Hundreds of inputs, corrections and review decisions move between people, systems and organizations. Individually, few of these tasks are particularly difficult.

Together, they easily turn annual reporting into a million-kroner project, while pulling finance teams, management and boards into work that could be handled more efficiently.

The core problem is coordination

The problem is not the annual report itself.

It is everything that happens around it.

Annual reporting cuts across almost every corporate function.

Finance owns the numbers. Management defines the messages. Investor relations and communications shape the narrative. Legal and auditors review and challenge disclosures. The board provides final oversight and approves.

Meanwhile, information moves between Word, Excel, email, design files, PDFs and ultimately into electronic reporting formats.

Every handoff creates work: finding the right source, updating disclosures, consolidating comments, checking numbers, managing versions and ensuring that one change has been reflected everywhere it should be.

Modern reporting platforms have improved parts of this process. But much of the underlying coordination remains manual.

Complexity drives cost

The cost is rarely visible in one invoice.

Consider a simple illustration. If a company spends 500 internal hours across preparation, coordination, review, quality assurance and finalization of the underlying financial information – a figure grounded in real-world reporting experience – at an average fully loaded cost of NOK 1,500 per hour, the internal cost alone amounts to NOK 750,000.

Then add several hundred thousand for external project and specialist support, a similar amount for production and design and ESEF preparation and validation.

The total cost easily exceeds NOK 1 million even for smaller and relatively non-complex organizations, before the audit even begins.

Read more: FinansWatch on how Numbra aims to reduce time and cost in annual reporting (Norwegian, paywall)

This is an illustration, not a market benchmark. It shows how quickly costs can add up when hundreds of small activities have to be coordinated across multiple teams, systems and workstreams.

The missed opportunity

Much of the information required for the annual report already exists.

The previous annual report provides an established structure, as well as policies and language that can often be used.

Quarterly reports contain much of the latest year’s narrative. Financial statements contain verified numbers. Risk assessments, governance documentation and sustainability data provide further inputs for the report.

But these sources rarely exist as a single controlled and reusable reporting foundation.

Teams therefore spend significant time searching, copying, reconciling and rewriting information the company has already produced.

This is where AI becomes useful, but not as a standalone writing tool.

AI can help structure existing information, compare periods, identify inconsistencies and accelerate first drafts. Yet the greater opportunity lies in combining those capabilities with verified sources, controlled review and a workflow designed specifically for regulated reporting.

The objective is not to remove people from the process.

It is to free them to focus on the work where judgement and expertise matter most.

What Numbra is building

Numbra is building reporting infrastructure designed specifically for the way listed companies produce, review and publish regulated information.

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The Numbra approach

Rather than adding another tool to an already fragmented process, Numbra is designed to to bring the different parts of the reporting into one connected workflow.

Our first 2026 engagements will deliberately be high-touch. The software is under development, and important decisions remain subject to human review and approval.

In regulated reporting, accountability is not something to automate away. It is part of the product.

We are starting with a limited number of paid projects in Norway.

If your team is planning the 2026 annual report and recognizes the process described above, we would be interested in comparing notes.

This article was developed with AI support and reviewed, edited and quality-assured by the Numbra team.