Report Writing and Professional Practice
This domain tests professional practice and reporting: whether the report is clear, complete, consistent, and useful to the intended user. The examiner looks for the valuation date, basis, scope, assumptions, and sign-off.
Core rules
- State the client, purpose, intended use, asset, interest, basis of value, and valuation date.
- Record scope: inspection, data sources, limitations, and any specialist input. Distinguish facts from assumptions.
- Explain the approach, key inputs, and reconciliation. The report should let a reader follow the reasoning without the working file.
- Include limiting conditions, confidentiality, and the signatory's identity and competence.
- Keep the report date separate from the valuation date; the value speaks as at the valuation date.
Worked example
A report says valued at inspection but the inspection was three months before the valuation date, and the report is unsigned. The correction is to state the actual valuation date, update market conditions to that date, disclose the inspection date, include the basis and assumptions, and sign the report. If the market moved materially, the earlier inspection data must be updated or the limitation disclosed.
Traps
- Boilerplate assumptions that contradict the analysis.
- Missing valuation date or basis of value.
- Inconsistent figures between summary and body.
- Unsupported adjustments or conclusions.
- Report date confused with valuation date.