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FinanceJune 18, 2024

The new era of disclosure management: Integrated narrative reporting

In this article, we’ll explore what modernized disclosure management requires and the tech that can help you get there. 

The last mile of finance isn’t the longest mile, but it’s arguably the most important to get right: the disclosures, reports, and narrative that make up the last mile must go the distance because they’re what investors, stakeholders, decision-makers, consumers, boards, and leadership make decisions from. They’re what regulators evaluate. Get your disclosure reports wrong, and there’s a lot at stake, including penalties, legal action, and your company’s reputation.

Disclosure management has changed a lot over the last few years. Stakeholders and regulators alike are demanding more insight into the nonfinancial aspects of companies. ESG, lease, and tax data have made their way into the office of finance, and require commentary and insight into direction, but many disclosure management and reporting approaches have not yet been brought up to speed.

In this article, we’ll explore what modernized disclosure management requires and the tech that can help you get there.

Let’s level-set: Narrative reporting vs. integrated reporting vs. disclosure management

Corporate reporting is comprised of three components: narrative reporting, integrated reporting, and disclosure management. Let’s level-set on how each of these contribute to corporate reports.

Narrative reporting

Think of narrative reporting like performance storytelling. A report’s narration paints a picture of the company’s performance, market position, strategy, opportunities, and challenges.

Typically, narration is part of both internal and external reports. For example, in the annual report, there will be narrative reporting in the chairman’s statement and the strategic report. In an ESG report, there would be narrative reporting in the mission and goals.

Narrative reporting gives businesses an opportunity to provide more context into performance and provide stakeholders with a better understanding of the business.

Integrated reporting

Financial reports are essential, but they often paint an incomplete picture. Enter integrated reporting, a holistic approach that weaves financial data with operational information from the rest of the company via narrative elements to tell a richer story about your company. 

Integrated reporting is also a framework developed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). According to IFRS.org, the <IR> framework aims to “bring together material information about an organization's strategy, governance, performance and prospects in a way that reflects the commercial, social and environmental context in which it operates.”

Disclosure management

Disclosure management is often referred to as the last mile of financial management. Essentially, disclosure management is the process of reporting a corporation’s information to stakeholders.

There are two types of disclosure management: voluntary and statutory. Voluntary is where a company chooses to share facts, narrative commentary, and information about their performance and operations. Statutory disclosure is where a publicly traded company must disclose certain information about the company to regulators, investors, and the public.

Disclosures can be:

Financial: Profits, losses, and performance of the business
Operational: Business activities, market share, values, mission
Strategic: Strategic goals and future objectives
Risk: Exposure to employee retention, cybersecurity, compliance, sustainability, and financial risks
Narrative disclosures: These disclosures describe the results, guiding readers through the results in a story-like format. They include analysis and discussion of the results and point to desired outcomes.

As you can gather, narrative reporting, integrated reporting, and disclosure management are all interlinked. Narrative reports include financial disclosures, and financially-driven reports can include narrative disclosures, all while fulfilling integrated reporting’s goal to communicate how an organization creates value over time. 

CCH® Tagetik

Go beyond traditional Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software with CCH Tagetik Intelligent Platform.

The challenge of corporate reporting

Narrative reporting breathes life into numbers. Narration can explain strategy, deficits, the challenges you tackled, and your impact on stakeholders. But crafting compelling narratives can be time-consuming, especially when you’re juggling data from various sources.

Likewise, both disclosure management and integrated reporting require a high degree of data mastery.

First, because regulatory requirements increasingly require data that is both financial and non-financial in nature.

And second, because data requirements are cross-functional, and can come from different departments, lines of business, and even subsidiaries across an enterprise. 

Technology to the rescue: How tech supports efficient, accurate, easy corporate reporting

This is where technology steps in. Modern reporting solutions, like CCH Tagetik Intelligent Disclosure, solve all corporate reporting woes by:

Automating data integration

Bye, bye manual data entry. Software automatically pulls relevant financial and non-financial data from various sources into your reports. This ensures all figures and results you’re reporting are consistent and accurate across reports. As a bonus, you can update them to reflect the most recently approved consolidated financials with the simple click of a button.

Augmenting narrative creation

Leading-edge disclosure management software, like CCH Tagetik Intelligent Disclosure, goes above and beyond thanks to Microsoft GenAI capabilities that boost productivity on narrative creation. Our solution produces narration reflective of performance results that you can then edit to your liking.

Gen AI can assist you generate ideas, find answers, produce content, and explore topics.

For example: You can ask Copilot to "Generate a comment for the consolidated statement table that explains the main findings and implications of the financial data.” And Copilot will analyze the data and generate a comment for you.

Streamlining collaboration

Corporate reporting software automates the narrative elements of reporting. With customizable templates, you can quickly create and update reports. A collaboration suite can allow you to edit, comment, embed accurate data, and tag collaborators in the document. What’s more, interactive visualizations and dashboards can bring your story to life, making reports more digestible and engaging for stakeholders to review.  

Benefits of tech-powered corporate reporting

Enhanced efficiency: Save time and resources by streamlining narrative management and data integration.

Improved accuracy: Reduce the risk of errors by automating data collection and presentation.

Greater transparency: Provides stakeholders with a clear and comprehensive picture of your company's performance.

Data-driven storytelling: Back your narrative with undeniable facts and figures, strengthening your credibility

The future of corporate reporting is augmented by AI

Technology is transforming corporate reporting from a complex function to a process that is executed swiftly and easily. The result? Teams can focus less on collecting, organizing, and verifying data and generating narration, and more on crafting reports to be strategic and competitive. By embracing modernized tools and leading-edge technology, like AI, you can create compelling reports that showcase your company's true value and build stronger relationships with stakeholders.

CCH Tagetik is at the forefront of the narrative reporting and disclosure transformation. Our next-generation solution, CCH Tagetik Intelligent Disclosure, helps customers comply with new disclosure mandates and leverages the power of Microsoft's Gen AI to create engaging and insightful reports that drive better business decisions.

Ready to unlock the power of integrated reporting? Learn how CCH Tagetik Intelligent Disclosure can help you tell your company's story in a quick, consistent, compelling way. 

Intelligent Disclosure

Automate blended narrative. Spark collaboration. Always be right.
Doriana Filisetti
Product Manager at CCH® Tagetik

As Product Manager at CCH® Tagetik, Doriana is responsible for the development and delivery of the Disclosure solution, which helps professionals streamline their narrative reporting processes, from financial and ESG data collection to final publication, for both internal and external audiences. Her role includes defining product vision and roadmap, aligning them with the market needs and the company strategy.

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