1. Your digital report is the mandatory version. It should be the priority
The ESEF version (or UKSEF for companies listed on the LSE) is the mandatory version of a company’s annual report, not the PDF. UKSEF requires annual financial reports to be prepared in XHTML with financial statements tagged using inline XBRL (iXBRL) according with UKSEF taxonomy.
UKSEF was mandated by the FCA in 2021 to bring reporting into the digital age, allowing electronic analysis of financial disclosures.
John emphasised that the digital report should be each company’s priority. It should be prepared with as much care and attention as the PDF and not treated as an afterthought at the end of the process.
2. Investors use of AI is accelerating. And AI reads HTML, not PDFs
AI accesses and processes HTML content quickly, easily and accurately; even more so with XBRL tagging. PDFs on the other hand are virtually invisible to AI. Unsurprisingly, as they were created for human visual consumption at the dawn of the digital age.
With investors’ use of AI accelerating, companies should ensure that their annual report is available in an accessible and well-structured HTML format, to ensure AI draws from their ‘single source of the truth’ rather than alternative sources. The digital report must be easily accessible from your website.
Furthermore, the report should be created in native-HTML, not converted to HTML from PDF at the end of the process, which often results in poorly structured HTML that is challenging for AI to access. And if that filing is presented in a zip file, it will be impenetrable.
3. Digital-reporting software streamlines the process and improves engagement
Reporting software, such as Reportl, creates reports that deliver better engagement, streamline the process and provide full compliance with reporting and accessibility regulations.
James and Rory both reinforced how Reportl had made the process much more efficient, saving time and reducing stress. Among the aspects they valued most were the syncing with Excel; advanced content linking; automated contents, page numbering and cross-referencing; straightforward editing; and the simultaneous delivery of multiple formats from one source of content.
Regarding engagement they emphasised the mobile-friendly, responsive design and the detailed user analytics allowing them to plan subsequent reports. And of course, they valued their reports being AI-readable.
Like to know about digital-first reporting in the AI-era?
We would love to hear from you.
