What is the term for a permanent written record that communicates useful important facts to be used in the future?

A report serves as a permanent written record designed to communicate important facts that can be referenced or utilized in future contexts. In various fields, including code enforcement, reports play a crucial role in documenting the findings, activities, or decisions relevant to specific cases or inspections.

The nature of a report includes detailing information in a structured format, which makes it easier to understand and retrieve later. It often summarizes crucial data, observations, and conclusions that can assist in decision-making or further action. The specificity of reports helps ensure that the conveyed information is both clear and concise, meeting the needs of stakeholders who may rely on this documentation for compliance, follow-ups, or audits.

While other terms like record, document, and file may seem similar, they usually refer to broader concepts or different types of information storage. A record might encompass a wider range of information, documents can include many forms of written information, and files can represent collections of documents, rather than the structured, factual nature indicated by a report.