Online annual reports: pros, cons and tips

16 jan 2007

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In the upcoming months most quoted companies will publish their annual reports on 2006. Each year a growing number of companies do not only publish their annual report in PDF, but in dynamic or completely web-based HTML format as well. In this article we provide you with an overview of the pros and cons of the different online reporting formats.

Step 1: the traditional PDF report

The PDF format is the most traditional form of publishing large documents online. In the following table we discuss the main advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Cheap: A PDF writer allows you to convert any type of document to a PDF version.	Hard to read from the screen: Some annual reports consist of up to 200 pages. Scrolling down is the only option to read the entire document.
Easy to print: PDF documents can be printed easily and the layout will always be guaranteed by your offline documents.	Hard to add extra features: It is hard to add interactive tools (e.g. key figures comparison) and multimedia to a PDF report.

Bear in mind the following tips, when publishing your online PDF report. They will increase the accessibility of PDF documents.

Add bookmarks to your PDF report: bookmarks highlight the table of contents in the PDF document itself and allow the reader to skip through the report more easily.
Always offer a segmented PDF report: do not only provide one large document of the entire annual report, but also enable visitors to download all chapters separately

Step 2: Dynamic or image-based reports

A dynamic or image-based report is based on the hard-copy version of the annual report. Each page is scanned separately and converted into an image. Then, all pages are placed in a navigational framework. Visit the Home Depot image-based report for an example.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Navigation: Image-based reports have a search functionality and a navigational structure. Therefore it is easier to navigate through an image-based report than through PDF documents.	Hard to read from the screen: The layout of an image-based page is always based on the hard-copy version. Publishing on the web (screen) requires a different approach than hard-copy publishing. Therefore, image-based reports will never be fully adapted to reading from the screen.
Add downloads: It is possible to add downloadable documents, such as PDFs and Excel sheets to your image-based report.	No extra features: It not possible to add multimedia and interactive tools to your image-based report.

Some tips for your image-based report:

Ensure that the navigational menu does not contain too many items:The advantage of an image-based report over a PDF version is the possibility to navigate. Therefore, it is important to determine a logical and rather short number (maximum of around 10) of items in the navigational menu.
Offer downloads:users of your annual report always want to read a specific part of the report in print. Therefore, you should always offer downloads of all chapters in PDF. Offer the financial statements in Excel format as well.

Step 3: HTML reporting

An HTML report is a website in itself. It allows you to make use of all available web techniques and investor tools. Visit the Deutsche Post 2005 annual report for an outstanding example of HTML reporting.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Legibility: An HTML report is by far the best format to read from the screen, assuming you take into account the rules for writing for the web.	Costly: HTML reports are costly. An HTML report is a separate website, which has to be developed, designed, programmed and tested.
Return on investment: An HTML report requires quite an investment. However, once you have developed a good template for your online HTML report, you can use it for years, adding some new elements or tools each year.
Additional features: An HTML report is a website itself, just like your corporate website. This enables you to add all sorts of multimedia and interactive tools to the report.

In our next newsletter we will go into detail on the features you can add to your HTML report. In the meantime we recommend you to:

Visit your competitors’ websites to find out how they perform in the field of online annual reporting.
Then, determine whether you have to catch up with your peers or you have the opportunity to be the first in the industry to set the standard in online reporting.