Types of Business Documents - Assignment Example

Name Tutor Course Date Task 3: Short Answer Questions Q1. Types of Business Documents There are many different types of business documents that are produced in the business place and these include the following: 1. Reports – this refer to the different documents that are prepared to convey information in a format that is formal and longer than a general letter (Berger 45). These documents can be used to cover different topics including sales figures, feasibility studies, safety compliance, and financial data among others (Berger 65). 2. Transactional Documents – these refer to documents that indicate the kinds of transactions that the business has with its clients. They are usually brief and summarized to make it easy reading and preparation so as there is effective communication. They are therefore presented as order forms, invoices, receipts among others (Berger 112). 3. Financial documents – these refer to the documents that are prepared for the purposes of indicating financial performance of a business. They are usually within the budget proposals and tax returns and help to give a good idea of how a business is performing in terms of its financial development and growth in the market (Cropper & Dibbens 56). 4. Emails and Memorandums – these are business documents that are used to convey information within the organization and sometimes outside the organization. Emails have become prevalent nowadays because of the convenience that comes with their usage and they have increasingly replaced memorandums which are basically letters addressed to a specific topic required and focused on a specific group of people (Cropper & Dibbens 102). 5. Letters – these are business documents that are mainly used to communicate with individuals outside the office. These documents are aimed at providing different information to customers, colleagues, service providers, and other professionals that are involved with a given business (Cropper & Dibbens 76). 6. Business Cards – these are documents that are used to provide contact information and location of businesses to prospective customers and business associates. 7. Fax documents – these are provide a very fast and effective way of sharing business documents in paper format either colored or black and white (Cropper & Dibbens 87). 8. Minutes – these refer to a type of business documents that record details of what has been agreed during meetings and serve as records of what was discussed in the meeting (Cropper & Dibbens 18). 9. Agenda – this refers to a set of documents used in businesses to indicate the details that are set to be discussed in a meeting before it starts. 10. Spreadsheets – these are documents that are prepared for the purposes of providing statistical and analytical content of reports. They are usually presented in electronic format within the same book (Rader 76). Q2. Computer Software used to produce these Documents One of the commonest software that is used to process most of these documents is Microsoft Package. This package has many different software applications that are designed to produce different documents as well as analyze them. For instance, Microsoft Office is an application that is used to produce reports that are typeset such as letters, memorandums, and agenda, among others. It has functionalities that make it easy to incorporate tables, graphs, pictures, and shades of different colors and designs to make the document look attractive (Rader 121). Microsoft Access is designed to produce databases which may contain different sets of information that is important for a business such as employee records, inventory, contact lists for business associates among others. Microsoft PowerPoint is another MS Package that is designed for preparing presentations that can be used to share information with investors or stakeholders (Rader 65). This package has functionalities that make it easier to use and manage presentations. Microsoft Excel which is also called Spreadsheets is an analytical package with functionalities that can perform a wide range of mathematical computations and analytics. It helps in the development of tax returns, calculation of employees’ remunerations among other functions (Rader 78). Q3. Document Standards There are different standards that are required for good quality business documents and these require an investment in good resources in order to ensure that the quality of the documents is beyond reproach. Some of the factors that determine the standard of a business document is the quality of the document. This can be determined by the quality of the material that it is printed on as well as the quality of the machine that is used to dev65elop it. Good business documents should also be able to convey the content and information that they have to the intended audience with little strain and struggle (Rader 89). In order to achieve this, the following resources may be of importance and hence should be considered: The machines used such as printers and photocopiers should be of good quality, neat and clear in their print outs The pictures taken for these documents should be of good quality, attractive and formal depending on the intended use and the type of document. The font used for official documents should be readable and appropriate for different users. As a rule, formal documents should be printed in font 12 or font 14 and PowerPoint presentations should be prepared in fonts 28 of font 30 (Rader 121). Q4. Legislative and/or Regulatory Requirements needed for Business Documents 1. Confidentiality – there are regulations that guide how documents should be prepared and used when it comes to the content that it has. For instance, personal details contained in an employment database is usually protected by law and the contents cannot be shared with other parties without the prior knowledge of the people involved (Rader 45). 2. Clarity – for legal documents such as contracts, the law requires that the details defined in them be as clear as possible in order to avoid any ambiguous scenarios where contracts are concerned. 3. Copyright Compliance – this legislative rule is concerned with the ownership of business document where other partiers or businesses are prohibited from using the same content especially if it has been patented (Rader 67). 4. Plagiarism – this refers to the originality of the documents where a business that would like to use any information that is not its own, it has to acknowledge the authority/owner of the information as a matter of credit failure to which the aggrieved party can file a suit for plagiarism (Rader 121). 5. Safety Guidelines – for documents that are meant for security purposes, they have to follow specific guidelines that are provided for in law on how they should be written. For instance, policy procedures are usually drafted as business documents based on specific guidelines provided in law on issues such as gender equality, minimum wage, and professional code of conduct among others (Rader 83). Q5. MACROS and steps involved in Excel By definition, MACROS refers to the various instructions are automatically executed in line with other functions to perform a task. In excel, the following steps can be followed: 1. The first step is to display the Developer Tab which is done by clicking on the File Tab and then selecting Options to display the Excel Options dialog box. 2. Click Customize Ribbon in the left followed by the Developer box under Main Tabs and click OK. The following Developer tab appears. Recording the Macro follows the following steps: Works Cited Berger, David. Procedures and Documentation. London: Elsilver Publishers. 2009. Print. Cropper, Mark & Dibbens, Tony. Documentation Procedures. New York: Sage. 2010. Print. Rader, Rebecca. "The Gang's All Here: Evaluating the Need for a National Gang Database". Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems, 42.2(2009): 293–333. Read More