The Top 17 Free Project Report Templates For Effective Project Management

When writing a project report, stick to the facts and back up your claims with data. Consider using a template to give structure to your report, and tailor the report to your audience. We’ve outlined top report-writing tips below:

• Know Your Audience: The type and depth of information you communicate in a report will depend on the nature of your audience. For instance, managers and clients may have a better understanding of the concepts and terminology involved in a project than do stakeholders and other personnel. Effective project reporting, therefore, requires using the appropriate tone and phraseology and knowing when to share high-level versus granular project details.  Your audience may also care about different details when viewing a year-end report versus a project status report.
• Give Structure to Your Report: Once you’ve identified your audience and which components of the project to communicate, organize the segments of the report so the information makes sense and is helpful to the reader. For example, you should place project identification and background details near the beginning of the report; place summarizing details near the end.
• Only Provide Facts: The report should remain objective and free from personal bias, regardless of whether the project is failing or performing successfully. If an opinion is needed, it should be labeled clearly and placed in a separate segment of the report. Additionally, the charts, metrics, and other performance data you present in the report should be accurate and up to date so that such information is credible and meaningful to the reader. 
• Use a Template: Save time building out your report by using a customizable template to get you started. Templates are beneficial for standardizing processes, and you can easily adapt them to fit your needs. Use the free templates provided above for your reporting needs, and then check out this article for more project management templates.
• Use an Online Reporting Tool: Keeping a project’s development aligned with business goals is the basis of project management, and the success or failure of a project can greatly depend on the tools you use. Employ an online tool that displays data in different ways (e.g., Kanban boards, Gantt views, and dashboards), shows the real-time status of multiple projects, provides various permission levels, and allows you to set up recurring reports (such tools can automatically email these recurring reports at a set frequency to designated stakeholders, which allows project managers to shift their focus to other critical project matters). These online tools provide increased visibility into project processes and status.