Today’s rapidly changing business environment requires timely, accurate decision making. Therefore, the importance of MIS Reports cannot be overstated. MIS stands for Management Information System and an MIS Report is essentially a document that compiles, organizes and displays significant business data in a logical and concise manner; allowing management/owners to see how their organization is performing or what changes they may want to implement.
All businesses, regardless of size, create massive amounts of data on a daily basis. Without an appropriate means for analyzing this data, making informed decisions will be exceedingly difficult. MIS Reports convert raw data into actionable information.
MIS Reports are used for a wide array of business functions including sales statistics, employee productivity, inventory management, and financial statements. Every department from Finance to Human Resources to Operations and Marketing utilizes MIS Reports to assist with day-to-day operations.
This article will provide you with an overview of what an MIS Report is, types of MIS Reports, real-life examples of MIS Reports and a simple step-by-step procedure for developing an MIS Report.
Management Information System (MIS) Report
The Information Systems Management Report (IMSR), or Management Reports (MR), are structured documents, which provide management with summarized and analyzed data in order to make better informed business decisions. An MIS report is a reporting tool used to turn raw business data into useful information. In layman's terms, an MIS report provides insight into your business: how many sales you have made, how well your employees are performing, what your financial position is, and where you need to make improvements.
MIS reports can be provided daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly and should be shared with the appropriate level of management (Managers, Department Heads, Senior Leadership). The goal of an MIS report is to help with decision-making, improve operational efficiency, and to help ensure that business goals are being met, on time.
Importance of MIS Reports in Business
MIS Reports play an important role in any company's day-to-day operations. Here's why this is the case:
To Begin With:
MIS Reports assist Managers in making quicker and smarter decisions; and therefore, better decisions. With the availability of accurate up-to-date information in front of you (the manager) the time frame for making these types of decisions will be reduced significantly.
Second:
With the use of an MIS Report, there is a greater level of transparency between all levels of an organisation. Therefore, the top management and the team leaders can see the same information and be on the same page.
Third:
MIS Reports save time for an organisation's employees by providing all required information in one place; setting aside any further time required to manually search through various spreadsheet(s) and/or file(s).
Fourth:
MIS Reports highlight problems at early stages. For example; if a department is under-performing, or if its expenses are exceeding its budget, the MIS Report will show this immediately (as shown in the report).
Fifth:
MIS Reports provide support for Business Planning and Forecasting by presenting the historical trends and patterns of information received from past MIS Reports.
Different Types of MIS Reports
Different types of MIS Reports are available. All types perform varying functions and all are used by various corporate departments.
Operational MIS Report
Operational MIS Reports are the most flexible and widely used productivity tools. They provide performance and status about daily sales, products sold, hours worked, and inventory levels. Operational MIS Reports are prepared on a daily or weekly basis to enable middle management to monitor progress against planned objectives.
Financial MIS Report
A Financial MIS Report provides the management team with a current view of how financially stable the company is. A Financial MIS Report contains information about revenues, expenses, profits and loss, cash flow, and actual vs. budgeted performance. Both the finance and senior executive teams monitor how well they are achieving corporate financial objectives.
Sales MIS Report
A Sales MIS Report provides management with information related to sales performance. A Sales MIS Report calculates sales volume (in total), sales distribution (by product or by territory), sales goal versus actual, number of new customers acquired, and percentage of customers retained. This type of MIS Report is primarily used by sales managers to assess individual, team and departmental performance and to set future sales goals.
HR MIS Report
An HR MIS Report provides management with data regarding the company's human resource (HR) activities. The HR MIS Report contains information about employee head count, attendance/sick leave, the status of employees in the recruiting process, completion of required training, and the rate of attrition.
Inventory Management Information System (MIS) Report
An Inventory Management Information System (MIS) report assists in tracking stock levels, goods received, goods dispatched, and any increase or decrease in inventory. Primarily, it is used in the manufacturing, retail and logistics industries to maintain efficient operations.
Marketing Management Information System (MIS) Report
The Marketing Management Information System (MIS) report provides information about the effectiveness of campaigns, number of people visiting a website, generating leads, converting leads, and return on investment (ROI) from marketing efforts. Marketing departments can use this type of report to evaluate how successful their marketing strategies are.
Exception Management Information System (MIS) Report
Exception Management Information System (MIS) reports only show data that is out of the normal parameters or expected range. For example, if there was significant drop in sales or large spike in expenses. This type of report can be used to identify problems quickly without reviewing all the data.
MIS report examples
In order to get a better understanding of what MIS reports are, here are some of the examples of MIS reports that exist today.
- An example of a MIS report is a retail Store Manager that gets reported on the total sales for the day, the top selling items within that day and the current stock levels every single day within that store. This information allows the Retail Store Manager to make decisions about which items to re-order and what promotions to run.
- Another example of a MIS report is for a bank's financial department. The bank's financial department produces a financial MIS report each month to compare the actual versus budgeted income and expenses. If there are costs that exceed the budget, the Bank's financial department makes a plan of action in order to address those costs.
- A Human Resource (HR) Manager will receive a weekly HR MIS report to review employee attendance, identify pending leaves and review employee recruitment status. This reported information assists in managing the HR department as well as ensuring that all key positions within the company remain filled.
- A digital marketing company will produce a marketing MIS report each month that identifies how all current marketing campaigns are performing in regards to the number of clicks, number of leads, and number of conversions. The marketing department utilises this reported information to enhance future marketing campaigns.
Overall, these examples demonstrate that MIS reports are widely implemented and provide a supportive source of information for every industry/business type.
How to Create an MIS Report: Step-by-Step Guidelines
Even though it may seem complicated to create an MIS Report, there are simple steps that when taken correctly will produce quick, straightforward results.
Step One: Determine Purpose
Before starting your report, you need to define your intended measurement and purpose clearly. For example, do you want to track sales? Employee productivity? Financial performance? Defining one's purposes makes the focus of each report clearer, as well as more efficient and useful.
Step Two: Determine Data Sources
Collect your data from the necessary departments/systems as they relate to your report. This means pulling data from either your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, Financial Accounting system, Human Resource administration platform, or possibly a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel - there are many options for collecting data. Ensure that you gather all data accurately and in real time.
Step Three: Determine Data Format
Select how to present the data. Use a Format that your audience will be able to easily read and understand; i.e.; Table, Chart, Graph, etc., for example, if you were using a Bar chart, Pie chart, and/or a combination of Bar/Pie Charts, then you should immediately understand how they all work.
Step Four: Structure Data
When organizing your report, you need to provide a logical sequence and have all of the relevant data for each specific report on the first page. You might want to include an overview and then follow this with section by section reporting. Use Headings, Sub Headings, and Labels for each section so that the reader can quickly locate the information they want.
Stage Five: Review and Emphasize Important Points
In presenting the figures, do not only report the data but also provide a comparison of the current results to those from previous timeframes; identify how the current results meet or do not meet established goals; and note those areas that require additional focus.
Stage Six: Review and Distribute
Before distributing the report, carefully check for clarity and correctness; then distribute based on the method of communication requested by the various recipients: e-mail, PDF or a real-time display dashboard.
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