End-to-End-Process to the ESEF and ESG Annual Report
The leading editorial system SmartNotes increases efficiency in the creation of annual reports as well as iXBRL reports and helps you to easily implement the current ESEF requirements.
End-to-end process in one software solution: working with SmartNotes from the first data import and the subsequent input of corrections, to the publication of the annual report in a print-ready layout without media discontinuity. The simple handling with well-known Microsoft Office products, the clear menu navigation, and the automated execution of manual work steps guarantees you the fast and efficient creation of any kind of business reports. Thanks to the publication-ready layout you minimise not only costs, but also strenuous communications with the agency.
SmartNotes in detail
From the initial data import, through subsequent correction updates, to the finished print-ready annual report - a solution that meets all requirements.
Our Disclosure Management SmartNotes allows you to import figures from all common consolidation and ERP systems including: SAP, LucaNet, HFM, Cognos and many more. Any charts, diagrams and even individual figures contained in the text are automatically filled in.
Whenever data is imported, our Disclosure Management software displays a list of any chapters containing modified values. This allows the user to see at a glance which parts of the report require manual revision. Validation rules can be adjusted according to context and any data inconsistencies are then highlighted on the dashboard.
Thanks to the integrated roles and authorization function, access to the various report components can be authorized on a person-by-person basis. From SMBs to global corporations, SmartNotes caters for customers of all sizes.
Using the "factory" functions you can transfer content from master to sub-documents and re-use identical text blocks for efficiency. For example, separate financial statements or risk reports can be produced in an assembly line fashion.
Our generic and certified AMANA XBRL Engine supports the editing of any number of taxonomies. SmartNotes not only ensures that your reports comply with the new European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) regulations, but also helps you to prepare your SEC filings and any other local GAAP reports in XBRL Format (e.g. UK GAAP) with ease.
With the automatic historization of the contents, our Disclosure Management SmartNotes contains a full audit trail and offers auditability. Individual requirements can be integrated, e.g., via freely definable workflows.
The integrated Layout Robot produces a high-resolution layout within the system. Your reports can be printed straight out of SmartNotes without having to rely on a graphic agency to put it into InDesign for you.
Layouts directly from SmartNotes:
Annual Reports 2022 –
comply with ESEF and iXBRL using SmartNotes
Starting from 2022, the full notes to the financial statements have to be tagged with ESEF text block taggings, additionally to the main financial statements, which is a new challenge for preparers and audit firms. With our disclosure management system SmartNotes, the tagging of text blocks is menu-supported and therefore very convenient. Basically, SmartNotes is based on Microsoft Office products. However, the content controls here can be conveniently inserted, edited or deleted via the SmartNotes context menu.
This guarantees fast and reliable ESEF reporting!
ESG Reports –
recent developments and AMANA contribution to the EFRAG working group
The recommendations of the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) are on the agenda for corporate reports.
The nomination of an International Sustainability Standards Board at IFRS Foundation is a result of the ESG standardisation need expressed by capital market participants, Switzerland proposed Geneva as a location for the new board and announced the binding implementation of the TCFD for the 2023 financial year. Germany 2023.
Setting the right priorities in the vast field of the ESG topics poses a big challenge. Our SmartNotes clients have been continuously extending the use of SmartNotes to ESG reporting content for many years. See below the testimonials of our clients in this context.
AMANA strongly supports the suggestion for cooperation between EFRAG and IFRS Foundation by Accountancy Europe.
AMANA is actively contributing to the most recent and concrete developments in this area. Richard Bössen, Head of our XBRL Development Team, is a member of the working group at EFRAG. EFRAG has recently published a “Working paper on climate standard prototype”. The development of the XBRL standard is in the scope of the working group activities. The adoption of upcoming standards in different European countries is just a matter of time.
Benefits with our Disclosure Management Software
External agency costs are considerably reduced through the creation of print-ready reports.
With SmartNotes, a high level of data consistency is achieved within a report or between different reporting languages. The central user interface provides a single point of truth, so that all contents are centrally available to all employees.
