Digital reporting is now mandatory. Clive Bidwell, strategy director at Friend Studio, explores the opportunities that lie beyond the PDF.

Over the last 10-15 years, so many aspects of our daily lives have been transformed by digitisation, with all the benefits that brings, yet companies doggedly stick with the PDF as their format of choice for reporting. And that’s even more peculiar when you consider that the PDF is no longer the mandatory filing version! 

Of course, there’s been plenty of noise about digitisation and the term “digital-first reporting” is still bandied around a lot. Yes, there are digital versions of reports but, crucially, they don’t present all the content in xHTML, only a tiny fraction, and they don’t include iXBRL tagging, so these ‘digital summaries’ are not compliant with digital reporting regulations. They certainly don’t represent digital-first reporting. They don’t work on mobile or deliver any digital benefits for reporters or their stakeholders.

Since 2021, the mandatory format for annual reports has been xHTML (including XBRL tagging); reports that are meant to be fully accessible to both human and machine readers. This was a major change, mandating the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) to London-listed reporters. 

Yet companies and their agencies continue to focus on the PDF and printed versions, attempting to meet their obligations to file the xHTML report by converting the PDF at the end of the process. This is a fudge that regulators have tolerated, but they are now actively urging companies to embrace digital-first reporting in readiness for further requirements.

Moreover, the demands of iXBRL reporting will increase over the next few years as we address CSRD and more sections of the annual report require tagging.

Another very important factor is that PDFs are not accessible, no matter how hard you try. Accessibility of reporting is often overlooked, but it’s a very big issue, ensuring equality of access for all users of reports, regardless of their circumstances. It’s the first word in ESMA’s (European Securities and Markets Authority) statement of ESEF’s objectives and the FRC also state that companies should “ensure the ESEF (or structured report) meets accessibility standards.”

It’s not only reporting regulators that are mandating accessibility. International regulations (such as the UK Equality Act, the European Accessibility Act, and the US Americans with Disabilities Act) require all online content to be accessible, including reporting in HTML published on companies’ websites.

Reporters’ reliance on PDFs has been caused by a lack of viable alternatives. At Friend Studio, we started planning the shift to digital reporting eight years ago and focused on developing an innovative, purpose-built digital-first reporting content management system – with input from PLCs, reporting regulators, auditors and XBRL bodies – that solves this complex challenge.

The most recent use of the system, which we call 'Reportl', has been in the creation and publication of Oakley Capital Investments’ 2023 report, which has attracted plaudits from all quarters, winning awards across the board, including golds at the Corporate & Financial Awards. One day all reports will have these attributes. 

Uniquely, Reportl offers the best of all worlds: the creation and delivery of fully compliant digital, PDF and print reporting, with iXBRL tagging and instant multi-channel outputs from a single source of content. You can design, edit, proof, tag, audit and sign off on the format you prefer and publish instantly to all formats you need.

The digital versions of the report are everything you’d expect from a contemporary website: fully accessible, responsive, navigable, interactive, search engine friendly and measurable with user analytics across the report. And the Oakley report’s analytics are very impressive. 

Reportl enables reporters to make a smooth transition to digital-first reporting and requires no special software or skills for reporting teams to learn. So, over the coming years, we hope to see a marked shift towards official digital reports, rather than a stubborn reliance on voluntary PDFs.