New Research Reveals the Challenges of Financial Reporting; Shows Increased Demand for Narrative Reporting

STAMFORD, Connecticut and LUCCA, Italy, March 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

200+ respondents cite time-intensive processes, lack of automation, integration of data sources, and last-minute changes among top headaches 

Tagetik, a leader in global performance management software solutions, today revealed the results of a research survey on corporate financial reporting and the associated processes and challenges: "Modern Financial Reporting Challenges - How Well Do Your Reports Meet Stakeholder Needs?" One of the report's key findings is that much of the reporting done by the finance organization today includes significant amounts of narrative.

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The survey, conducted during September 2016, had 202 managerial or executive respondents with responsibility for financial, corporate or regulatory reporting. Thirty-one percent of respondents worked for organizations with $1B or more in revenue, 29% worked for organizations with revenues ranging from $300M to $999M in revenue, and 39% were with organizations with $299M or less in revenue.  

A key finding from the report was that 44% of respondents indicated that their reports have as much, or more, narrative information than financial information.

This trend is juxtaposed with other survey results showing that most organizations do not have efficient tools and processes in place to automate information collection, report creation, review and approval, or validation.  

• 95% of respondents still rely on Excel for report creation;
• Stand-alone PowerPoint (65%) and Word (48%) are also heavily used;  
• 96% of respondents use email to collect information for reporting;
• 32% of respondents said their reports contain information from six or more different sources;
• 30% of respondents involve four or more departments in the reporting process.

"This shift from primarily number-focused reporting to more narrative-centric reporting is the result of an expectation for finance to provide much more than just accurate financial reports. Finance should also be providing business insights and strategic guidance to executives and other stakeholders," explained Dave Kasabian, Tagetik chief marketing officer. "It is the narrative that tells the story behind the numbers and elevates the value of the information that finance delivers to both internal and external stakeholders. The problem is that most finance organizations spend so much time collecting, consolidating and validating the numbers that they don't have sufficient time to focus on the supporting narrative."