Operations

Markdown Report Prompt

Purpose, Highlights, Details, Recommendations, Next Steps — recurring business reports with conclusions first and numbers in context.

Overview

Recurring reports earn their audience by being identically shaped: readers learn where the headline lives and stop reading linearly. This setup generates business reports in five pinned sections with report-specific rules — lead each section with its conclusion, then support it; every number needs its comparison point, because a figure without context is noise. Optional tables handle the metric grids; Next Steps closes with owners and timing so the report ends in motion, not in prose.

Workflow

Same prompt every cycle
The structure is the product: readers learn it once and navigate every future report by instinct.
Audit the comparison points
"Up 12%" against what? The number-context rule makes every figure carry its baseline.
Check Next Steps for owners
Concrete actions with owners and timing — the section that turns reporting into management.

Why This Works

Stable shape converts readers from parsers into scanners
Conclusion-first sections respect the reader's attention budget
The comparison-point rule kills decorative numbers

Best for

Recurring reports with a trained readership
Teams compiling reports from metrics and notes
Leaders who read the Highlights and skim the rest

Not for

Summarizing someone else's report — that's the Structured Summary Prompt
One-off analyses — recurring shape is where this contract pays

Use cases

Monthly business reports in the same shape every cycle
Forcing conclusions-first writing in every section
Ending reports with owned, dated next steps

Customize This Resource

Opens this setup in Markdown Output Builder. Generate to get the full markdown prompt — then adjust the sections, table rules, and consistency level.

Open in Markdown Output Builder

Prompt Template

TASK
Produce the monthly business report for the leadership team.
Produce a new markdown document — there is no source text to summarize.

DOCUMENT
The document is a business report.
- Lead each section with its conclusion, then support it.
- Every number needs its comparison point — a figure without context is noise.

DOCUMENT STRUCTURE
Start with one "# " title line, then use exactly these sections, in this order:
## Purpose
Why this report exists and what it covers.
## Highlights
The headline results, conclusions first.
## Details
The supporting data and analysis.
## Recommendations
What should be done, based on the details.
## Next Steps
Concrete actions with owners and timing.

MARKDOWN RULES
- One "# " title at the top; every section below it is a "## " heading.
- Use markdown lists for enumerations — no walls of prose.
- No HTML tags — pure markdown.

TABLE RULES
- Use a markdown table when content is naturally tabular — comparisons, option matrices, parameter lists; otherwise prefer prose.
- Every table needs a header row and a separator row.

CODE RULES
- Do not include code blocks.

CONSISTENCY RULES
- Use every section defined above, in the order given.
- Do not add new top-level sections — put extra material inside the closest existing section.

OUTPUT RULES
- Return only the markdown document — no preamble, no closing commentary.
- Start directly with the "# " title line.
- Do not wrap the document in code fences.

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