The executive summary goes before the table of contents. In a business plan, a report, a proposal or a board paper, the order is title page, executive summary, table of contents, then the body. The summary sits at the front because its job is to give a busy reader the decision and the reasoning in one page, before they decide whether to read anything else. A table of contents is a map of the document, and nobody needs the map until they have decided to make the journey.
That is the short answer. The rest of this page covers the exceptions, what to do when a house style says otherwise and whether the executive summary itself should appear in the table of contents.
What is the correct order at the front of a document?
For most business documents the front matter runs in this order:
- Title page
- Executive summary
- Table of contents
- Introduction or background
- The body of the document
- Appendices
The executive summary is placed first because it is written for the reader who will not get any further. A chief executive, a board member or an investor reads the summary, makes a judgement and either hands the document to someone else or asks a question. If they have to turn past a contents page to find the summary, you have put a piece of furniture between them and the one page you most need them to read.
When does the table of contents come first?
Three situations, and all of them are driven by a template rather than by what works for the reader.
Academic and technical reports. Many university and engineering report formats put the abstract on the title page, then the table of contents, then an executive summary as the first numbered section. If you are submitting to a format like that, follow it. The marker is looking for the structure, and arguing with a template is a poor use of a submission.
Government and public sector tenders. Some procurement portals fix the order of the response and number every section. Where the instructions put the contents page first, do what the instructions say and make your first numbered section the executive summary.
Long formal reports with a foreword. Annual reports and commissioned reviews sometimes open with a foreword from a chair or a minister, then the contents, then the summary. The foreword is doing the job of the summary for a general reader, so the formal summary can sit a page or two later.
Outside those cases, if a company template puts the table of contents before the executive summary, the template is wrong and it is worth changing. The people who approve budgets read the summary and nothing else, and a contents page in front of it only slows them down.
Should the executive summary be listed in the table of contents?
Yes, list it, and give it a page number, usually a Roman numeral if your front matter uses them. Readers who come to the document later, after the decision, use the contents page to find the summary again, and a summary that is missing from the contents is surprisingly hard to find in a 60 page PDF. Listing it also makes clear that the summary is a deliberate part of the document rather than a cover note.
Where does the executive summary go in a business plan?
First, immediately after the cover page and before the contents. Investors read the executive summary of a business plan and decide whether to open the rest. Most do not read past it. The same applies to a pitch document and to an investment memo. If the plan has to follow a lender's or an accelerator's template, follow that template, but keep the summary as close to the front as the template allows.
Where does the executive summary go in a board paper?
At the top of the first page, under the title and the recommendation. Board papers rarely have a table of contents at all, because a paper that needs one is too long. The summary is half a page at most, it states the decision the board is being asked to make, and the detail follows in numbered sections. The full guide to writing an executive summary has a worked board paper example and a free template.
How do you number the pages?
The common convention is Roman numerals for the front matter, so the executive summary might be pages i and ii and the table of contents page iii, with Arabic numbering starting at 1 on the first page of the body. Word and Google Docs both handle this with a section break before the body. It is a small thing, and it makes the summary easier to refer to in a meeting: "the second paragraph on page i" is a sentence that works.
Common questions
Does the executive summary come before or after the introduction?
Before. The executive summary gives the conclusion. The introduction sets up the context for a reader who has decided to read the whole thing. They do different jobs and the summary always comes first.
Does the executive summary come before or after the abstract?
If a document has both, the abstract usually comes first, on or just after the title page, because it is a short description of what the document contains. The executive summary follows it. Most business documents have one or the other, and in business the executive summary is the right choice.
Is the executive summary part of the table of contents?
It should be listed in the table of contents with its page number, even though it appears before the contents page in the document.
Can the executive summary replace the table of contents?
In a short document, under about 10 pages, yes. A paper that short does not need a contents page, and a good summary tells the reader where to look. Above that length, keep both.
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