An automated execution of manual activities by SmartNotes. This includes, for example, data consistency between tables, continuous texts, various report languages and the roll-forward functionality.
Reduce coordination between your departments with our Disclosure Management system. Our software supports you both internally and externally by a ‘single point of truth’ approach and the possibility to produce reports and presentations ready for printing. In addition, you can simply create (partial) documents and automatically compare report versions. The precise tracking of changes after a data import and a variety of evaluations for the most important report information also supports the process.
Reporting is done in the familiar Microsoft Office products, which reduces the amount of training required to use SmartNotes.
The AMANA XBRL engine integrated with SmartNotes enables you to create consistent XBRL, iXBRL, and ESEF reports.
Factsheet
Get an overview of the key features of our Disclosure Management SmartNotes. In the end-to-end process to the ESEF and ESG annual report.
Publication Series
In our first issue of our REPORTING PROCESS series, we would like to introduce you to the challenges of working with a wide range of stakeholders.
Text block tagging
The new challenge is the so-called text block tagging of the annex, which can also have a significant impact on the reporting process. In our whitepaper on text block tagging, you will find all the information you need to ensure that the ESEF business report preparation process runs smoothly.
Webinars
Get an overview of the webinars on our intelligent software solution SmartNotes.
Webinars of ESEF and our Disclosure Management SmartNotes
Disclosure Management SmartNotes: End-to-end process to the ESEF and ESG annual report
Our Disclosure Management SmartNotes increases the efficiency in the creation of annual reports and iXBRL reports and helps you to implement the ESEF requirements. Work with SmartNotes from the first data import, through the input of corrections, to the publication of the annual report in a print-ready layout without media discontinuity. Our Disclosure Management System relieves you of the manual work steps so that you can concentrate on essential content.
Referents: Björn Bielesch and Nina Schüller
ESEF text block tagging - Lessons Learned
According to the new ESEF Regulation, the tagging scope for the preparation of ESEF annual reports ending after 01.01.2022 has been significantly increased. The full notes to the financial statements have to be tagged with text block taggings, additionally to the main financial statements, which is a new challenge for preparers and audit firms.
In our webinar, the experiences from the first year of ESEF implementation will be presented, especially regarding text block tagging. In addition to the technical requirements, we will also discuss practical examples of our intelligent software solution SmartNotes.
Referents: Paul Beckmann and Catalina Ibanez
ESG Reporting with AMANA: Automated Data Flow and integrated XBRL Tagging
The current European Sustainability Reporting Standard (ESRS) exposure draft, as published by EFRAG defines 178 sector-agnostic disclosure requirements, sector specific disclosure requirements are not yet defined. Those disclosure requirements describe hundreds of single data points and narrative disclosures that must reported in a human-readable report, as well as in a digital and machine-readable format. It includes data points on water and energy consumption, Greenhouse Gas emissions, pollution, biodiversity as well as many social aspects like disclosures on workforce. Policies, targets, and specific action plans will have to be reported in order to see how companies are going to face the challenges of a changing world and climate change.
In our webinar, we are going to summarize the challenges regarding the actual reporting and publication process, which includes:
• How to calculate, collect and consolidate the required data points by using solutions from AMANA partners.
• Using disclosure management software to be able to work collaboratively on the sustainability statements.
• Automate the data flow from various sources into management reports in order to eliminate manual and error-prone process as well as to optimize the last-mile reporting process.
• Options how to handle formatting and the production of glossy and ready-to-print reports in Word or InDesign as well as online reports.
• Digital tagging of sustainability and financial statements with the ESRS or ISSB XBRL taxonomy.
• Auditing and publication of the final report.
Referents: Richard Bössen and Philipp Stampfuss
XHTML Table Tags – How to fulfill the auditors requirement of having table tags in PDF-based documents
In some countries auditors require that tables in ESEF reports have to be marked up as XHTML table tags, meaning that that each row and column of a table that is part of a text block tagging in the attachment is explicitly tagged with an XHTML element.
