Financial reporting has long been a vital part of any business, and on-time, aurate results are of the utmost importance. This highly pressurised, deadline driven environment has always been a pain point for financial executives, and it has only bee more plicated over the years, with annual reports and board books pounded by statutory and regulatory reports, and recently the need to nduct sustainability and rporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting as well.

This ‘last mile’ of reporting has traditionally been dominated by manual processes, tight deadlines and stressful nditions, and has always been time nsuming and inefficient. Reporting needs to integrate data from multiple sources, both structured and unstructured, from across the enterprise. This requires llaboration from a variety of ntributors, who have different areas of responsibility, and aess to different data. This process also requires reports to be built, edited, reviewed, approved and published, all using different manual processes.

The manual process and the variety of different parties involved, along with the number of iterations before final sign off such as Word and Excel files being shared via e-mail, last minute changes, lack of workflow ntrol, lack of aess ntrol and lack of audit trail have all led to multiple challenges including inauracies as well as legal issues as there is no evidence of pliance.

Some of the problems that are experienced across all the different sectors include errors in data llection from multiple locations, a lack of auracy resulting from re-keying similar information multiple reports, low productivity due to linear workflow with multiple bottlenecks, limited version ntrol and integrity issues. These issues all present risk elements including error, fraud, inrrect interpretation, lack of enterprise interoperability, lack of auracy and failure to ply with regulation, with the potential to cause financial loss, legal challenges, loss of stock value, loss of reputation, fines and penalties.

Added to this, the proliferation of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), which aims to provide a global standard for reporting, is fast gaining ground in South Africa. All panies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) that are dual listed on an international exchange are expected to begin using XBRL already, and this requirement is only set to expand. And existing inefficiencies are only pounded by the need to start all over again from scratch for the next period.

Technology provides the means to not only improve efficiency and shorten reporting cycles, but also rce risk and enable the vast data gained from reporting to be used for analysis, allowing for better future business operations.

Automated last mile reporting provides a single, secure platform to automate and enhance ntrols over all management, statutory and regulatory reports. This helps anisations to resolve the difficulties they face when it es to preparing and filing external as well as internal financial documents, by eliminating manual processes and supporting llaboration, validation, aess, workflow and version ntrol as well as meeting XBRL mandates from stock exchanges such as the JSE and regulators.

By aggregating and nsolidating financial and non-financial data automatically and using intelligent software with integrated XBRL functionality, anisations gain aess to a llaborative solution that delivers a single version of the truth, with a plete audit trail, version and workflow ntrol, integrated business rules and pliance checking as well as editable variables in the text, which can deliver reports automatically in a variety of outputs, from Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to PDF and even formats specifically for the various stock exchange requirements.

This rces risk across multiple areas: risk of error is rced, through a single version of the truth resulting in finance managers responsible for auracy spending less time reviewing or handling last minute changes and spending more time analysing the results; the risk of late filing is rced, since the reports are generated automatically from the aggregated data and can therefore be reviewed far sooner; the risk of insider leaks is minimised because aess can be strictly ntrolled; and the risk of non-pliance can be addressed by building in pliance checks and audit trails, which increase nfidence in the final report.

Research shows that more efficient report building via automation rces overtime st and even printing st with up to 50%.  The expected return on investment is between 3months to 1 year.

Integrated XBRL reporting has several advantages, allowing for the tagging of all numeric and textual data through standard XBRL tagging, reading and viewing, along with secure taxonomy storage, ntrolled user aess and workflow, the ability to track taxonomy changes and create an audit trail, automatic XBRL update which enables tagged data to be automatically amended, and the ability to tag data once, which will then be automatically flowed to future periods, eliminating the need to start from scratch on each new report.

Automated last mile reporting prevents late submission and material errors in regulatory and statutory filings, prevents insider leaks and enhances weak internal ntrols and financial ernance frameworks, rcing risk. It eliminates manual data llection and nsolidation as well as the need to re-key information, providing a secure environment for review and approval with automated error checking, rcing sts. It eliminates bottlenecks, plex time-nsuming processes and manual updating of report data, which rces the reporting cycle time. Finally, it offers enhanced nsistency and integrity of reports, ensuring a single version of the truth and allowing for optimised analysis through intelligent, secure llaboration, improving business insight.

In addition to improving efficiency and rcing risk, automated last mile reporting ensures that panies will ply with some remendations made by the new King III rporate ernance de.  One such example in the de is that the audit mittee should nsider the use of technology to improve efficiency and audit verage and that the CIO and ultimately the CFO should understand the impact that ICT has on finance and more importantly on risk.

With the reporting process only being more onerous as the years pass, and the need for aurate financial and non-financial data crucial to the suess of the modern business, manual reporting has bee an increasingly outdated model. By automating this process anisations can not only save time and money, they can improve efficiency, rce risk and gain aess to reports that deliver real business insights that enable better outes and smarter decision making ability.