A Digital Annual Report Fixes 6 Problems. 5 of Them Are Sustainability Gains.
Board sign-off often lands close to the printer's deadline, so the report goes to print while some numbers can still change, and whatever is wrong on the day stays wrong in every copy. The print run is a guess as well. Print too few and you run out, print too many and you are left with a cupboard of last year's report.
A digital annual report removes 6 problems that come with a printed or emailed one, and 5 of them concern your sustainability goals. This article shows why this year might be the time to switch to a more sustainable solution.
By Tamara Bolibruchová
A digital annual report has no print run to guess
Every printed report starts with a number nobody can know, which is how many people will want a copy. Running out is the mistake everyone notices and a surplus is not, so the number tends to be high, and the surplus ends up in a cupboard that nobody mentions.
Problem 1: The copies nobody picks up
With a digital annual report there is nothing to guess. The report goes online at 1 link and each person who wants it simply opens it, so nobody has to decide in advance who gets a copy and nothing is made for readers who never turn up.
Problem 2: Copies that run out
The other half of the guess is the request that arrives late. An investor asks for a copy a week after the event, or a new board member needs one. With a digital annual report you send the link and they have the same report as everybody else straight away, without a rush reprint, a courier or an apology for the wait.
A digital annual report you can still correct after sign-off
Problem 3: Corrections that come too late
A figure moves after the board meeting, or a name turns out to be wrong. Once a report is printed, or the PDF has been emailed, those copies stay as they are, so you either pay for a reprint or live with a mistake you know about. With a digital annual report you correct the source file, upload the new PDF over the old one, and the link everyone already has opens the corrected report. Nobody has to be told to throw anything away, and the view counts you have collected so far carry on.
One link for every reader and every draft
Problem 4: Deliveries
Every printed copy has to get somewhere, with couriers to the board, post to shareholders and boxes to the event. A digital annual report replaces all of that with 1 link that you can share by email, on your website or with a QR code on the slide at the event. Readers open it in their browser on whatever they have in their hand, a laptop or a phone, with nothing to download or install, so the report reaches them wherever they are without a single parcel.
Problem 5: Review drafts
Before sign-off the draft goes round the board, legal and the CEO's office, and every reviewer who prints it adds another set of pages. A digital draft is a link instead of a stack of paper. Reviewers read it on screen wherever they are, and each new version appears on the same link, so everybody works from the latest draft and the old ones stop circulating.
See how far the report travelled
Problem 6: Not knowing who opened it
Once a PDF has been emailed you have no idea whether anyone opened it. A digital annual report shows you how many people opened it, how many of them were different visitors and where they are, in the analytics that come with it. That tells you the report was opened, not that it was read to the end, but it is far more than an emailed file ever told you. It also gives your ESG report or sustainability section a figure to point to, which is how many people the report reached and from where, without a single delivery.
Conclusion
A printed report is final the day it ships, and a PDF is final the day it is emailed. A digital annual report stays correctable for as long as you need it. You can fix it after sign-off, everybody who asks gets the same current version straight away, and you can see how many people opened it. That is what removes the 6 problems above, and because 5 of them are about paper and delivery, it is also what turns the report into a sustainability gain you can back with numbers.
The end of the year is close and the report for this financial year is still a draft. That makes this the right moment to choose the better solution, before the print order is placed or the first PDF is sent, because after that the choice has been made for you. Upload an annual report PDF to Paperturn and see it as a digital annual report in minutes. Start a free 14-day trial and watch your digital report become alive today.