Reporting is evolving for the AI age. Is your agency ready?
Reporting is changing fast. This shift is being accelerated by AI’s demand for trusted digital information, new digital regulations, and the emergence of specialist design software such as Reportl.
Author: Louise Coen
Customer Success Manager
In this article, we explore how Reportl enables expert reporting design teams to transform the way they deliver reporting — and why PDFs alone are no longer enough.
Print-PDFs are no longer enough
What does this mean for reporting agencies?
What is Reportl?
How does Reportl work?
Why choose Reportl?
Reportl and designers
Reportl and finance software
1. Print-PDFs are no longer enough
Since 2021, when ESEF HTML reporting regulation came into force, the 'official' shift towards digital reporting quietly began.
Most early solutions relied on converting print‑designed PDFs into HTML – a pragmatic short‑term fix. But five years into the requirement, it’s clear this 'conversion' process fails to deliver on the opportunities of digitisation.
PDF‑based reports are not well structured, making them difficult for machines and AI to read, exposing data quality flaws and file conversion weaknesses. PDF-first reporting doesn't deliver the efficient, accessible, mobile‑friendly content that digitisation promises.
Regulators highlight this. The UK FRC has stated that :
“PDF conversions suffer from messy, unreliable code, poor usability and excessive file sizes.”
Today, most official annual reports remain inaccessible to the majority of stakeholders, failing in a primary goal of the ESEF mandate - improved accessibility.
2. What does this mean for reporting agencies?
Despite demand rising for digitally accessible reporting, design teams have had their hands tied by the limitations of print software used to create PDFs. However, AI is changing this. Now that AI demands digitally accessible content online, reporting design teams are coming under pressure to find suitable solutions.
Investors and stakeholders increasingly rely on AI tools to analyse corporate reporting
AI tools can't reliably analyse PDF data and code
Regulated reports must be digital, structured and tagged - creating them natively in HTML makes reports more reliable for AI analysis.
Regulators are scrutinising the quality and usability of digital reports.
Since 2022, the FRC has highlighted the limitations of the PDF conversion process for ESEF reporting. Digital reporting quality is now a topic for Board review, and regulators are actively writing to companies where issues are found. From 2026, Board declarations on compliance controls will include the mandatory digital format (ESEF).
Traditional print‑led design software can't meet the long term requirements of AI and digitisation. Agencies are increasingly looking for digital‑first reporting solutions which deliver native HTML, structured data and AI‑accessible content.
This is exactly what Reportl is built for.
3. What is Reportl?
Reportl is a purpose‑built reporting content management system (CMS), developed by specialist digital reporting designers in collaboration with companies, investors, auditors, regulators, developers and data scientists.
Created to solve the limitations of print design software, Reportl produces all required reporting outputs from a single system:
Digital‑first online reports
iXBRL / ESEF filings
PDF reports
Print outputs
Reportl fits naturally into existing reporting processes. It is intuitive for content editing and requires no major process or internal system changes for companies. The use of Reportl is mainly implemented by the design team.
4. How does Reportl work?
Reportl digitises reporting design and production to deliver all formats from the same digital source. There is no conversion stage and no difference in content between formats.
Digital structured content is created in one place. This is then published 'in a click' across all required formats — online, iXBRL, PDF and print.
The result is consistent, compliant, accessible reporting — delivered quickly and efficiently.
5. Why choose Reportl?
While the PDF format remains important, it is no longer meets all the evolving demands of AI and digital stakeholders. This requires full online reporting built with high quality, well-structured code and data tagging – alongside the PDF and printed report.
Reportl enables companies and their design teams to meet all these needs from a single system.
Reportl produces digital reports that meet the needs of AI, Google, investors, stakeholders and regulators, while also transforming engagement online. Reportl analytics show that 85% of users choose the digital‑first online report over PDF.
Some of Reportl's benefits include:
- AI-friendly, accessible, multi‑format outputs
- Single‑source content for all formats
- Remote, collaborative editing
- Automation of many manual production tasks
- Integrated iXBRL tagging with no tagging delays
- Mobile friendly reporting
- SEO, GEO and user analytics
6. Reportl and designers
Reportl was developed by designers, for designers, bringing together decades of web software and annual reporting experience into a single integrated tool.
With Reportl, agencies can digitise the specialist design and production skills they already have — moving from print software such as InDesign to Reportl. Clients' reporting schedules and workflows can remain largely unchanged, and the agency process doesn't require web developers.
The main shift at the agency is within the design team. With appropriate training, designers can transition from print‑first tools to a digital‑first environment, unlocking beautiful and efficient multi‑channel reporting.
As their experience and confidence grows, designers explore and create directly in Reportl, using their understanding of reporting to bring ideas to life digitally. Finally, what the design and production team create is ready to publish – there is no development stage needed.
7. Reportl and finance software
Finance and reporting teams use a range of disclosure and consolidation systems (like Workiva, Tagetik, SAP, HFM, etc) to manage their pre-published data and content.
As a digital‑first, multi‑format publishing platform, Reportl complements these finance systems by providing advanced reporting design and build capabilities across formats – online, PDF, print and iXBRL.
Using Excel sync, finance teams' content and data can be integrated into the Reportl editing workflow, enabling greater process efficiency. And once all content is signed off, Reportl delivers the full reporting suite across all required formats – in a click.
In summary
As digital reporting demands increase, corporate and sustainability reporting is becoming more challenging — particularly for agencies and design teams.
Reportl simplifies this, enabling:
AI‑optimised, tagged online reporting
Fully accessible digital‑first design
Online, PDF, print and iXBRL outputs at the click of a button
Automated cross‑references and content linking
Data syncing (e.g. Excel)
Full version history
Automated translation
User analytics
Native XHTML (built to FRC/Xii best practice)
If you’d like to explore how Reportl can help digitise your agency's reporting processes and build your team's expertise, we’d be delighted to show you how it works.
Please contact Louise Coen at [email protected].
