What is reporting?

Reporting encompasses all processes, structures, and systems through which a company systematically collects, prepares, and communicates decision-relevant information to internal and external stakeholders. It provides the informational basis for planning, management, and control at all organizational levels and is a core instrument of controlling.

Reporting is the organized system for providing information within and outside a company. It ensures that the right information is made available to the right recipients, at the right time, and in the right format.

Reporting is not an end in itself. It supports management: decision-makers at all levels – from team leaders to the executive board – need reliable, condensed information to initiate measures, monitor targets, and identify deviations at an early stage. Without effective reporting, controlling lacks the operational basis for action.

In practice, reporting encompasses both standardized routine reports (for example, monthly closing reports and cost center reports) and event-driven reports (for example, ad hoc analyses in response to unexpected developments). In the age of modern BI systems, the boundaries between static reporting and interactive analysis are increasingly fluid.

Reporting can fundamentally be divided into two main areas:

Internal reporting is aimed at executives, controllers, and specialist departments within the company. It provides management with information for corporate control and is closely linked to internal accounting and controlling. Typical content includes:

• Cost and performance accounting
• Actual vs. target comparisons and variance analyses
• Liquidity and cash flow reports
• Sales and productivity KPIs
• Forecast and planning reports

Internal reporting is not subject to statutory reporting requirements. Companies design it according to their own needs, with the aim of maximizing its relevance for management and control.

External reporting is aimed at stakeholders outside the company, including shareholders, banks, authorities, auditors, and the general public. It is subject to statutory requirements and follows regulations such as the German Commercial Code (HGB), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), or US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP). Typical instruments include:

• Annual financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, notes)
• Management report
• Sustainability report (ESG reporting)
• Quarterly statements of listed companies

Professional reporting includes different types of reports, which vary according to frequency, recipient, and purpose:

By frequency

• Standard reports: Recurring reports with a fixed structure (daily, weekly, monthly, annually)
• Ad hoc reports: Reports created in response to specific events to answer particular questions
• Exception reports (exception reporting): Automatically triggered reports when defined thresholds are exceeded

By level of aggregation

• Operational reports: Detailed data at transaction level
• Tactical reports: Aggregated KPIs at department or business-unit level
• Strategic reports: Highly condensed information for top management

By format

• Tabular reports
• Graphical dashboards
• Commented management reports (narratives)
• Automatically generated text reports

In controlling, reporting is the central communication medium between the data foundation and the decision-making level. Controllers are both designers and users of reporting: They define reporting structures, establish KPI definitions, monitor data quality, and interpret results.

The connection between planning and reporting is particularly close: Planned values provide the reference basis for actual-vs.-target comparisons, while reporting insights feed back into planning adjustments. This cycle of planning, management, and control forms the foundation of the controlling process.

Common challenges in controlling and reporting:

• inconsistent data foundations from different source systems (ERP, CRM, HR, et cetera)
• insufficient timeliness due to manual data preparation processes
• lack of standardization in KPIs and reporting formats
• excessively high reporting volumes combined with low information density
• inadequate visualization that makes interpretation more difficult

Modern reporting is inconceivable without digital tools. BI systems automate data integration, preparation, and visualization. This replaces manual, spreadsheet-based processes and creates a consistent, scalable reporting infrastructure.

Key components of BI-supported reporting:

• Data warehouse (DWH): Centralized storage of data from different source systems
• ETL processes: Automated extraction, transformation, and loading of raw data
• OLAP cubes: Multidimensional data structures for flexible analysis
• Dashboards and cockpits: Interactive visualizations for different user groups
• Self-service reporting: Enables business users to perform their own analyses without relying on IT

Further development is moving toward automated report narratives, which translate numerical results into written commentary, as well as mobile reporting, which makes reports available on mobile devices.

An effective reporting system meets the following core criteria:

An often underestimated aspect is information density: Too many KPIs without prioritization overwhelm readers and dilute the management impact of reporting. Established concepts such as sparklines and typographic scaling of KPIs address this problem directly.

Monthly management reporting with DeltaMaster

A mid-sized industrial company with several production sites faced a typical challenge: Its monthly management report was compiled manually in Excel, required several days of work from the controlling team, and nevertheless frequently contained inconsistencies between site reports.

With the introduction of DeltaMaster, the BI and analytics software from Bissantz & Company, reporting was fundamentally redesigned:

• Automated data integration: All site and financial data is transferred directly from the ERP system to the central DWH. Manual transfer steps are eliminated.
• Standardized report templates: DeltaMaster provides consistent report templates with an identical structure across all sites, including consistent KPI definitions and intuitive visualization.
• Automated commentary: Key deviations from plan are automatically commented on using DeltaMaster’s integrated text generation. Controllers can focus on interpretation and actions rather than data preparation.
• Audience-oriented aggregation: Plant managers receive an operational detail report, while executive management receives a one-page management summary with clear findings and recommendations.

The result: Reporting effort was reduced by more than two thirds, data quality improved measurably, and decision-makers have access to action-oriented reports on the first working day after month-end.

Reporting is the informational backbone of corporate management: It connects the operational data foundation with the strategic decision-making level and makes business performance transparent, comparable, and manageable. Modern reporting relies on BI-supported automation, consistent KPI definitions, and audience-oriented visualization, replacing manual and error-prone processes. With DeltaMaster, Bissantz offers a platform that consistently implements these requirements and delivers measurable value to both controllers and executives.