Checking your report
1 minute read
The corporate reporting process is a challenging one – deadlines are tight and processes have been developed over many years to deliver high-quality reporting and communication, but just as it is important to ensure that a paper annual report is accurate, it is also important to ensure that the digital annual report is of high quality.
What is quality for a digital report
Quality for a digital report means that the structured, machine-readable version of the annual report is accurate, complete, and usable for both humans and systems. In practice, this involves several checks:
1. Accuracy
- Every tag must correctly represent the accounting meaning of the disclosure, not just match the wording.
- Mandatory tags (specified under guidance) must be present.
- Signs (+/-) must be correct, and calculation relationships should reconcile (eg. Sub-totals).
- For listed companies, extensions (custom tags) should only be used when no suitable tag from the relevant taxonomy exists.
2. Completeness
- The XHTML report must include all components of the annual financial report.
- Reports should be as fully tagged as required under relevant standard and guidance.
3. Consistency
- Duplicate facts (e.g. profit before tax appearing in multiple statements) should be tagged consistently.
- Tagging should align with the judgements made in preparing the human-readable report.
4. Usability
- The structured report should display correctly in browsers and Inline XBRL viewers. Check your report in a viewer if this is provided by your agent or software, or use the UK iXBRL viewer to look at the prior year’s annual report.
- Avoid design issues such as missing fonts, broken images, or inaccessible layouts.
5. Governance
- Boards should review tagging decisions, especially where judgement is involved.
- Document your process and consider voluntary assurance for added confidence.
In short, quality means a report that is technically valid, visually clear, and faithful to the underlying financial information, enabling regulators, investors, and other stakeholders to trust and use the data effectively.