Types of MIS Reports: Definition, Importance, How Its Work? (2024)

Data is the new gold and different types of MIS reports are what help you understand data and use it for your benefit. In order to make informed decisions its important to have access to the data in your company at the right time. They are a necessity for every organization.

Data is the new gold for online casino players and the various types of IIS reports will help you understand the data and use it to your advantage. MIS stands for Management Information System, which was introduced in the same way that the Rutgers Framework Agreement Announced by Murphy. The MIS report is used to highlight day-to-day business activities, allowing casino players to track the progress of the organization.

What is an MIS Report❓

MIS stands for Management Information system. In the simplest terms, an MIS report can be described as a system that provides important information for the management of your company. MIS collaborates with people, technology, and business processes within an organization. It also describes how the relationship with other organizations and people affect your company.

An MIS report is used to highlight the day to day business activities, which enables you to monitor your organization’s progress. These reports provide critical insights during decision making. It serves as a reference point to monitor your business and communication. In this new era of emerging technologies, management information systems have become a vital part of successfully running a company.

How do MIS Reports Work ❓

An Types of MIS reports is prepared periodically (which is either monthly or quarterly in most cases). These reports are prepared by various departments in your organization and presented to the company’s management team.

MIS reports focusing on raw data, trends, patterns in that data, and comparisons with relevant past data. MIS reports are also an effective tool for managers to track business operations across various departments. Furthermore, they provide clarity and enhance communication. They also help the company managers and the management team to make informed decisions, pinpoint and avoid problems, and capitalize on the current market trends.

For Example, if a decision about a new product launch has to be made, the MIS report will have current market trends and employee information. The data points in the MIS reports will help you make better decisions and improve the company’s performance in both the short-term and long-term.

Importance of MIS Reports

MIS reports are crucial for the smooth functioning and growth of your company. Here are a few key points that highlight the importance of an MIS report:

MIS reports are used to collect data from various sources. These include employees, management, documents, executives as well as the raw numbers for business sales. All of these are beneficial for identifying and solving problems within your company.
They can help in making important decisions.

The data collected from the above-mentioned sources is then visualized. This includes presenting the data in the form of bars, graphs, and charts. This provides ease of analysis and helps to gain faster insights from the available data.

An MIS report also helps to track a company’s financial growth and financial health. It is often used to track, analyze, and report business income.

An MIS report also serves as an effective tool for communication between employees and their employers, or between employees.

Types of MIS Reports

There are different types of MIS reports in every company. These reports range from company to company. Management Information system reports process data in its raw form. This raw data is generated by the people, business processes, and transactions that are collided to create understandable data points.

Different types of MIS reports aggregate different data points and present them in a format that provides clear insights and conclusions. The various departments in an organization present MIS reports which outline their department’s specific functions. There can be different types of MIS reports based on which data is being analyzed and what it is being used for. We’ve tried to summarize the most common types of MIS reports which you will find in an organization.

Some Examples of Different Types of MIS Reports

1. The Summary Reports

Summary reports are a type of MIS reports used to visualize aggregate data and provide a summary. This summary could be of different business units, different products, different customer demographics among other things. The report is presented in a format that can be understood by the company’s management.

For example, an inventory summary, which summarizes the cost of stocking inventory and their purchase value. A sales summary report summarizes the sales revenue, the geographical distribution of sales, and details of products sold.

2. The Trend Reports

Trend Reports are types of MIS reports that allow your company to see the trends and patterns among different categories. Trend reports are also used to compare different products or services. They are often used to draw comparisons between the actual versus the predicted output/growth within an organization. These reports help to pinpoint the problem areas in a company and give potential solutions to them.

For example, a sales trend report, which will highlight the product sales across different demographics and different time periods. It will also help the company to understand which products perform relatively better.

3. The Exception Reports

An exception report is a type of MIS reports that is an aggregate report of exceptions, which are abnormal or unusual circ*mstances within a company. The exceptions report will collect instances of all such conditions within different departments in your company, and present them to the management in a uniform format. Exceptions reports are useful for catching problems early, and solving them before they cause a major disruption.

For example, an inventory that is seriously understocked, which has to be refilled on an urgent basis; or a product which is underperforming and needs to be scrapped.

