How to write a yearly report

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An annual report is a comprehensive statement of the various activities and results in the past year of a company or organization. Apart from informing shareholders and investors, annual reports are also an opportunity for outreach. The document doesn't have to be merely financial and can include information that goes beyond business performance. Yet because an annual report is often a compliance requirement and might be perceived as inherently unappealing to the general public, producing the document can be a daunting task. We'll give you practical tips for writing annual reports, go over best practises and provide you with templates for various industries to help you not only tackle the task of writing your annual report, but also produce a more engaging document.

These are table of contents examples or suggestions on how to structure the annual report for various industries:

reports roughly 30 million small and midsize businesses in the United States. Their annual filing requirements vary based on the respective business structure and the state where they’re incorporated, but for many, annual reporting is required. Even without shareholder or investors, you can follow this suggested structure for an annual report for your small business and adapt it to fit your particular filing and compliance situation:

• Letter or statement from the CEO
• Executive Summary
• Highlights of the past year
• Company information
• Optional: Stories, photos, and charts that construct a relatable narrative for investors.
• Optional: Instead of targeting investors, a small business can address and inspire employees in a special section.

• Balance sheet: Listing the company's current financial condition including tangible and intangible assets, long-term liabilities of the business, and equity, the balance sheet is a snapshot of how the company is doing.
• Income statement: Details on revenue and expenses to highlight profits and losses.
• Cash flow statement: Here the focus is on liquidity generated and spent in the past year

A sample structure or table of contents for nonprofit and non-governmental organizations could look like this:

• The big picture
• A personal touch
• Example of past impact shaping the future

Avoid use of jargon and acronyms, at least without spelling them out the first time. Exclude day-to-day administrative details of the organization. Clearly state where people can donate, but too much fundraising talk has no place in your annual report. After all, you are reporting your past fundraising. For an association, the approach should be centered on members rather than donors. So instead of a donor list, you’d include at least a list of all members. You can also include examples of benefits to members in the form of accomplishments of the association.

The structure for an charity’s annual report is similar to a nonprofit organization, with slight differences:

• Mission statement / vision statement
• Summary of highlights

• Treasurer’s report
• Auditor’s statement or report
• Financial statements

• Acknowledgements
• Call for contributions / action
• Future outlook

• State the mission clearly and relate back to it when you outline and highlight the activities and achievementsState clearly the organization’s mission and relate the activities back to the mission throughout the report.
• The information about the governance and structure of the charity should also reflect the mission.
• Disclose the charity’s risks, issues and challenges in the context of the mission.
• Avoid splintering your annual report into many mini-reports by your charity’s committees, if they exist. You can make these smaller reports available individually on the charity’s website.

• The big picture
• The community
• The mission and outreach
• Charity work with a personal touch
• Future outlook

• Statement of Financial Activities
• Charity Balance Sheet
• Cash Flow Statement
• Notes to financial statements
• Audit by committee or independent auditor

The annual report is an integral part of compliance and reporting for a company or organization. The exact requirements may vary depending on the incorporation of the business or the registration of the organization, but the general approach is a year in review with specific focus on some aspects, such as financials, growth or performance. Typical contents of an annual report can include a corporate overview, reports from directors and auditors, a financial review and statements, and an overview of the corporate structure. Annual reports are aimed at shareholders and potential investors to provide an overview of the company and its activities, but may also account for how donations were spent in the case of a nonprofit organization. A company's registry often requires the filing of an annual report. A public company may also have to publish financial quarterly reports.

If your annual report has to meet certain compliance standards (such as the SEC Form 10-K for publicly traded companies), make the best use of your resources and only produce one report for your entire audience which includes the necessary information.

An online, interactive annual report is a cost-effective opportunity to use your reporting to drive engagement and get the best results from making your report available to a broad audience.

We’ll also include detailed structural suggestions for annual reports in various industries or sectors in the next section. A fundamental overview of the business of the past year is a common integral element of annual reports. Depending on your business, company or organization, you might have to or want to include the following sections:

In a brief, you outline the aims, objectives, and milestones of the production of your annual report in a comprehensive, yet succinct way. You'll work on the brief first to request cost estimates and have a reference document during the production process.

