to communicate an idea. For example, yellow is associated with confidence and creativity. If you like another industry analysis template, but want to have it be more yellow, open the My Brand Kit tab in the editor. Pick just one of our custom color palettes with yellow in it. Click to apply, then shuffle through different color combinations. Competitor analysis report template. A competitor analysis report is similar to an industry analysis or market overview report, but it focuses on specific competitors. That could mean one main competitor or several. You just need an effective way to communicate that research to the client without their eyes glazing over on the page. Look at how this competitor analysis report template segments and visualizes key research. The result, a report your client will actually read and understand. Design pro tip. Try different sizes and font weights like bold to highlight important data. Use subheaders and color text boxes to section off data and make it easy to scan. Marketing consultants can use this template, but it can be adapted for any industry. Here's the same competitor analysis report, but with a different color scheme. Design pro tip. Change the entire template's color scheme by using our My Brand Kit tool or click on individual sections, open the background tab, and apply colors and gradients. Now let's get to the nitty gritty stuff. How to write a consulting report. Even though the content of consulting reports will be completely different, they usually follow a pretty standard structure. Stick to this structure that we're about to talk about to keep yourself organized, allow for a logical flow of information, and keep the client reading and not confused. Here are tips for writing a consulting report. Create a title page and include name of report, your name, name of your company, name of client, date report delivered to client, make a table of contents, list each part of the report and the page number it's on, write an executive summary, sum up the issues, analysis, and solutions included in the report. You can play around with the report format based on what the client hired you to do. Here are a few more design tips for consulting report cover pages. Use clean, conservative fonts, such as sans serif fonts like Arial, Calibri. Avoid handwritten fonts or any fonts that are hard to read. Brand your cover page template by using the client's logo, brand colors, and font. Optional, use photos to set the tone for the report's content. Here are two types, a photo that represents the industry and a metaphorical photo like plants to represent growth. Your font images and text should all work together in design harmony. The best way to avoid sending mixed messages? You guessed it, a consulting report template.