A Guide To Effortless Annual Report Creation by renure

A Guide to

Effortless Annual

Report Creation An Ebook from INK PPT

Content Preface

Overview

What is an Annual Report? Components of an Annual Report

Planning

Core team Stakeholders Budgeting Report Theme Publication Data curation & Management Vendor Management Vendor Coordination

Creation

Report Writing Review

Publication

Translation and Multilingualism Translation Partner

Distribution

Post-Release Analysis

References

35 2

Preface Annual reports are prepared every year, and this year is not gonna be any different for the brands. If you are the one joining that pool of brands going public with their last year’s achievements then this guide will help you not to make most of the mistakes brands do; even if you are into reporting for some time then also there is a lot to learn and explore. This ebook is prepared for helping businesses that are new to reporting and want a complete manual about making a report from scratch. We have covered every part of the report making while explaining the crucial aspects that make or break the document. Along with the in-house preparation, we have also highlighted outsourcing in detail and also, the steps for efficient vendor management. If you go through the whole ebook, you will be able to perfect your first annual report with ease.

Overview

An annual report is a yearly document mandated by respective governments for companies of size. This report contains your financials for the past year including the income, profits, losses, cash balance, investments and much more. There are some reporting standards mandated by the government or international associations, which are to be followed to comply with the guidelines issued by the regulating bodies.

General corporate information One must add the information about the company in the report as an introductory part so that readers get to know more about your operations, products, and services.

Operating and financial highlights

Components of an Annual Report An annual report could follow any developmental process and reporting standards but still, there are certain sections and information pillars which form the part of every report. Some of these sections are described below with a brief explanation of what it covers.

A brief highlight of the operational activities, concerning the last year along with the activities involving the finances of the company must be shared with the readers through statistics and stories.

Letter to the shareholders from the CEO A message, thanking shareholders for being with the company and believing in it must be shared, coming directly from the CEO. This message should also put some light on the activities to be completed in future along with the priorities, expectations from the investors, shareholders and the government. The letter from the CEO is something, which is the most read part of an annual report as it comes directly from the man in charge.

Narrative text, graphics, and photos While highlighting the stories of the last year, the company should share the photographs and infographics related to the same so that the investors remain connected to the brand.

Management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) People love to listen to the decision-makers as they have an outlook on the future. The top management should share their analysis along with the discussion for an inside view of the organization.

Financial statements Sharing the financial status of the company is the foremost thing and should be done with integrity while sharing insights about the last year’s performance.

Notes to the financial statements This part will help the investors to comprehend your stats and also provide the reasons for any decline or exponential growth.

Auditor’s report

Components of an Annual Report

Sharing the auditor’s report builds your credibility while assuring that the data presented is free of any flaws. The auditor’s report also highlights that every guideline has been followed.

Summary of financial data Every reader won’t be able to comprehend your data to the fullest so you need to summarise the same and present it in a way that the crucial takeaways are visible.

Accounting policies Accounting principles like IFRS, IAS are followed to keep the report at par with the global standards, the same should be depicted in this section of the report.

CSR initiatives You must be doing your bit for the community and environment, the practices must be showcased and the same must be reflected in your reporting. A section should be dedicated to CSR activities and the stories of change to connect more with the readers. A Guide to Effortless Annual Report Creation | © 2021 INK PPT

Understanding Reporting Standards

Traditional Reporting

Integrated Reporting

Internal Financial Reporting

Traditional Reporting This reporting complies with the regulations imposed on the companies of size and they need to follow reporting standards like IFRS, IAS, GAAP and others so that the reports are comparable and recognized globally.

Integrated Reporting

Types of Reporting Standards:

Integrated reporting focuses on the sustainability aspects along with the financials of the company. It should include the work being done for the environment, social initiatives and corporate governance practices.

Internal Financial Reporting Internal financial reporting is done for the management to make informed decisions based on the data available. There is no need for any reporting standard to be followed as the report will be used internally.

Planning

Once you have some insights into the reporting mechanisms along with the types and requirements, you should move to the planning part. Planning of the report must be done with the utmost care and responsibility as this part helps a lot in the smooth execution of the report. In the planning part, you get to do everything on paper and conceptualize the road map for the future. Planning must be done with the team responsible for making the project successful

along with the third parties offering their subject matter expertise. Here, you get to decide the chain of events along with the intensity and resource allocation to each activity. A well-planned project is always successful because every possibility is being mapped with the likely response that helps in the completion of a task. We will take you through some crucial aspects of planning that will make the report preparation and execution easier.

These people must be recognized at the earliest:

Project Manager (Person-in-charge) The project manager will look after the coordination and overall execution of the whole project. He/she will be responsible for sharing feedback and getting the tasks done from the respective team members.

