A practical workshop for getting the reporting project off to the right start
Every reporting project needs a timetable. Good reporting needs something before that: agreement about what the project is trying to achieve, what is being produced, how decisions will be made and who needs to be involved.
Every organisation's process will be different. Reporting obligations, governance, team structure, approval requirements and external dependencies all affect how the project needs to run.
This workshop isn't a prescribed process. Use it to get the important decisions on the table before the timetable takes over.
1. What are we trying to achieve?
Before discussing deadlines and deliverables, agree what success looks like.
Publishing an accurate, compliant report on time is essential. But what else should this year's reporting achieve? What do stakeholders particularly need to understand? Is there something about the organisation, its strategy, performance or future direction that reporting needs to communicate more clearly?
Agreeing the ambition at the outset gives later decisions something to be tested against.
2. What are we producing?
Define the reporting suite before production begins.
What must be produced? What else genuinely adds value? How will the annual report relate to climate disclosures, sustainability information, modern slavery statements or other supporting material?
Be clear about the purpose of each publication and where the central organisational story will be told. This is also the time to question anything being produced simply because it was produced last year.
How will the report be experienced? Are we producing primarily a printed/static document, a digital or interactive experience, or something that needs to work equally well in both? That decision will influence how we structure and navigate the report, how we write for it, and the opportunities we have to layer, reveal and bring information to life.
3. What needs to be decided before writing starts?
Not every content decision can be made upfront, but some are much easier to resolve before drafting begins.
Consider:
What is the emerging reporting story?
What deserves greatest prominence this year?
What belongs in the central narrative, and what is primarily supporting Reference?
What does the intended format and reading experience mean for how we structure and write the report?
Are there significant issues that will require early management or Board discussion?
What evidence and information will be needed to support the story?
The aim isn't to settle the report before the work begins. It is to avoid using drafting as a substitute for decisions that should have been made earlier.
4. Who needs to be involved, and when?
Map the people who need to contribute, decide, review or approve.
This may include executive sponsors, the Board, subject matter experts, finance, sustainability, legal and regulatory advisers, auditors or assurance providers, and external reporting, writing, design and production partners.
The important question isn't simply who? It is when?
Bringing the right people in early can shape the work. Bringing them in late often means reworking it.
5. Where are the major decisions and dependencies?
Identify the points that could determine the critical path.
When will the reporting story and structure need approval? What requires executive or Board sign-off? When do financial results become available? Where do audit or assurance processes intersect with reporting? Which decisions depend on information or approval from somewhere else?
Then identify what doesn't need to wait. Photography, case studies, data gathering, governance content, design development and other work can often progress in parallel.
A good programme distinguishes between genuine dependencies and habitual sequencing.
6. Where will the pressure come from?
Every reporting project has predictable pressure points.
Executive and Board availability, late financial information, complex data collection, audit timetables, regulatory review and external suppliers can all create bottlenecks. So can internal contributors for whom the annual report is important but never quite the most urgent thing on today's desk.
Identify the likely constraints before finalising the programme. Planning around them is easier than recovering from them.
7. Have we allowed enough time for thinking?
Writing and design are visible parts of annual report production, but they are not necessarily what takes the most time.
Discussion, decisions, review, challenge and refinement often determine both the quality of the report and the length of the process.
Build time for thinking into the programme rather than treating it as something that happens between deadlines.
8. Are we ready to start?
Before the project moves into production, make sure the core team has a shared understanding of:
what success looks like
what is being produced and why
the emerging reporting story and priorities
who is responsible for what
the major decision and approval points
the critical dependencies and likely bottlenecks.
A timetable tells everyone when things need to happen. Good planning makes sure everyone understands why, what and who before the clock starts running.
Related guidance
One report or many?
Who is the annual report really for?
The annual report as the organisation's source of truth