For many companies, annual reporting still involves a long list of external partners: graphic designers, compliance consultants, XBRL tagging specialists, and IT integrators. Each handover adds cost, time, and risk.
But does it have to be this way?
More and more finance teams are discovering that they can manage the entire reporting cycle themselves - from first draft to published, compliant report - without relying on a single external consultant.
This article shows you how.
Why Companies Still Depend on Consultants
The consultant dependency in financial reporting rarely starts by choice. It usually builds up over time as a result of three things.
First, complex tools require specialist knowledge. Many traditional reporting systems were built for IT departments, not finance teams. When the software is difficult to use, someone needs to operate it, and that someone is usually external.
Second, design and compliance are treated as separate workflows. Annual reports often pass through a graphic designer for layout, then through a compliance specialist for ESEF or XBRL tagging, and then back through the finance team for final review. Each step adds a dependency.
Third, the process hasn't been questioned in years. Many organisations have used the same multi-vendor approach for so long that it feels like the only option. It isn't.
The irony is that consultants are often brought in not because the work is inherently difficult, but because the tools make it unnecessarily complex.
What "In-House Reporting" Actually Looks Like
Running your reporting cycle without consultants doesn't mean doing everything alone. It means giving your team the right tools so they don't need outside help for tasks they should already control.
In practice, an in-house reporting workflow looks something like this:
Your finance team owns the numbers, the narrative, and the structure of the report - all in a single workspace. No handovers to designers. No waiting for external agencies to update a table or fix a font.
Your data stays connected. Figures from Excel flow directly into the report and update automatically when something changes. No more copying numbers between files, and no risk of mismatched totals between the financial statements and the management commentary.
Design happens automatically. Your brand identity is applied consistently across every section, every chart, and every table - without a designer touching the file. When the content is done, the report looks professional and ready to publish.
Compliance is built into the process. ESEF tagging happen as you write, not as a separate project after the fact. There's no need to send your report to a third party for tagging and then review it again when it comes back.
The result? A reporting cycle that's faster, cheaper, and entirely within your team's control.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Your First Consultant-Free Reporting Cycle
If you've always worked with external partners, the idea of going fully in-house can feel like a big leap. It doesn't have to be. Here's a practical path.
Step 1: Start with your existing report
You don't need to redesign your annual report from scratch. Take last year's report as the baseline. The structure, sections, and layout you already have are your starting point.
The goal isn't to change the report, it's to change how you produce it.
Step 2: Connect your data
Link your Excel files to the reporting tool so that financial tables, KPIs, and charts update automatically. This single step eliminates the most time-consuming and error-prone part of the process: manual data entry and reconciliation.
Once your figures are connected, a change in Excel is reflected in the report within seconds - everywhere that number appears.
Step 3: Set up your brand design
Apply your company's visual identity once. Colours, fonts, logo placement, and layout rules should be configured at the start - not recreated by a designer every reporting season. Modern tools can do this in under an hour.
From this point on, every report you produce will be automatically designed to match your brand guidelines.
Step 4: Write collaboratively
Instead of sending Word documents back and forth over email, work in a shared workspace where everyone can see, edit, and comment in real time. Version control is built in. No more file names like "AnnualReport_v14_FINAL_edited_JK.docx".
Finance writes the numbers. Communications shapes the narrative. Management reviews and approves. All in the same place.
Step 5: Tag for compliance as you go
If your company is subject to ESEF or CSRD requirements, don't leave tagging for the end. Use a tool where you can apply XBRL tags directly while writing. This avoids the classic last-minute scramble where compliance work creates bottlenecks and delays.
Tagging during the writing process also means fewer review cycles and fewer errors.
Step 6: Review, approve, and publish
With data connected, design automatic, and compliance built in, the final review becomes about content - not about catching formatting errors or reconciling numbers. Your team approves the report, and you publish it directly in your desired format(s) - be it an interactive web report, a PDF, or the ESEF format.
No waiting for a designer. No waiting for a tagging specialist. No waiting at all.
The Real Savings: More Than Money
The cost savings of cutting external consultants are real. Design agencies, compliance consultants, and IT support for reporting projects can easily add up to tens of thousands of euros per cycle, more for listed companies.
But the savings that matter most aren't financial. They're operational.
Speed. When you control the full process, you control the timeline. No dependencies on third parties who have their own schedules and other clients. Teams that move to in-house reporting typically cut their reporting cycle by 70–90%.
Accuracy. Every handover between teams or vendors is a chance for errors. When your data flows from one source into one report, the number of potential failure points drops dramatically.
Flexibility. Need to make a last-minute change before publication? When you own the process, that's a 10-minute task, not a three-day back-and-forth with an external agency.
Confidence. Your CFO and your board shouldn't have to wonder whether the numbers in the published report match the ones in the financial system. When everything is connected, they can trust the output.
Common Objections - and Why They Don't Hold Up
"Our report is too complex for us to do in-house."
Complexity usually comes from the tools, not the content. If your report has 100 tables, that's actually a stronger argument for automation, not against it. Connected data handles complexity better than manual processes ever will.
"We don't have a designer on the team."
You don't need one. Automatic design means the software handles layout, formatting, and visual consistency. Your team focuses on the content.
"Compliance is too technical."
It used to be. When ESEF tagging required standalone software and specialised expertise, outsourcing made sense. Modern reporting tools have made tagging intuitive - CFO teams can learn it in a couple of hours, not weeks.
"We've always done it this way."
That's not a reason. It's a habit. And habits are worth questioning when they cost you weeks of work and thousands in fees every year.
Who Is This For?
This approach works best for companies that meet a few criteria:
- You produce annual reports, interim reports, or sustainability reports
- Your finance team uses Excel as a core data source or your consolidation software has an “export to excel” option.
- You currently rely on external designers, consultants, or tagging specialists
- You want to reduce time, cost, and risk in your reporting process
- You value being in control of your own deadlines
Whether you're listed on a stock exchange or a private company with growing reporting requirements, the principle is the same: the best team to produce your report is the team that knows the numbers.
How Wrepit Makes Consultant-Free Reporting Possible
At Wrepit, we built our platform specifically for this use case. We believe the finance team should own the full reporting process - without needing any consultants, designers, or IT projects.
Used by 60+ companies in Norway, including around 10% of those listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, Wrepit enables teams to go from data to published report entirely on their own.
Here's how:
- Onboarding in under 2 hours - no consultants, no custom integrations, no long implementation projects.
- Excel to Word integration - connect your data and keep it in sync across the entire report.
- Automatic design - professional, branded reports without a graphic designer.
- Built-in ESEF and XBRL compliance - tag as you write, not after the fact.
- Collaborative editing - everyone works from the same version, with full audit trail and review workflows.
The result is a reporting process that's faster, cheaper, and fully in your hands.
If you're spending weeks and thousands on external support every reporting season, it might be time to ask: what if your team could just do this themselves?
Book a free demo and we'll show you how - in 20 minutes.
