What Are the Duties of the Reporting Department?

• One duty of the reporting department is to keep accurate records of an organization's finances. Medioimages/Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images

  The reporting department of any organization is the department responsible for preparing, analyzing and presenting records that show the successes and areas of improvement for an organization. Reporting departments are found in the public and private sectors, and they can be large or small depending on the size of the organization. Whether the department is public or private, big or small, it's goal remains the same: to accurately prepare and present records that reflect the organization's operations.

Preparing the Reports

• Perhaps the most important duty of the reporting department is to actually prepare the records of the organization. This process is different for every department, but if financial reports were being prepared, it would entail preparing documents that tell how much an organization has been spending and how much money the organization has been taking in. These documents can be broken down per department (e.g., the administration department) and per month if that is what is needed. To properly prepare these reports, workers must understand the fundamental rules of accounting and financial record keeping if they are working on financial reports.

Analyzing the Reports

• Once the reports have been completed, they must be analyzed. This means that each report must be dissected to understand such things as what programs implemented by an organization were successful or how much money was lost and gained compared to previous reports. Those responsible for analyzing the reports might also think about ways to implement new programs or cut costs. These types of analyses are usually done by more senior level staff of the reporting department who have extensive experience in the company.

Presenting the Reports

• Once the reports have been prepared and analyzed by the reporting department, they must be presented to those in the positions of power within a company, such as those in CEO, COO or senior management positions. The presentations can be written, vocal or both, but the department must ensure that all of the necessary information in the reports is presented clearly and without bias. After the information in the reports has been given, the presentor might offer his opinion on how to do such things as improve the finances of the organization based on what was discovered in the financial records or how to improve a program based on what was found during the analysis of a program. These opinions would have been arrived at with the help of other members of the reporting department who analyzed the records.