4. On-Demand Reports

The on-demand report is a type of MIS reports that are produced on specific demands from your company’s management team. There is no fixed criteria or format that must be included in an on-demand report. This type of MIS report includes the requirements of a company and the prevailing circ*mstances will dictate the contents of an on-demand report.

For example, a sales manager may want to know the peak sales season for a particular product in a particular location. This will help the manager to decide whether other similar products may succeed in the same market.

5. Financial Reports

Financial reports are types of MIS reports that can be used to determine the financial condition of an organization. A financial report often includes a company’s balance sheets, income, and expense details, and cash flow statements. Financial reports are used by your company’s financial analysts, investors, the board of directors, and even government units to access the overall financial health of your organization. These reports are used in making critical financial decisions within a company.

The financial statement is a subtype of financial report that is used to provide information to shareholders and all other concerned parties.

For Example, your company might report finance numbers quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.

6. Inventory Reports

Inventory reports are a type of MIS report that is used to manage and keep a track of all the products in your inventory. The inventory report includes details about the number of products left in stock, the best selling products, the top-selling categories of products and how they vary by demographic, etc. Inventory reports can help your business to make smarter, data-driven decisions.

For Example, your inventory report might highlight that a particular product sells better in a particular area as compared to others. Your company can then target advertising to increase revenue.

7. Sales Reports

The sales report is prepared by the marketing and sales division of your organization. It includes a visualization of products that have been sold during the last quarter/month in your organization. The sales data is often visualized by taking into account the budgeted and actual sales numbers. It provides an insight into the sales variance (the difference between the budgeted and actual sales), the geographical distribution of products sold, and the timeline of sales among other factors.

For Example, during the peak shopping season, your company might sell more products than anticipated, which will reflect in your sales report during the next quarter.

8. Budget Reports

Organizations operate on a variety of budgets. These may include cash budgets, income v/s expenditure budgets, marketing budget, HR budget, production budget, etc. An MIS budget report contains internal information about your organization. It is used to maintain your company’s financial health while driving growth.

For Example, Your company’s marketing budget during a new marketing campaign is an example of the budget report.

9. Production Reports

Production report is a types of MIS report that contains information about the raw production numbers in your company. The manufacturing division within your company will prepare this report, and provide details of the production targets that were achieved or missed.

This report also details the predicted v/s actual products manufactured in the time frame. It may also highlight a production bottleneck or ideas on how to speed up the production process.

For Example, your production report might highlight an increase in the speed of production due to new machines being allocated.

10. Cash Flow Statements

Cash flow statements are a Types of MIS report that underlines the exact amount of cash inflow versus the cash outflow in your organization. The cash flow statements include the cash flows from your company’s operations (the core business), investments (capital investments), and financing(external investors). These are together referred to as your company’s ‘net cash flow‘. Cash flow statements are very important to maintain a profitable business.

For Example, a cash flow report would detail the exact amount of expenditure versus profits obtained from an advertising campaign.

11. Funds Flow Statement

Your company’s accounts and finance department is responsible for the preparation of funds flow statement. These statements give insights into the various sources of funding within your company, and how that funding is being utilized. Fund flow reports usually analyze your company’s balance sheet from the past two years, and understand the flow of funds from the previous year to the current financial year.

For Example, your company’s increase in sales in raw financial numbers from the past year would be reflected in your fund flow statement.

12. Budgeted & Actual Profit Report

This report highlights the difference (if any) between your company’s actual and budgeted profit within the specified time frame. This is a types of MIS report that is prepared by the accounts department within your organization. This report also includes an analysis and reasoning of why the actual profits might be less/more than initially budgeted. These reports help your organization to set realistic future targets and plan for business expansion.

For Example, if a certain product underperformed in sales in an area, the budgeted and actual profit report would attempt to state the reason why.

13. Machine Utilisation Report

The manufacturing division prepares the machine utilization report. This report specifies which machines were used at what point during your company’s manufacturing process. These reports also detail the time taken by each machine to complete its task, along with the time that the machines remained idle for. These will help your company’s manufacturing division to identify if a machine is utilizing too many resources, without giving the required output.

