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Support for DX in disclosure and reporting operations through the use of Anaplan
In the process of preparing documents for various disclosure and reporting recipients, the high workload and risk of human errors are key issues.
In disclosure and reporting operations, companies prepare a wide range of documents. These include financial statements and securities reports pursuant to the Companies Act and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, reports submitted to authorities pursuant to laws specific to the relevant industry and disclosure reports based on disclosure standards.
In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for full-scale compliance with IFRS and other regulations (e.g. economic value-based solvency regulations in the insurance industry) and the disclosure of non-financial information, resulting in a rapidly growing burden on related disclosure and reporting operations. In particular, the implementation of sustainability and ESG measures is no longer merely additional work. Companies are now required to present corporate value in terms of both financial and non-financial information in an integrated manner. While disclosure regulations are becoming more sophisticated and subdivided in each country, the disclosure of non-financial information is expected to become more complicated and subject to stricter requirements in the future.
With a view towards this future, one effective, efficient and low-risk approach is to move away from the person-dependent process of preparing non-financial information and expand robust internal controls for financial reporting and the implementation of systemised operational processes into the non-financial field. To this end, it is important to promptly renew current disclosure and reporting operations.
Taking the insurance industry as an example, an overview of disclosure and reporting operations and the issues involved is shown in Figure 1 and below:
Figure 1: Examples of issues in disclosure and reporting operations in the insurance industry
a. Entering the figures manually
After calculating, processing and correcting source data, the figures are manually entered in documents or presentation files.
b. Responding to errors found in internal reviews
If an error is found in the course of an internal review, it is difficult to understand the data structure and processing logic and identify the cause of the error. This difficulty arises from barriers posed by person-dependent spreadsheets for which each person in charge sets different specifications and uses different management methods. Additionally, if tasks such as recalculations or revisions of related documents need to be redone, the workload for operational staff increases, raising the risk of schedule delays.
c. Executing duplicate work processes
In order to meet multiple requests for disclosure and reporting, companies are required to prepare multiple disclosure and reporting documents using the same or similar types of figures, resulting in duplicate work processes.
d. Reviewing processes based on amendments to laws, regulations and accounting standards
Since the figures and calculation methods required for disclosure and reporting are frequently reviewed due to changes in laws, accounting standards such as IFRS and JGAAP, methodologies used in the fields of financial engineering and actuarial science or for other reasons, it is necessary to review the processes for preparing disclosure and reporting documents.
e. Collecting evidence to respond to audits
There are cases where the aggregation and processing of data is performed under the sole management of specific personnel. However, the collection of various kinds of evidence is required to fulfil accountability at the time of an audit.
If the content of a disclosure or report contains deficiencies or misstatements, it is necessary to prepare and submit a correction report to correct the information that has already been published. This poses a significant risk to trust and social credibility in the financial industry, where a high degree of public accountability is required. It is essential for the personnel responsible for disclosure and reporting to perform their tasks swiftly while maintaining a high level of accuracy in a tense environment. In addition, it is important to establish an appropriate internal control system to prevent errors or omissions in the content of a disclosure or report.
PwC supports DX in disclosure and reporting operations by focusing on four key principles.
With respect to these business issues related to disclosure and reporting, we provide support to (1) enhance governance, (2) optimise business processes, (3) implement systems and (4) promote autonomous operations through in-house development (see Figure 2). For the promotion of this kind of project, professionals from three organisations, namely PricewaterhouseCoopers Japan LLC (hereinafter referred to as ‘PwC Japan’), a PwC Consulting LLC (hereinafter referred to as ‘PwC Consulting’) team with experience in the industry and a PwC Consulting team with experience in digital and AI, will form a cross-functional team to support DX in operations with their expertise in audit and assurance, industry and digital sectors.
Figure 2: PwC supports DX in disclosure and reporting operations by focusing on four key principles
(1) Establishment of governance in anticipation of regulatory and audit compliance
Based on our extensive experience in auditing and providing support for disclosure and reporting operations, we have a clear understanding of the risks that companies face in these activities.
In order to ensure appropriate disclosure and reporting, we support the design of internal controls that comply with regulatory requirements (e.g. enhancement of documentations, establishment of review frameworks) by leveraging our deep understanding of regulatory requirements, expertise in strict governance and experience in establishing financial reporting processes.
(2) Optimisation by eliminating insufficiencies in the operational process
We will eliminate insufficiencies in the current complex and time-consuming processes and carry out business process reengineering. Our specific measures include the parallelisation of tasks that had no dependency but are performed sequentially, automation of simple tasks such as the copying and pasting of the results from preceding tasks, consolidation of duplicate efforts when the same input information is entered across different departments and standardisation of similar or identical procedures to be executed simultaneously.
Reducing man-hours for simple tasks will contribute to improving the accuracy of the content of disclosures and reports and accelerate the financial closing process. By reallocating human resources to tasks with higher added value, such as financial analysis and strategic planning, the productivity and competitiveness of the entire organisation can be improved.
(3) Implementation of an operational support system (Anaplan Disclosure Management) experienced in disclosure and reporting
A disclosure and reporting support system is a solution for efficient and sophisticated preparation of corporate disclosure and reporting documents. The use of Anaplan Disclosure Management, a global standard system, will enable you to move away from individual aggregations using spreadsheets and other tools and achieve centralised management of data used across multiple documents. As a result, you can reduce the workload involved in document preparation by automating data updates, enhance audit response efficiency via audit trail management of aggregation and document creation tasks and improve compliance through workflow management (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Overview of operations using the disclosure and reporting support system
When the system to be introduced is a global standard system, you can establish a new operational process foundation by incorporating best practices and advanced operational know-how from overseas locations. This enables consistent process design and operation across the group, even if the domestic and overseas offices use different systems, which improves data consistency, accelerates decision-making and facilitates business transformation from the perspective of optimising the entire group.
Highly recognised in the partner ecosystem of Anaplan Japan
PwC Consulting was awarded the ‘Japan Partner of the Year’ award at the Anaplan Japan Partner Award 2025. We were recognised for leading Anaplan proposals and implementations across various industries and sectors, particularly for securing one of the largest deals in the Asia region with a major manufacturing client.
In addition, PwC Consulting is certified as a Solution Advisory & Delivery Partner that leads or supports Anaplan’s sales, presales and client delivery activities.
(4) Promotion of autonomous operations for sustainable growth (in-house development)
After system implementation, frequent changes in accounting standards and other regulations often require the maintenance of existing reports and the creation of new ones. If these implementations are outsourced each time, additional costs will be incurred. Furthermore, quick system modifications could be hindered because effective communication is necessary to accurately convey specialised business knowledge and detailed requirements.
We will provide support for the accumulation of system modification know-how so that companies can autonomously respond to changes in operational requirements. Specifically, we assist in developing various documents and data formats related to system operations, transfer skills to operational staff through OJT (on-the-job training) and provide support for the internalisation of the overall system architecture and technologies (e.g. data flows and calculation logic).
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