A statutory financial statement is a kind of statutory report required by every publicly held company. These statutory reports must be shared with stockholders and also filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But even if your company is not publicly held, it’s a smart idea to keep these important financial statements up to date and in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
Keeping your financial statements up to date monthly can help in filing statutory financial reports. Of course, security is a primary concern when creating and sharing these documents. Using a virtual data room to manage the process can make it easier while offering peace of mind that your files remain secure, regardless of how many times they are accessed or downloaded.
What Type of Companies Require Statutory Financial Statements?
All publicly held companies must submit SEC filings quarterly. Investment firms and brokers may also need to file statutory financial reports. Other companies may also have to submit a statutory report annually to local jurisdictions.
Your accountant should be aware of any statutory financial report filings required and should spearhead the process. However, your accountant will not be the only pair of hands on these mission-critical statements, so managing file access, tracking file versions and having secure storage is crucial.
What’s Included in Financial Statements and why Are They Important?
Statutory financial reports typically include balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. In addition, if your statutory financial reports will be filed with any government agencies or jurisdictions, they must include an audit verification document. Keep in mind, a statutory report audit is not the same as an IRS audit. An audit is nothing to fear; it simply helps ensure that the data in your statutory report is accurate.
An audited statutory report helps decision-makers within your company track your organization’s overall financial health to make better decisions for future growth. C-level executives can use the data to determine strategies to meet objectives in the short run and for years down the line.
Having your statutory reports well organized can help ensure that your company is in regulatory compliance, which can reduce legal or operational risks that can be costly to your company.
Manage File Permissions to Control Access
Knowing the importance of statutory reports for your organization, it’s easy to see why it’s crucial to maintain and manage both the accuracy and security of the documents. Using a virtual data room for your statutory report and financial statements helps streamline the process while making it easier for key stakeholders to manage file permissions.
Your virtual data room should provide secured workspaces to manage Excel spreadsheets and other documentation. You want the capability to share files with pre-set groups of people to save time, but you also want to provide or revoke permissions on an individual basis as needed. With Caplinked, you can share spreadsheets and documents for editing as you prepare your financial reports, and even share only portions of the reporting with individuals on a need-to-know basis.
Streamline the Process by Keeping Communications Within the VDR
When you’re dealing with secure financial data, you’ll want to keep all the information within one place, securely in the cloud. Our EZ Q&A feature, along with FAQ notifications and an activity feed, enables users to ask questions, provide answers and brainstorm within the platform for security and a trail of all correspondence.
As you go through the audit process, the auditor can also ask questions through the platform, and send notifications and email updates to necessary parties to keep the audit process moving swiftly and smoothly.
Use a VDR for Your Statutory Reports to Track File Versions and Changes
Throughout the course of preparing statutory financial reports, you want to be able to track changes and go back to view prior file versions. If there is an error in calculations or data entry, you want to be able to go back to a prior draft and see where things went off course. Caplinked allows you to do it all within the platform, including editing Excel spreadsheets securely in the cloud.
Save Time and Money with a Paperless Process
Putting all your financial statements in a secure VDR not only offers an added element of security, but it can save your company time and money throughout the often tedious process of financial reporting. Shifting to a paperless process enhances security while saving time. In a world where many people are working remotely, having secure file access from anywhere is more important than ever.
Sokolove Law used Caplinked to support lender and shareholder financial reporting, and the CFO said the paperless reporting “saved more in report production and distribution costs than the service cost us.”
If you’re facing the challenge of creating a statutory report for the first time or if you’re looking for a better way to manage this important data, why not ask us about a free 14-day trial of Caplinked before you put together your next statutory report?
Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and content marketing expert specializing in technology, business and finance.
Sources:
Investopedia – SEC Filings: Forms You Need To Know
AccountingVerse – Users of Financial Statements
BDO Global – Statutory Financial Reporting
