Annual report process and SOP development
Document how your report is produced so the process doesn’t leave when the person running it does.
Get in touchMost teams have a timeline but not a process
An annual report takes months, pulls in people from across the organisation and has a non-negotiable deadline.
A timeline only lists what’s due and when. An SOP sets out how the report gets made — who does what, how content moves, what gets checked — so someone new can pick it up and run it.
We work with
- ASX listed
- Private companies
- Federal, state and local government
- Peak bodies and associations
- Financial services
- NFPs
How we build it
We work with your reporting team to document the process as it actually runs.
Discovery
We interview the people involved, read your existing documentation and map the production process end to end.
Gap analysis
We identify what is documented, what isn’t, where the risks sit and where the process breaks down under pressure.
Drafting
We write the SOP and the tools that go with it — workflows, role definitions, templates and checklists.
Review and handover
We walk your team through it, revise it on their feedback and hand over a document you own and can edit.
What we deliver
Take the whole engagement, or just the part you need. Each item is a piece of work on its own.
- Process review — your current workflow mapped, with the gaps and bottlenecks ranked
- SOP development — roles and responsibilities, content workflow, approvals and sign-off, kickoff to publication
- Supplier and stakeholder management — how designers, printers and contributors are briefed, and the lead times they need
- Compliance checklists — every disclosure obligation and data source, listed against the person who owns it
- Quality assurance checkpoints — proofreading, fact checking, accessibility and financial cross-checks, set as fixed stages
- Templates and tools — briefs, contributor guidelines, approval trackers, version control
- Post-production review — a facilitated debrief, written up as amendments to the SOP
- Annual update — a yearly pass as regulations, suppliers and people change
- Scope that fits — the full SOP, or a single piece
The evidence base guiding our work
We built a framework for annual report communication based on research and best practice examples. It guides the reports we write and produce, and it’s what we score against in a Report Review.
In an SOP, the same criteria become checkpoints: what each section has to explain, who confirms it, and what the draft is checked against before it goes to sign-off.
Led by a reporting specialist
WorkWords Content is led by Amanda Vanelderen, Certified Practising Marketer, five-time Australasian Reporting Awards adjudicator and author of Write Better. Amanda has written, edited and coordinated dozens of annual reports for business and government.
Amanda is supported by a network of specialist report researchers, writers, editors and design partners across APAC.
More about report SOPs
We already have a production timeline. Is that an SOP?
No. A timeline tracks deliverables and dates for one cycle. An SOP documents how the project is run — roles, workflows, decision rights, compliance checklists and quality steps. The timeline changes every year. The SOP is the framework underneath it.
Can you do this during our reporting cycle?
Yes, and it works differently. We observe and document the process while it runs, then write it up after publication. That version is usually combined with the post-production review.
What does it cost?
It depends on the size of your process and how much of the engagement you take — a debrief alone is a much smaller piece of work than a full SOP with templates. We quote on a defined scope after a conversation about your reporting cycle.
Can this be combined with your writing or review services?
Yes. Many clients start with a Report Review and use what it finds to brief the SOP, or add SOP development to an annual report writing engagement so the process is documented while we run it.