Core team This is going to be the most crucial part of the planning process because more than anything else, it’s the human resource that makes everything possible; you need to decide who is going to do what, along with the person-in-charge of the whole activity.

Finance Officer This person must have expertise in making financial decisions and should be able to compile the financial statements of the company.

Accountants Accountants are responsible for making the balance sheets, cash flow statements, income statements and performing other accounting tasks.

Auditors/CA A team of auditors should continuously check the validity of data and the findings. They are also responsible for making sure, the government guidelines are being followed.

Data Analysts When there is a large amount of data available, analysts are responsible for breaking it down and coming out with some comprehensible and relevant statements related to the same.

Photographers For sharing the internal stories of the company, photos and videos are to be shot so that the audience connects with the real world of the organization.

Operations/Procurement Manager

Core team

The procurement team will be responsible for arranging the stationary, signing contracts with the agencies and the publishing houses for taking the project live.

PR Manager/Communications Manager/Marketing Manager The procurement team will be responsible for arranging the stationary, signing contracts with the agencies and the publishing houses for taking the project live. The specified personnel must have a proven experience of working in the designated working environment, if not, the skill set should be matching in one way or another.

Some activities could be overlapping; a person could be responsible for handling more than one vertical if your team is small, but defining that particular task must be done before any other activity.

Stakeholders of an Annual Report Industry and Competitors

Aspirants

Vendors, Partners and Distributors

Government

Investors

Customers

Probable Investors

Community

Industry and Competitors Your operating industry is looking for information to assess your future campaigns and also the present situation for getting hold of the competition and making plans according to the same.

Stakeholders There could be many stakeholders driving value and mileage out of your reporting, we are listing down some, which could change as per the industry. For stakeholders to be interested in your report it must contain the information, which is valuable for them.

Government The government will look at your sustainability goals and also the accounting policies if every guideline is being followed or not. Good reporting practices are often awarded by governments.

Investors Your shareholders or investors are most interested in understanding your financial position to make an informed decision about future investment plans. There must be continuous addressing to the investors in your report.

Probable Investors Investors who are not part of your shareholding, will look to invest in your company and seek information about your financial status. You should address them to make full use of the annual report.

Aspirants Professionals who are looking to join your company also look for information and read the annual reports for the same. The report highlights the values of the company along with the plans, knowing the same increases the chance of getting selected.

Vendors, Partners and Distributors There must be numerous partners looking to associate with you and offer their expertise. They look for information and the annual report is the most primitive source for them.

Stakeholders Customers A tremendous amount of people are fond of your products, services and expect to know more about the company. The annual report offers an exclusive inside look at the organization, which is fascinating for many.

Community You must be working for the community and for the same reason, they must be interested in your last year’s performance. The CSR activity impacts many positively, and people start feeling a connection with the company due to those initiatives. A section must be talking about those people at some point in time. A Guide to Effortless Annual Report Creation | © 2021 INK PPT

Components of a Budget

Human Resource

Data Curation

Auditing

Marketing &

08 Distribution Partner

Report Writing Expert

Printing Partner

07 04

Translation Agency

PR Agency

Report Designing Agency

Human Resource

Budgeting At the initial stage, it is important to have a minimum and maximum budget along with the guidelines of expenditure. It should involve the activities you will be undergoing and the estimated budget associated with the same.

While deciding the HR costs, you must take care of the subject matter experts, internal team’s cost, freelancers’ cost and other people involved in the reporting purpose.

Data Curation Several tools are required for curating and analyzing data that attract some costs along with the data security mechanism and storage space.

Auditing There are auditing agencies involved in getting the things done and helping you with the compliances, this team will require funds and the same must be calculated well in advance.

Report Writing Expert Investors who are not part of your shareholding, will look to invest in your company and seek information about your financial status. You should address them to make full use of the annual report.

Report Designing Agency While estimating the cost of a designing agency, you must have an overview of the cost prevailing in the industry and then allocate a chunk of the budget for the same.

PR Agency PR agency attracts some monthly retainer cost and it will be responsible for promoting your brand continuously. The assessment of that cost will also go into your budget planning.

Translation Agency

Budgeting

Translation services will be required as many regulators ask for reports to be translated into regional languages. This will attract the cost to be calculated and kept aside.

Printing Partner You need to assess the type of paper, its quality, what you want for your cover, binding cost and many other such aspects to calculate the printing cost of the report.

