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Narrative reporting where every figure in the text ties to the statements.
We bind the annual report and the interim statement to the consolidated model, so a restated figure changes in the text as well. The price is fixed after we read the current report.
Narrative reporting is the annual report, the interim statement and the results announcement, where each figure in the text has to match the statements. Constancia, an EPM consultancy, builds those documents on the consolidated model for listed and pre-IPO groups with a filing date in the diary.
- Reads
- The current annual report, the workbook its tables came from and the review trail behind each draft.
- Produces
- A report in which each figure in the text links to the cell in the model that produced it.
- Then
- A fixed price for the build, and the first document produced on the model is the next interim.
Narrative reporting on a model runs through 6 stages, starting with the links from text to cell.
- 01
The figure links
Each number in the text points at a cell in the consolidated model, so a restatement updates the sentence around it.
- 02
The tables
The primary statements and the notes render from the model in the report's own layout, without a paste.
- 03
The review trail
Every draft records who changed which sentence and which figure, and the audit committee reads the final one.
- 04
The sign-off
The board, the auditor and the company secretary approve the same version, and the platform holds that version and no other.
- 05
The filing output
The report exports to print, to the website and to the tagged format the regulator requires from the same source.
- 06
The interim statement
The half-year statement reuses the annual report's links and layout, so the team writes the text and nothing else.
An annual report drafted against an export drifts from the statements at the first late adjustment.
Where your group publishes a 180 page annual report, the front half was probably drafted in a word processor from a workbook export. The auditors then post 3 late adjustments in week 5, and the statements move while the text stays where it was.
The financial controller reads 180 pages against the statements over 1 weekend with a ruler, and finds 2 of the 3 changes. Constancia has FTSE 100 clients among 58 implementations over 35 years, and each narrative survey starts with the last published report read against its workbook.
We then link each figure in the text to its cell, so the week 5 adjustment changes the sentence as well as the table.
We bind a report to the model where 4 conditions describe the group.
- 01
A listed or pre-IPO group
The group files an annual report and an interim statement to a market deadline, or is preparing its first.
- 02
Text drafted from an export
The front half of the report is written in a word processor against figures pasted from a workbook.
- 03
A late adjustment every year
The auditors move at least 1 figure after the text is drafted, and somebody finds the sentence by hand.
- 04
A consolidation the report can read
The group closes in a consolidation the report can be bound to, or is about to buy one.
A group that consolidates in OneStream (EPM software) binds the report's figures to that model. Abacum (FP&A software) holds the plan and the forecast, so the narrative around the statements stays with the consolidation.
The annual report's figures hold or drift according to what the text is bound to.
A word processor and a workbook count as 1 home here, because the figures travel between them by paste.
| A spreadsheet | A platform nobody owns | A platform with named owners | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The figure in a sentence | A number typed from a workbook export, correct on the day it was typed. | A number linked to a loaded value that changes without telling the writer. | A number linked to a cell with an owner, and the sentence flags itself when the cell moves. |
| The late adjustment | Somebody reads 180 pages against the statements over a weekend. | The tables update and the text around them keeps the old figure. | The tables and the text update together, and the review log lists every sentence touched. |
| The version the board signs | A file name with the word final in it, in 3 inboxes. | The latest version on the platform, with no record of who approved the one before. | 1 approved version, with the approver's name and time against it. |
| The interim statement | The annual report file is copied and every figure retyped 6 months later. | The layout is reused and the links are rebuilt by whoever is free. | The links and the layout carry over, and the team writes the new text and nothing else. |
| The regulator's tagged filing | An outside agency tags a PDF after sign-off and asks for the source workbook. | The tags sit on the platform, and nobody in finance knows who maintains them. | The tags are maintained by the named owner of each statement line and export with the report. |
The narrative report, the statutory accounts and the ESG disclosures are 3 documents from 1 close.
Statutory reporting
The statements and the notes the narrative wraps around, tied out to the consolidation.
Read about statutory reportingESG reporting
Sustainability figures in the same report, on the same entity boundaries as the financial ones.
Read about ESG reportingOneStream implementation
How we build the consolidation the report is bound to, after the survey.
Read about the implementation
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