The brief for your annual report helps you establish what is required and where you want to go. Circling the brief among all decision-makers and stakeholders gets everyone on the same page. The more specific you can be in the brief, the better the estimates for production time and costs will be. In your brief, you should communicate the following:

1. Format of your finished annual report and specifications for a printed product, if necessary, such as size and quantity.
2. Expectations for internal and external contributors. This includes length of requested texts, design standards, style questions, and timelines.
3. Specifications for deliverables that define the schedule, data, and format for contributors.

Compose your brief clearly to avoid conflict based on miscommunication or misunderstanding. Have decision-makers and stakeholders sign off on your written brief. If submissions diverge from the specifications, the document will serve as a base for compromise or clarification. An outline for your brief could look like this:

• Background information or mission statement
• Concepts and deliverables
• Timing / deadlines
• Objectives of the annual report
• Key messages of the annual report
• Short description of the brand, personality, and audience
• Writing, style, and design specifications

Write the brief for your annual report before you or anyone starts work on the actual report. Compose a clear annual report brief to avoid conflict, because conflict often stems from misunderstanding or miscommunication. Clarity helps everyone fulfill their roles during production.

The executive summary formally presents the main points of your annual report in a clear and concise way. A typical length would be one to two pages. The purpose is to give readers an idea of what's to come as well as present the most important facts right up front, because anyone who doesn't plan on reading the full report will at least glance at the executive summary. Writing the executive summary requires more effort than just copying and pasting important facts from the report. That approach will just lead to a jumbled summary where many pieces of information appear out of context and are therefore useless to the reader. It should be a given that you can only summarize a finished annual report, so unless you have your final draft in front of you, this task will have to wait. When you're ready, ask yourself these questions:

• Who is your audience? This will help you decide what critical information readers need. Make the story you tell in your annual report resonate with them.
• What is the objective of the summary? It serves the function of summarizing, but in addition, what do you need the audience to understand? What reaction should they have, what action should they take?
• What is the outcome? The executive summary should also list conclusions or recommendations based on the past year on which you are reporting. What changes are necessary, what actions will the business take in the future? What are the benefits of the achievements, which improvement will the company reap from implemented solutions? Don't make the reader guess or work to find out about the future course of the company or organization.
• How will you impress? Of course your executive summary should be able to stand out and give all the important details even for those who decide to skip the rest of the report. But ideally, it is able to draw the audience in and make them read on. Don't inflate numbers, invent facts or dress up the truth, of course, but carefully consider how you shape your message and organize your summary.

For a small or midsize business, you can consider combining the personal letter and the summary. This is especially useful when your report is short in length and you’re not sure if you need a personal letter at all. That way, you can have a personal introduction to the entire report and a guide by the CEO through the most important information presented in the report. Regardless of style and approach to the summary, here are a few tips on how to structure and format it:

• Any changes to the report require at least a check if not an update of the executive summary to ensure information remains relevant and consistent.
• Organize the summary either matching the table of contents or in the order of importance.
  
• Check for jargon, technical terms, filler words, and superfluous acronyms.
• Use active voice and direct language.
• Sparsely present precise and factual data from the report as highlights.
• Check to remove redundant information, repetitions, clichés, buzzwords, unnecessary phrases, and mixed messages.
• Use bullet points, subheadings and tables where appropriate to structure information.
• Format for readability and leave enough space.
• Check to include the most relevant information but remove anything not supported by the full report from the executive summary.
• Changes to headlines or sections of the report need to be reflected in the summary.
• Edit for brevity.
• Use test readers to verify that the summary stands alone to support your objectives.
  

• Your Company Info
• Your Elevator Pitch
• The Problem You Are Solving
• Your Solution
• Your Target Audience
• Your Competitive Analysis
• Your Financials: Budget
• Your Financials: Revenue
• Your Financials: Funding
• Your Financials: Pricing
• Your Corporate Strategy
• Your Support Plan
• Your Leadership And Team
• Your Partners Or Donors

Although some companies use a relative formula for the executive summary of their annual report where the summary is a percentage of the total length, we recommend a hard limit of two pages maximum. You’ll force yourself to be succinct and precise and avoid that readers even skip your lengthy summary!