What is the primary purpose of a summary report?
It is used to move all essential logistics data items for products, for a specifc facility, and for a specifc time period (such as monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly) to the decisionmakers.
What essential logistics data items do summary reports contain?
Tey must contain all three essential logistics data items—stock on hand, consumption, and losses.
Adjustments may also be reported, if useful for decisionmaking, but reported separately from losses.
Who completes the summary report?
Te manager responsible for collecting the three essential logistics data items usually completes the summary report. One summary report is usually prepared and submitted for or by each facility required to report, for a specifc period.
When are summary reports completed?
Summary reports are completed at the end of the reporting period (usually monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly). Lower-level facilities are usually given a reporting deadline, and each successive level is given another deadline for reporting to the next level. For example, health facilities may be given until the 10th day of the following month to report to districts, districts may have until the 20th day to report to the region, and the region may have until the last day of the month to report to the central level.
Some countries stagger their reporting schedules. For example, in a staggered, bimonthly reporting system, half the lower-level facilities would report one month and the other half would report the next month. Tis has the advantage of decreasing the reporting burden at the lower-level facilities, because they only need to report every other month. Te burden of work at the next level is also half, as they only need to review half the number of reports in a given month. Staggering bimonthly reporting evens out the work load over the year.
Staggering reporting, however, has implications in terms of aggregation of data, supervision schedules, and delivery management. For aggregating data, you may have to wait for an extra month before total consumption data is available. Consider a system where half the facilities (Group A) report at the end of February (for January and February) and half the facilities (Group B) report at the end of March (for February and March). To determine February’s national consumption data, you must wait for Group B’s facility reports.
How are the data on a summary report organized?
Summary reports are usually organized by date—monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly, depending on the reporting cycle. Most often, they report the beginning stock on hand, receipts, the quantity issued or dispensed, losses and adjustments, and the end stock on hand for a specifc time period.
In what format are summary reports printed?
Te most common formats include simple facility reports, aggregate facility reports, and combined report and request forms.
Why.Use.Self-Balancing.Reports?
Some reports are self-balancing, which means that by adding and subtracting the data on the report, as appropriate, the reviewer can determine whether the report is mathematically correct.
Consider the following report of a district warehouse reporting to a regional warehouse:
Opening.Balance.+.Receipts.–.Issues.–.Loss.±.Adjustments.=.Closing.Balance 100.+.35.–.65.–.0.±.0.=.70
In this example, the supervisor at the regional warehouse can clearly see that the calculations are correct.
It is important that the lower-level facility conduct a physical inventory at the beginning or end of every month; self-balancing reports can help supervisors verify the accuracy of the supply on hand, determined by the physical count. If districts complete the report without comparing the closing balance with the actual quantity on hand, self-balancing reports may not refect actual quantities on hand. Thus, opening balances should equal the closing balance of the previous report, and the reported closing balance must equal the actual stock on hand (not a calculated stock on hand), so the quantity to be ordered is determined directly by the actual stock on hand and not by a calculated number.
If a physical inventory reveals a discrepancy in the beginning or ending stock on hand, the discrepancy should be reported as a loss or adjustment for the reporting period.
What is an aggregate summary report?
One of the most important decisions logistics managers face in collecting data on summary reports is determining when and at what level data can be aggregated. What data should be aggregated, and at what level, depend on many factors. First, how visible does the facility-level data need to be higher up in the system (i.e., does the central level need to know exactly what each health facility distributed and has on hand?)? Second, what decisions need to be made at what levels (budgetary, supervision, stock distribution, etc.) and what detail of data is needed? Tird, what are the current tasks and work responsibilities of staf that will be required to compile the aggregated data? Will aggregating data be too much of a burden?
Which levels have tools (computers) and staf that can more easily aggregate data?
Consider a pipeline of three regions, each with two districts, and each district with four health centers.
Te health centers forward their reports monthly to the district. Te district then reports to the region in one of three ways:
1. Include information for the district storeroom only on the report, and then include a copy of each health center’s report separately.
2. Include information for the district storeroom only on the report, and then add all the health center data together on a second report.
3. Add data for the district and health center together, but, under the column issued/dispensed, report only the aggregate dispensed-to-user data from the clinics (without including the issues data from the district to the health centers).
With any of these three methods, the regional level will receive all the essential logistics data items for the district. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. Tese are described in more detail in chapter 3, Assessing Stock Status.
Errors.in.Aggregation
When aggregating data, you can easily report the wrong information, unless the procedures for aggregation are clear. It is important that staff at all levels understand which stock on hand should be reported—that of the reporting facility only, that of the reporting facility and all
lower-level facilities, or the aggregation of the lower levels only. If the wrong data are reported (such as issues instead of dispensed to user), the decisions made based on that data will also be incorrect.
What is a combined report and request form?
Tis is a summary report that presents the data to the next higher level and requests new supplies. Te advantage of this report is that the higher level can verify the need, and the lower level sends up only one form that includes both its reporting data and its order. A report and request form (or Report and Requisition) is sometimes combined with an Issue and Receipt Voucher and is useful for other steps in the transaction (see fgure 2-13).
Another advantage of linking reporting to ordering is that reporting rates often improve because when a report is tied to an order, it usually encourages timely submission of reports. Facilities are more likely to submit their reports when they receive something (resupply) in return. If reports and orders are linked, it is important to consider that the frequency of reporting dictates the frequency of distribution (i.e., if reporting is monthly, then distribution must be monthly). Te issuing facility must have the infrastructure and capacity to distribute products as often as it receives reports.
Figure.2-13:.Monthly.Report.and.Request.for.ARVs.(last.page.of.a.four-page.form)
What.is.the.link.between.summary.reports.and.transaction.records?
The common data element between these two is often order quantity/quantity requested.
for example, Order Quantity (column J on the report and request form) should equal Quantity Requested on the Requisition, Issue and Receipt Voucher (see fgure 2-7).
One way to streamline information is to combine all data elements on one form so that logistics data—as well as proof of delivery—are all on one piece of to paper. However, warehouses often have their own transaction records. furthermore, combining all data elements on one form would require that the form travel back and forth multiple times between levels; and it may be challenging to make self-carbonized, due to the number of copies required.
What information, other than the essential logistics data items, can be included in a summary report?
Information in a summary report can also include limited service data. Summary reports should always include a place for comments, particularly explanations for any losses and adjustments. Te person completing the report must sign and date the report. At higher levels in the system, the summary report could also indicate the completeness of the report. For example, the report may indicate that 100 reports were expected, but only 92 were received. Knowing this, a manager at the next higher level can determine how well facilities are reporting and then make mathematical adjustments for the missing data.
How do summary reports move?
Tey move up the pipeline from the SDPs to the central level. Depending on where reports are aggregated, reports from SDPs may move all the way to the central level or may be kept at the level at which they were aggregated. Summary reports that are also tied to requisitions (order) may bypass reporting to intermediate levels and report directly to higher levels, usually from where supplies are issued—like a district store or central warehouse. Tis has the efect of shortening the lead time for reporting. However, other levels may still need to see the summary report for supervision, pipeline monitoring, and budgeting purposes. In addition, reporting lead time can be shortened signifcantly if reports are transmitted electronically—either through email, mobile phone, or a website/LMIS database.
Electronic reporting also decreases the possibility of a report being lost during transit.