Marketing & Distribution Partner You need to assess the type of paper, its quality, what you want for your cover, binding cost and many other such aspects to calculate the printing cost of the report. A Guide to Effortless Annual Report Creation | © 2021 INK PPT

Report Theme A report without a theme or direction will not yield results as your attention and power would be distributed in too many areas. A theme offers that vision and path, which is necessary for the fruitful execution of the assignment. While deciding the theme, these aspects must be incorporated:

Report Theme Competition

Desired Positioning

Current Positioning

Ongoing Trends

The Vision of the Company

Last Year’s Performance

Human Connection

Values of the Company

Your theme must correspond to most of these aspects directly or indirectly so that you maintain the originality and authenticity in your approach.

Publication Options for Annual Report

Web-Based Report

Video Report

Mobile Report

Traditional Paperback Report

Digital Report

A PDF Document

Web-Based Report

Publication You need to decide on the publication, what type of report you want for this year, there are many options available, we will list down some for your reference.

A web-based report is an HTML document that is clickable and could be of several distinct pages. This document is accessible with the help of a web browser.

Mobile Report A mobile responsive report works flawlessly on mobile phones and there is no need to zoom in and out as it will fit the screen perfectly. The navigation is also made possible according to mobile dimensions only. The same could also be launched as a mobile application for making it extremely user-friendly.

Digital Report This report is technologically advanced and caters to the audience looking for smart information, efficiently. A digital report is made specifically for mobile phones, desktops and tablets.

Video Report A visual representation of your financials using animations and real footage along with the infographics is done. It’s for the people who are not that fond of reading.

Traditional Paperback Report

Publication

This is the most primitive way of publishing the report in the form of a physical booklet, the companies have been sharing the reports through this medium for ages.

A PDF Document Usually, most of the companies go for the pdf document and upload the same on the websites. Making and sharing PDFs is easier than any other format. Once you choose 1 or more than that for your report, the path ahead will be directed in a particular direction and get optimized for the chosen platforms.

There are some crucial aspects requiring attention before you choose the right medium for your report publication. Accessibility of information to stakeholders You must look at your stakeholders and decide, where they would love to read the report, if you have a stakeholding of more millennials with a young outlook of the industry then go for digital reports otherwise, go for printable formats.

Cost of publication You must look at your stakeholders and decide, where they would love to read the report, if you have a stakeholding of more millennials with a young outlook of the industry then go for digital reports otherwise, go for printable formats.

Reader persona and comfort Identify the reader and get to know the type of report they desire. You may also conduct a small survey and get to know their opinion.

Reflection of Vision and Belief The medium should come out as a version of your identity, it should match your values and portray the true meaning of your organization.

Time Constraints An application could take 2 to 3 months when it goes to development and then testing, on the other hand, printing will take comparatively lesser time. You must assess how much time you have in hand and then make the decision.

Information Security Security of your data and internal audits must be maintained in every aspect, before going with the publication medium, assess the security constraints with every report and then make an informed decision.

Alignment with the organization mindset Every organization thinks differently and has a distinct mindset about the medium of the report. This should also be taken into consideration while deciding on the reporting medium.

Data Curation & Management

Start with an Objective

Data Security and Protection

Your Data Must be Audit-Ready

Use Connected Systems

Make use of the Shared Data Libraries

Start with an Objective

Data Curation & Management This part is going to be the most crucial one for any organization looking to get out there in public with its financial position because the authenticity and validity of data makes a real difference in the minds of investors.

Collection and analysis of data without an objective are not going to yield the desired results for the company. You need to decide, which data is useful and which one doesn’t require any analysis. The same notion will help you design the statistic mechanism and analysis tools useful for operating.

Data Security and Protection This is not applicable just for the annual report data but for any kind of data available on your servers. With numerous data breaches and failures, you must be cautious with the security and make use of the technology for keeping the intruders out of the system. Otherwise, you will be left with nothing to analyze and report for the future. Unfavourable conditions like humidity, extreme warmth could also lead to system failures, you must keep that in mind and help the servers remain in shape.

Your Data Must be Audit-Ready It won’t always happen that you will be audited by the government agencies, but you must be prepared for the same. Always follow the guidelines issued by the respective governments related to data storage, analysis and sharing with the third party so that your credibility is never in question.

Use Connected Systems

Data Curation & Management

Today, an abundance of data is available and that too on multiple platforms in multiple formats. This creates a hindrance in analyzing the data. You need to have a system that is connected and understands the language of your multiple platforms. For analyzing data, there is a need for the same base and ranges, which becomes a problem due to multiple sources of data.

Make use of the Shared Data Libraries There are numerous data libraries like SharePoint, Google Drive, One Drive, Dropbox that let us work concurrently without following up with the team. These cloud-based resources help in maintaining a secure repository and also track the work according to the set timelines.