For PDF based reports this is a challenge because of their print-centric layout. It would in fact require companies to base their report for example on Word and thereby lose critical layout capabilities.
AMANA did however, find a solution to this challenge which enables you to keep working with PDF files as a source for your ESEF report while at the same time fulfilling the auditors requirements about XHTML table tags.
In our webinar, we will talk in more detail about this requirement and show you how you can use the XBRL Tagger to create a report that both looks the way you want and still satisfies your auditor.
Referents: Janis Steinmann
Success stories
Primeo Energie
We use SmartNotes to compile four independent annual reports, one group report, and three segment reports. From the point of view of communication and procedures, it was crucial for us that the reports, created with Word, were fully ready for printing. SmartNotes fulfills this task skillfully. In particular, we benefit from automation advantages, especially in the financial reporting sector. In addition, from the outset we now have only print-ready reports in our internal process, which is very helpful and efficient for corrections or content coordination.
Glencore
We implemented SmartNotes for our financial and production reporting and have reached a high level of automation in our work process. The excellent functionalities for numbers as well as the design implementation within SmartNotes has made the reporting process both more efficient and completely transparent. The SmartNotes project team supported us competently and professionally throughout the entire implementation period.Being a listed company on the London stock exchange we are using Smartnotes to prepare the ESEF report (European Single Electronic Format), with taggings of primary statements as well as notes to the financial statements. We performed the project with internal resources and the support from AMANA, using their competences in both areas XBRL technical and accounting. The integration of XBRL tagging into SmartNotes has allowed us to further enhance the automation in the report production process.
Idorsia
SmartNotes significantly facilitates Idorsia’s Financial Reporting process and was particularly helpful in the IPO (Initial Public Offering) process and for the first financial reporting a few weeks after the demerger. Using the strong collaboration and review capabilities, and how layout changes can be easily implemented, SmartNotes allows to focus on quality and consistency.
Deutsche Großbank
A major German bank uses the AMANA XBRL Engine to generate its FINREP/COREP reports. AMANA has developed a web service (‘XBRL Bridge’) that can import data from the ‘Financial Data Warehouse’ (Oracle database) in order to generate XBRL instances from them. In addition, the instances can be validated (XBRL Formula Validation + Custom Validation) and visualised (Excel reports). The XBRL Bridge of Deutsche Bank is accessed via a web-based interface (Java).
Currently over 80 users work with our solution. To date, hundreds of FINREP|COREP|AE instances have been transmitted using the XBRL Bridge by all European group entities. Among the recipients of the XBRL reports is the Bundesbank as well as the FCA in the UK, the Banco de Portugal and others. Deutsche Bank was the first bank in Europe to submit the reports on time.
We worked closely with the authorities to optimise the new process. The ECB referred explicitly to the largest XBRL report submitted by the Deutsche Bank in November 2014 – because it overtaxed the undersized systems of the ECB.
Pass Consulting
MULTIBANK is a foreign banking system of the PASS Consulting Group; it is a user-oriented core banking system for private banks and foreign banks. Based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV®, it provides modular support for the specific requirements and complex processes of a bank. The AMANA XBRL Engine is used for FINREP|COREP reports. By integrating the AMANA XBRL Engine ‘invisibly’ in the core banking software, PASS Consulting offers its clients a perfect ‘in-house’ solution. Over 20 banks have implemented the PASS core banking software today, using our processor to send their monthly and other required European XBRL reports. We played a coaching role for the PASS Consulting employees responsible for the client implementations. Thanks to this multiplier effect our product was quickly adopted by many banks.
Duferco
We are using SmartNotes for two reports on a quarterly/semiannual basis. SmartNotes has a highly sophisticated functionality for financial reports and helps us to concentrate on content while automating numbers in tables in text. The roll-forward functionality is also very helpful and allows us to produce the first versions of the next period reports in just couple of minutes. Although we are not a public company, with no requirement to publish our financial statements, we nevertheless use the Layout Robot feature to prepare internal reports with professional layouts for our main stakeholders (shareholders and banks).