Informative reports serve two main purposes: to provide a record of accomplishments and to share information between employees or departments. There are four main types of informative reports: activity reports, which are written at set periods to share information on tasks and projects; progress reports, which show progress on a project and any problems encountered; regulatory reports, which show an organization's compliance with regulations; and lab reports, which communicate results of lab studies and can be part of an analytical report. Informative reports are common in organizations and many have templates to standardize their format.