Data reporting is the process of
collecting
The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual ''collector''. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obvi ...
and submitting
data
Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...
.
The effective management of any organization relies on accurate data. Inaccurate data reporting can lead to poor decision-making based on erroneous evidence. Data reporting is different from
data analysis
Data analysis is the process of inspecting, Data cleansing, cleansing, Data transformation, transforming, and Data modeling, modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Da ...
which transforms data and information into insights. Data reporting is the previous step that translates raw data into information.
When data is not reported, the problem is known as
underreporting
Under-reporting usually refers to some issue, incident, statistic, etc., that individuals, responsible agencies, or news media have not reported, or have reported as less than the actual level or amount. Under-reporting of crimes, for example, make ...
; the opposite problem leads to
false positive
A false positive is an error in binary classification in which a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition (such as a disease when the disease is not present), while a false negative is the opposite error, where the test resu ...
s.
Data reporting can be difficult.
Census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
bureaus may hire perhaps hundreds of thousands of workers to achieve the task of counting all of the residents of a country.
Teachers use data from student assessments to determine grades; manufacturers rely on sales data from retailers to indicate which products should have increased production, and which should be curtailed or discontinued.
See also
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Data processing
Data processing is the collection and manipulation of digital data to produce meaningful information. Data processing is a form of ''information processing'', which is the modification (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an o ...
*
Operational reporting In data processing operational reporting is reporting about operational details that reflects current activity. Operational reporting is intended to support the day-to-day activities of the organization. Examples of operational reporting include ba ...
References
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Descriptive statistics
Data processing