ACCA Strategic Professional · Advanced Performance Management · Management reports
Harbour Foods sends a single monthly report of forty indicators to its CEO, finance director, plant managers and shift supervisors. Plant managers say they cannot find what matters to them. Which design principle for management reports is being breached most directly?
The principle breached is that reports should be tailored to each user's needs, with appropriate detail and relevance. A single forty-indicator report for all levels creates information overload, so operational managers cannot find what matters, while the CEO would need a more summarised strategic view.
- AReports should be tailored to the needs and level of each user, with a suitable degree of detail and relevanceCorrect
- BReports should only contain financial information because it is auditable
- CReports should always be produced in the greatest possible detail so nothing is omitted
- DReports should be issued less frequently to all users to reduce cost
Explanation
Different users need different information and detail: supervisors need operational, short-term data, whereas the CEO needs strategic summaries. A single report of forty indicators causes information overload and reduces relevance. More detail or less frequency does not solve this.
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