Steps for Managing the Vendors

Work with an Objective

Search for a Vendor

Proposal and Quotation

Share the Final Contract

Brief for the Agency

Establishment of Point of Contact

Efficient Review and Feedback Mechanism

Shortlisting the vendor will involve many third-party agencies and service providers, working under your guidance along with their expertise. Follow these steps for an efficient vendor selection:

Work with an Objective

Vendor Management Once you have something on the paper including, the plan and the roadmap, you should reach out and look for partners carrying subject matter expertise like design agencies, auditing agencies, financial analysts, publications, PR agencies.

The constituted core team should start working on the objectives and the requirements of the project. They should start by listing the tasks to be completed in-house and then list the requirements for any external agency. Once the requirements are penned down then the task at hand will become easier.

Search for a Vendor Initially, start with references and previously associated vendors to come up with the list that matches your requirements. The team should start reaching out through the internet and other mediums for shortlisting the favourable agency.

Proposal and Quotation The proposal should contain the background of the business along with the requirements, constraints, guidelines and other important aspects related to the annual report. Then you should wait for the quotation from several agencies along with the services coming your way. This will help you recognize the agency, offering more value to the company. When you have released the tender bids or shared the request for proposals and received the quotations, these checks must be made before making any decision. • Case studies of the related previous work • Understanding of the role • Understanding of the team members • Google reviews • Trust pilot reviews • Client references

Vendor Management

• Cost break-up • Payment terms being clear • No work stoppage clause • Fitment for vendor registration

Share the Final Contract You should start by defining the clear expectations along with the quality benchmarks. You should work on the mechanism of milestones to get the sense of the report at every step and keep away the possibility of a complete re-work. Brands should evaluate their risks and liabilities while stating the state the level of confidentiality required. Understanding the difference between what you want and what you need, from the outsourcing contract, can help you create a better strategy.

Brief for the Agency An efficient brief for the agency must be prepared and communicated so that they are aware of the tasks to be completed. The brief must contain all the expectations, with the timelines and also, the dos and don’t along with the reference material for better understanding.

Establishment of Point of Contact

Vendor Coordination

There must be numerous people deciding on your end but only a single person should interact with the agency to clear the possibility of any ambiguity. This POC must accommodate every feedback from the team members and communicate the same in a single go.

Efficient Review and Feedback Mechanism The feedback mechanism must be robust and flexible enough to accommodate every type of change and modifications of business requirements so that the work for you and the agency becomes smooth for execution.

Creation

Components of Writing a Report

Prepare to write

Prepare the Balance Sheet

Prepare the Income Statement

Prepare the Cash Flow Statement

Prepare the Summary

Prepare to write To know about what to report and what not to in the specified period, you must go with the following documents of your company • Corporate charter • Bylaws • Articles of incorporation These documents will offer you the required outlook of the expectations and the corporate governance prevailing in your company.

Report Writing Once you are done with planning the report then you must move ahead with getting it ready. We will list the steps for the perfect execution of the annual report.

Prepare the Balance Sheet To prepare the balance sheet, create the balance sheet page to show: • The assets of the company (what the company owns) • Its liabilities (what it owes) • Its equity accounts, such as supplementary paid-in capital for particular dates and common stock.

Prepare the Income Statement The income statement should show, how much the business made and spent over a range of time. Income statements are typically drafted from January 1 to December 31 of any given year.

Prepare the Cash Flow Statement You should start the cash flow statement with a section for operating activities. This section should correspond to the already prepared income statement.

Report writing

Prepare the Summary Once the financial statements are made, you need to come up with a summary that will help the readers to comprehend the whole document and make an informed decision related to future investments.

Review Once the partners and your team have completed the annual report, there comes a time for a final review to look at any missed chances and also at the final improvements, if any. There should be a mechanism for sharing feedback using the centralized space of cloud storage through: • • • • • •

Google drive One drive Dropbox Zi Flow Filestage Jumpshare

While reviewing, you must list down the aspects under these pointers:

Previously Agreed on Parameters At the initial stage, we discussed the components of an annual report, now is the time to see if those components are incorporated according to the agreed-upon terms or not. If yes, you may move forward with the next step.

What did you like in the Report? List down every part of the report you liked so that those parts will get a go-ahead and no modifications will be made in that part. It could be a particular page, a design, a table, or any other aspect of the annual report.

Review

What you did not like in the Report? The core team must sit down and come up with the parts that require improvement and ask the designated personnel to incorporate that change.

Compliance This must be done with precision to understand if all the guidelines are being followed along with the reporting standards. The auditors need to check for every guideline and match it with the report to stay away from the possibility of any compliancerelated issue.