14. Predictive Reports

Predictive reports are usually prepared by analyzing past data and observing trends and patterns. This reports in an MIS system attempt to predict the outcome or the circ*mstances for your company in the near future. These reports are very crucial for informed decision making. They can also help in planning and preparation. As an instance, a company might choose to open its e-commerce store just before a festive season, owing to increased trends in online shopping.

15. Report on The Ideal Time

This report is prepared by your company’s manufacturing division by comparison of data on the ground level. This report states the time spent by your company’s workers in different jobs, and the time they spent idle because the resources could not be allocated. Time booking records are used to prepare these reports.

An ideal time report will draw comparisons between the ideal time allotted for a task (by assuming that there were no interruptions or unplanned problems) and the actual time taken for that task (along with the reasoning of why that task took more or less time). This metric is useful for a company to measure its employee’s productivity.

For Example, an ideal time report would be used to analyze the optimal working conditions for your employee’s productivity.

16. Abnormal Losses Report

The abnormal losses report is created by the manufacturing unit of your company. Abnormal losses include losses caused by accidents or carelessness. Abnormal losses may also happen because production costs increase. Material, labour, and storage facilities often contribute to the increased cost in production, leading to a decrease in profits. Some business owners insure their production facilities to mitigate the impact of abnormal losses due to natural disasters, fires, etc.

For Example, a pandemic or a natural disaster might lead to abnormal losses during the financial term period.

17. Cost Reports

Various departments in your organization will prepare cost reports relevant to their operations. These cost reports provide different types of information to your managers. These reports also help your company’s management to aggregate costs across departments and have clear insights into the total expenditure.

Examples include marketing cost reports and production cost reports.

18. Statistical Publications

Various kinds of statistical information are collected by an organization, both by published sources and unpublished ones. These reports are helpful in decision making and control within an organization. Statics help organizations to gain deeper insights into the workings of their company.

For Example, a company may choose to measure the increase in the percentage of goods sold, as compared to the last quarter.

19. Orders in Hand Report

The marketing and sales division of your company will produce the orders report. This report will highlight the number of current orders to be fulfilled. This report includes details like the invoice for sales, the orders received versus the inventory capacity, order quotes, and the exchange of items. Orders in hand reports help a company to fulfill orders faster. It helps to avoid any chaos and confusion during product delivery, which improves customer satisfaction.

For Example, a company may choose to outsource its delivery process if it gets too many orders in hand, more than their inventory capacity.

20. Other Reports

Other reports in MIS include statements like daily production statements and stock statements. MIS reports may be of types other than the ones mentioned in this list. The company’s business needs to determine the reports to be taken into account. MIS is a system that takes all these reports into accounts, consolidates them, and derives useful decisions out of them.

Components of MIS Reports

An MIS report is not a stand-alone entity. It includes several components, which interact with each other in a meaningful way. The major components on an MIS report are as follows:

1. People

These include the people (a.k.a the users) of an information management system. Users of an MIS system include the company employees, managers, executives, and people who indirectly interact with your organization (for example, people who supply raw materials for your manufacturing process).

2. Data

This includes data collected from varied sources within an organization. This data is used for making critical business decisions, marketing analysis and target predictions.

3. Business Procedures

Business procedures specify how the data is collected, analyzed and stored within your organization. This procedures are used to outline the implementation of your company policies in a step-by-step manner. Examples include your company’s hiring and onboarding process, manufacturing procedures, and procedures for day-to-day operations.

4. Hardware

These include all the hardware components that are used within your organization. Examples include the servers and workstations which store data, network routers and equipment, printers, xerox machines etc.

5. Software

The software components include the programs which are used to process and handle the data in your organization. These may include spreadsheets, database management systems (eg. SQL and NoSQL), and data visualization tools (example. Tableau and Power BI). The software usage may vary in your organization, depending upon the tasks to be achieved.

Conclusion

A management information system provides data to identify non-performing areas and leverage trends and patterns. Not having an effective, functional MIS system can leave managers guessing in the dark. A management information system will help your company reach a higher level of efficiency, enable you to make more rational business decisions, improve communication between people in your company, and leverage your strengths.

An MIS system is essential for any business owner who is serious about improving their company’s performance.

Without an MIS system, managers have to make decisions based on trial-an-error, rather than relying on data. Most companies have leveraged the power of an MIS system. Various software are also available to help companies speed up the process of data collection and visualization in the MIS reports.

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