A single report is often used by many individuals. A detailed, company-wide sales report, for example, may be used by sales representatives, the regional sales manager, the national sales manager, and the Chief Operating Officer (COO).
These individuals will be interested in different aspects of the report:
A sales representative will use the report to evaluate individual sales performance and compare this performance to that of other representatives in the region.
The regional sales manager will use the report to evaluate regional representatives and compare the region's performance to that of other regions.
The national sales manager will use the report to evaluate the performance of regional managers and compare overall sales to the current sales forecasts.
The COO will use the report to evaluate the performance of the Vice-President of Marketing and the sales department as a whole, and to project such things as manufacturing needs and warehouse locations.
Since each user of the report has different interests, it is important to plan the report so it includes the information each user is looking for.