Wrepit Blog

How to Automate Annual Reports

Written by Inga Jakobsen | Nov 20, 2025 2:40:52 PM

Annual reporting season often brings pressure, repetition, and deadline stress. Every year, the same numbers are updated, the same formatting is checked, and the same version chaos repeats itself.

Automation can sound big, expensive, and complex - but it doesn’t have to be.

Today, CFO teams can automate the reporting process entirely on their own, without consultants, system replacements, or heavy IT projects.

 

1. Why Automate Annual Reports

At its core, annual reporting is about bringing together verified numbers and a clear narrative. Automation helps you do that faster and more accurately.

By connecting the data you already have and letting software handle updates, layout, and consistency checks, you can:

  • Reduce the time spent updating and reviewing data
  • Eliminate repetitive formatting work
  • Keep every version aligned and auditable
  • Publish reports in professional, consistent layouts

In other words, automation isn’t about removing people, it’s about letting your team focus on analysis and storytelling instead of spreadsheet gymnastics.

 

2. What Kind of Reports Can Be Automated

Automation works across most financial and business reporting tasks, including:

  • Annual reports (online or PDF)
  • Interim financial statements
  • Audited financial statements
  • Management reports and internal summaries
  • Financial disclosures or ESG sections

What all of these have in common is structure. Once you define that structure - your tables, data points, and standard sections, you can let automation fill in the rest.

 

3. The Real Benefits of Automation

The biggest surprise for most teams is not the technology, but the simplicity. Once you stop copying and pasting numbers manually, you immediately gain:

  • Time: updates and exports happen in minutes, not hours
  • Accuracy: fewer manual errors or mismatched figures
  • Clarity: consistent data across every section and version
  • Peace of mind: built-in audit trails and approval workflows
  • Flexibility: output in both online and PDF formats, ready to share

You don’t need to overhaul your systems or hire a consultant to get these results. You just need to connect your data and start using a smarter reporting tool.

 

4. Common Misconceptions

Many teams hesitate to start because they assume automation means:

  • A complete system replacement
  • A long, complex implementation project
  • Consultants or a lot of IT involvement

In reality, modern reporting automation works on top of your existing systems. It’s designed to integrate easily, or even just work from exported spreadsheets. You can make a template of your next report and build from there.

Think of it less as “restructuring finance” and more as “making reporting less manual.”

You stay in charge - no third parties needed!

 

5. How to Automate Your Annual Reporting

Here’s the easy way to do it:

  1. Focus on what already works

    You don’t need to rebuild your reporting process from scratch.

    Start with what you already have: your existing report, templates, and financial data. The key is to organize it in a structured way so it can be reused and updated easily next year.

  2. Simplify your workflow

    Most delays happen because text, data, and design live in different places.

    Bring them together: one source of truth where updates, approvals, and reviews can happen in the same workspace. That alone can remove weeks of back-and-forth.

  3. Automate the repetitive steps

    Link your data to the report so updates happen automatically.

    Use templates that apply your brand design once, not every year.

    Automation isn’t about removing people; it’s about removing repetitive manual work.

  4. Keep compliance built in

    Regulations like ESEF and CSRD mean you’ll need reports that are both human-readable and machine-readable (XHTML).

    Modern automation tools can handle tagging and formatting as part of the process but not as a separate task.

  5. Make it collaborative

    Finance, communications, and design teams often work in silos.

    A shared digital workflow means everyone edits, reviews, and signs off in real time. No more version chaos or endless email loops.

Once your structure and templates are in place, automation takes over the repetitive work. Your team stays in control of the message - while the system ensures accuracy, consistency, and compliance.

 

6. Getting Started - It’s Easier Than You Think

You don’t need to launch a full-scale transformation.

Start with one report. One data source. One template.

When you see how much time it saves, it’s easy to expand.

Within weeks, you can move from manual spreadsheets to automated, accurate, compliant reports - fully controlled by your CFO team.

 

7. How Wrepit Helps Automate Your Annual Reports

At Wrepit, our mission is to make financial and sustainability reporting faster, simpler, and fully compliant - without adding external consultants or technical complexity.

Used by 60 + companies in Norway, including around 10 % of those listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, Wrepit delivers measurable efficiency gains of 70 – 90 % time saved across reporting workflows.

Our approach is built for impact and clarity, not complexity:

  • Rapid onboarding – most teams are up and running in under 2 hours, with no consultants or custom integrations required.
  • Familiar tools – connect directly from Excel into Word-style editing so your data flows naturally into the text where you write.
  • Automatic, high-quality design – produce polished, branded annual and sustainability reports without relying on in-house designers or costly external agencies.
  • Full regulatory compliance – from ESEF and CSRD to machine-readable XBRL tagging, compliance is built in as you write - not added after the fact.

We believe reporting should enable, not burden.

Wrepit helps teams publish reports that are accurate, engaging, and interactive, with built-in version control, brand consistency, and secure sharing.

If you’re looking to keep pace with evolving reporting requirements, strengthen stakeholder trust, and reclaim hundreds of hours every year, book a quick demo today!