Whenever you are reviewing the report, you must go for numerous checks in multiple dimensions so that you get the best out of your report. We are listing down those checks so that you don’t miss out on any crucial aspect.

Branding Check It must be well assessed and mapped if there are no brand guideline violations and also the uniformity of identity must get a precise look. Size, positioning of the logo, brand colours etc. must be in place according to the brand identity.

Spell Check A thorough spell and grammar check must be made both manually and using AI multiple times so that there is no scope of typing errors or any other mistake related to the text.

Fact Check There are several facts, including the figures of your achievements, the same must be checked for authenticity so that only the true image gets portrayed.

Images Check You must check the images for correct resolution, pixel density along with the objectionable content to get the desired output. You must also take care of the fact that the right image is being placed in the right section.

Resolution Check As discussed for the images, the same must be done for the whole document so that there is no undesired modification related to aspect ratios and other parameters.

Intellectual Property Check Along with the authenticity, you must see if all the used assets belong to you or have a valid license of distribution. At times, IPR hinders the process and derails the execution of the project.

Experience Check Create a replicated experience before the final launch like print dummies, staging sites to get the feel of the actual report.

Security Check Checking for security will require you to close all the backchannels along with the loopholes so that your information remains secure and protected.

Readability Check Every text must be readable from the naked eye and there must not be any issue of font recognition.

Sources & Reference Check Before moving ahead, you must check if the sources you have listed are accurate, and there is no source left to be mentioned for references.

Final Output Once this is done, you should have a checklist of passed and under review parts and at the end and every page must be ticked to move forward. No matter how many changes you make, there must not be any compromise in the quality following the previously agreed parameters. You can only move to publication when there is nothing left in the tab with the parts “you don’t like”.

Publication

Once your report is prepared and it’s a go-ahead for reaching the public, you need to go with the decided medium(s). The decided medium should be in line with the objectives and the desired positioning of the company. A digital report will offer you a place in a technologically advanced

Translation and Multilingualism

Translation Partner

company and the video report will stand out to the users who are not that fond of reading. Furthermore, a printable report will cater to the audience who is fond of physical books, other reading stuff and are not that good with advanced technologies.

If you have a presence in numerous regions and countries, you need to cater to them in their native language for keeping the connection intact. You need to shortlist the languages and go on with the translation for the same. If you are catering to a larger audience in numerous regions then it will require translation in multiple languages as mandated by the government agencies. Do check for the government guidelines and never miss the mandatory requirements on reporting, including the translation.

To get the most out of the translation services, one must make an informed decision about the vendor providing the same.

Here are aspects of consideration:

Company v/s freelancer You have to decide if you want to go with the company or the freelancer. A freelancer will be cost-effective but will come without much of the trust factor. On the other hand, the company will charge more but there will be fewer chances that it will leave in between the project.

Automated translation tools v/s manual translation

Translation Partner

There are numerous AI-powered tools available for performing the translations, which come with affordable licencing, but there are always some reservations as these are not perfect. Manual translation could come with human errors, will be costly but will provide the type of flexibility you desire.

Experience You must go through their profile and assess if their previous work is relevant to yours. The client’s feedback must also be taken into consideration before making any decision.

Distribution Once you have shortlisted the regions, it becomes crucial to partner with the distributors of that region if you are going for the print version. Any advanced reporting medium would require you to spread the word over the internet through digital marketing practices and publish the same on your official websites/social media handles.

Post-Release Analysis Once you are done with the distribution of the report, you need to start reviewing the whole process and come out with an analysis depicting the good and bad of your experience. You could go with the same strategy we discussed before for reviewing that involved the following: • Previously agreed on parameters • What you liked in the report

• What you did not like in the report • Compliance review • Output analysis This post-analysis will help you provide constructive feedback to the parties involved in the making of an annual report and will also make the way for a better annual report in the coming years.

References We took help from some resources while preparing this ebook. We thank them for putting up the crucial information, the references are being listed here:

1. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/annualreport.asp 2. https://www.smartdatacollective.com/7-helpful-tips-managing-big-data/ 3. https://www.upcounsel.com/how-to-prepare-annual-report-of-a-company 4. https://www.outsource2india.com/india/vendor-selection-process.asp

We help you present better INK PPT is a Presentation & Communication design consultancy based out of Gurugram, India. We serve individuals and organizations globally to bring distinctive and substantial improvements through professional design and communication services. We make annual reports interesting by carving out a story of your numbers to make your stakeholders understand your growth story well. We beautify your reports using interesting graphics, designs so that you can display the work using media for greater engagement with the audience. Write to us on renure@inkppt.com for your queries.

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