The inclusion of a brief summary (‘Executive Summary’) is standard reporting practice and is meant to act as a guide to the contents of the report and to highlight major conclusions and recommendations. The Executive Summary derives its name from the practice of providing the executives of an organisation, that is, those responsible for making decisions and taking appropriate action, with a concise outline of the major points in a report to save them time. The detail can be pursued in more depth later by a complete reading of the report. The structure of the Executive Summary should follow the structure of the report and include brief statements on the following:
 definition of the problem
 aims and objectives
 methods/data sources
 key findings
 conclusions
 any recommendations for action.
The Executive Summary should be brief and succinct, and may use point form to achieve this. As a rule-of-thumb, allow one page for every 5,000 words up to a maximum of five pages, and using headings in longer Executive Summaries.
The inclusion of an Executive Summary is not a substitute for discussion/exposition in the full report.
Example of an Executive Summary
Problem context &
Purpose of report
Method
Results
Conclusions
Recommendations
Limitations
This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the current and prospective profitability, liquidity and financial stability of Outdoor Equipment Ltd.
Methods of analysis include trend, horizontal and vertical analyses as well as ratios such as Debt, Current and Quick ratios. Other calculations include rates of return on Shareholders’ Equity and Total Assets and earnings per share to name a few. All calculations can be found in the appendices.
Results of data analysed show that all ratios are below industry averages. In particular, comparative performance is poor in the areas of profit