You will be able to write a one-page monthly report that says what happened, why, and what to do next.
The furniture shop's old monthly report was four pages of screenshots: GA4 traffic, Instagram insights, Meta Ads Manager, the newsletter tool. Each screenshot was accurate. Together they said nothing, because nobody had written down what the numbers meant. The owner would flick through, ask "so are we doing well?", and Jun would answer out loud in a way that never made it onto paper.
A dashboard, from module 6, shows the numbers. A report explains them. This lesson covers the one-page monthly report that sits on top of your dashboard and turns a month of data into a few sentences and a short list of actions.
The first line of the report answers the question every reader has: how did we do? Write it as one sentence with the main KPI from your measurement plan, compared with the target and with the last period.
Jun's opening line for October, with example figures like all of his below: "Furniture sales were S$52,400 in October, 5 percent above the S$50,000 target and 8 percent up on September." That is the whole headline. Anyone who reads only that line knows where the business stands.
Resist the urge to soften it or to start with context. If the month was bad, say so in the first line. A reader who has to hunt for bad news stops trusting the rest of the page.
Below the headline, explain the two or three changes that most affected the result. Not every number that moved: the few that matter. For each one, say what changed, by how much, and what you think caused it, with the evidence.
Jun's first explanation: "Enquiries from Google search rose from 38 to 61. Most of the rise went to the new sofa range pages, which went live on 3 October. GA4's landing page report shows those pages brought 19 of the 61."
His second: "Meta ad sales fell from 14 to 9 on similar spend. The ads have run unchanged since August, and the share of people clicking has been falling for six weeks, which suggests people have seen them too many times."
Sometimes you will not know why a number moved. Say so. "Newsletter clicks fell by a third, and we do not yet know why; the send day and list size were unchanged" is far more useful than an invented reason. An honest "we do not know" also tells the reader where to look next month.
The data check from lesson 9.1, Check the data before you trust it, feeds in here. If a tracking problem affected any number, say which one, in the paragraph that discusses it.
Read Jun's Meta explanation again. Two different kinds of statement sit in it. "Sales fell from 14 to 9 on similar spend" is an observation: a fact anyone can check in the data. "People have seen them too many times" is an interpretation: Jun's best guess at the cause.
Both are useful. The trouble starts when they are blended so smoothly that the reader cannot tell which is which. "Meta sales fell because of ad fatigue" sounds like a fact. It is a guess. If the owner acts on it as a fact and the real cause was a competitor's sale that month, the fix will not work, and nobody will know why.
So write observations and interpretations as separate sentences, and mark the interpretations with words that show they are judgements: "suggests", "probably", "our best guess is". When you have tested an interpretation, say how. When you have not, the reader knows it is open.
The report ends with what happens next. Write no more than three actions, each with a person responsible and a date. More than three, and none of them get done properly.
Jun's three:
Refresh the Meta ad images and copy, with two new versions to compare. Owner: Jun. By 10 November. Add the sofa range pages to the Google Ads campaign as landing pages. Owner: the freelancer. By 7 November. Find out why newsletter clicks fell, starting with how the email displays on phones. Owner: Jun. By 14 November.
Each action follows from one of the explained changes. An action that does not connect to anything above it probably belongs in a different conversation.
The one-page limit is deliberate. If a report runs longer, the reader skims, and the important parts get the same attention as the trivia. Move detail to an appendix or leave it in the dashboard, where anyone who wants it can find it.
Jun's October report fits on one page: one headline sentence, three short explained changes, three actions. The owner read it in three minutes, and asked one question, about the newsletter. Rewriting one of your own old reports or dashboard summaries in this shape is a quick way to feel the difference.
Rewrite a past report or dashboard summary as one page with a headline sentence, three explained changes and three actions.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).