Software that's high quality is software that's (mostly) bug-free. It isn't an understatement to say that users' perception of product quality and their happiness with your product has a direct correlation with reliability.
A bug report is what you submit to product and engineering teams when you notice a problem in the product you're working on, or when a customer reports it to you.
Why good bug reports matter
A bug reporting template helps you capture detailed information to help your product development teams understand the bug and helps them debug it faster. Clear bug reports shorten the feedback loop between discovering an issue and shipping a fix.
When engineering, product, and support teams receive all the context they need up‑front - steps to reproduce, environment details, and impact - they can triage issues confidently and focus on delivering value instead of chasing missing information.
Who usually reports bugs?
Quality assurance (QA) engineers (software testers) validating product functionality and releases before they reach customers.
End‑users and customers encountering problems in the product.
Software engineers who push updates and test changes to what they're making regularly.
Product managers, customer‑support, and implementation teams who play with the product daily.
Who consumes bug reports?
Software engineers responsible for diagnosing and fixing issues.
Product managers who assess impact, weigh trade‑offs, and prioritise fixes as "now" vs "later".
Customer‑facing teams championing fixes on behalf of customers.
Customers (when you share public incident details or release notes).
Core elements of an effective bug report template
Title or subject – a concise summary that helps the consumer of the bug report to understand what part of the product the bug must be affecting and the nature of the issue.
Customers/users affected – whose workflow is affected?
Environment (plain language)
Browser & version (e.g. Chrome 125.0.6422)
OS & version (e.g. Windows 11 23H2)
Build or API version or account details
URL or the screen where the issue occurred
Priority or Severity – mapped to your team’s framework (e.g. P0 – blocks all users, P2 – minor annoyance).
Expected behaviour – what should have happened? Describe the ideal flow the user should have gone through.
Actual behaviour – what happened instead? Include error messages verbatim (screenshots are great!)
Steps to reproduce – numbered list from the original state to the failure state.
When did it occur? – timestamp or approximate window where the issue happened, which helps your engineers narrow down logs or session replays.
Visual evidence
Screenshot or screen‑recording. You can capture one with Beam right from your Chrome browser.
HAR export or a link to the Beam session so engineers can inspect console logs and network calls.
Work‑around (if any) – keeps users productive while a fix ships.
Example bug report
Title
Cannot save billing address when EIN is empty
Customer/user details:
Jane (Acme Corp) – jane@acme.com
Account ID:
ac103jl
Screenshots/session replay video
Beam replay: https://gobeam.io/s/recording1
Environment
- Browser: Chrome 125.0.6422
- OS: macOS 14.5
- App version: v2.3.1
- URL: /settings/billing
Priority
P0 – Blocks new customers from entering payment details.
Expected behaviour
User should be able to save the form even if EIN is blank when the country = "United States".
Actual behaviour
Clicking Save shows a red toast message: "EIN is required".
Steps to reproduce
Log in as admin@acme.com
Navigate to Settings › Billing
Leave EIN blank and click Save
When did it occur? 2025‑06‑26 10:07 PT
Work‑around provided? Nope, users are blocked.
Best practices when filing bugs
Align on priority. Check your team’s severity matrix before labelling everything “critical.”
Use the canonical channel. If engineering triages in Jira, create the ticket there rather than dropping screenshots in Slack where context disappears. Don't create noise for your engineering teams by posting the bug in several channels, unless it's an exception.
Attach rich context. The more, the better. You can attach screenshots, screen recordings and a copy of network logs if they're available (Beam can help you capture all of this metadata).
Offer a temporary fix for users if possible so that they can get through their work quickly.
Leveraging Beam for frictionless bug reporting
Beam automatically captures the last few minutes of the user’s session - including console logs, network requests, and DOM changes - so even hard‑to‑reproduce bugs arrive with a full trail that helps with troubleshooting. Your engineers can replay exactly what the customer saw and jump straight into debugging instead of guessing.
Closing thoughts
A thoughtful bug report template is one of the highest‑leverage documents your product team can invest in. Start with the template above, tweak it to match your needs, and empower your team to submit clear bug reports.
