Top corporate reporting tools in 2024: features, benefits & buyer’s guide

For executives, the challenge is clear: which tools offer the automation, compliance, and collaboration needed to keep pace?

With a growing market of software solutions, finding the right fit can feel complex. This guide breaks down the main categories of reporting tools, the essential features to look for, and a comparison of leading platforms to help you make an informed decision.

Types of corporate reporting tools

Selecting a reporting tool starts with a clear understanding of where your organisation’s biggest reporting challenges sit across the end-to-end reporting lifecycle.

Corporate reporting tools span the entire journey:  from initial data analysis and financial insight generation through to controlled authoring, approval, and final publication.

Broadly, corporate reporting tools fall into four main categories, each addressing a distinct stage of this process and solving a different reporting problem:

Analytics and business intelligence tools

These support the earliest phase of reporting by enabling finance and performance teams to analyse data, explore trends, and validate figures before they are used in formal reports. Since executives and directors need clarity, not clutter, these analytics software focus on strategic oversight, presenting financial and ESG metrics securely and interactively in dashboards designed for board packs and senior discussions.

What they do well

• Connect to multiple data sources (ERP, data warehouses, spreadsheets)

• Model and transform data

• Create dashboards and interactive visualisations

• Support ad-hoc analysis and management reporting

Typical use cases

• Monthly management dashboards

• KPI tracking for finance, ESG, or operations

• Pre-reporting analysis before narrative writing

Examples

• Microsoft Power BI

• Tableau

• Qlik

Limitations

• Not designed for narrative report production

• Limited workflow, review, and compliance controls

Financial consolidation and performance management platforms

These tools establish a single source of financial truth through structured close, consolidation, planning, and regulatory data management. 

What they do well

• Financial close and consolidation

• Budgeting, forecasting, and scenario planning

• Structured data governance and audit trails

• Regulatory and statutory reporting support

Typical use cases

• Group consolidation

• Budgeting and forecasting cycles

• Regulatory financial statements

Examples

• Tagetik (Wolters Kluwer)

• Oracle EPM

• SAP Group Reporting

Limitations

• Less flexible for narrative-heavy reports

• Collaboration and content authoring are often secondary

Management reporting platforms (corporate and sustainability)

Designed to bring order to financial and operational information, these corporate reporting platforms consolidate data into actionable insights. Popular with CFOs and management teams, they are used for end-to-end production of complex corporate reports.

Sustainability reporting, included in this category, has also become a board-level priority. These solutions manage and disclose environmental, social, and governance data, ensuring compliance with standards such as CSRD, ESRS, and ESG. For companies facing sustainability scrutiny, these frameworks are increasingly non-negotiable.

What they do well

• Coordinate multiple contributors across finance, ESG, legal, and IR

• Combine numbers, narrative, tables, and visuals in one workflow

• Enforce version control, audit trails, and approvals

• Support compliance-driven reporting (financial and non-financial)

Typical use cases

• Annual reports

• Sustainability and ESG reports

• Integrated reports

• Prospectuses and investor materials

Examples

• CtrlPrint

Limitations

• Not a replacement for BI or CPM systems

• Relies on upstream data sources

Document authoring & publishing tools

Once you have completed your analysis and put together your consolidated data, it is time for final formatting and distribution. The world of corporate reporting is still evolving, and although corporations are moving towards "digital-first" reporting, a large number of companies still produce their reports in tools such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or more sophisticated design tools such as Adobe InDesign. Therefore, we think it is still important to include them in this list for a full overview.

What they do well

• Layout, formatting, and design

• PDF and print-ready outputs

• Brand consistency

Typical use cases

• Final report production

• Investor-facing publications

Examples

• Microsoft Word

• Adobe InDesign

Limitations

• No data integrity or workflow control

• High risk of versioning and copy-paste errors

Top corporate reporting tools: a selection for each category

To help navigate the market, we’ve selected four of the most established solutions to offer a comprehensive package that would help your team deliver the best corporate reports.

Each serves a slightly different niche, but all share the goal of streamlining financial and sustainability reporting.

Comparison Table

Tool A: CtrlPrint

CtrlPrint is purpose-built for collaborative financial and annual reporting. It combines secure version control, intuitive editing within Adobe InDesign and In Copy, and Microsoft Word and Excel, and full compliance with ESEF and CSRD standards through XBRL tagging.

Where it stands out is in enabling listed companies and large organisations to manage their annual reports, sustainability disclosures, and financial data together – creating comprehensive corporate reports in one streamlined workflow.

For teams that must balance precision, compliance, and storytelling, CtrlPrint offers clarity and control.

Request a demo of CtrlPrint

Tool B: Board Intelligence

Board Intelligence focuses on governance and leadership visibility. It enables the creation of secure board packs, interactive dashboards, and analytics tailored for senior executives, providing clarity where strategic oversight is needed most.

Tool C: OneStream

OneStream unifies financial consolidation, planning, and analytics. It excels at integrating ERP and large datasets, making it well-suited for multinationals and groups with complex consolidation processes.

Tool D: Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is widely used in corporate reporting as the final production and layout tool, ensuring reports meet strict brand, design, and publication standards.

It enables organisations to apply consistent typography, colour systems, grids, and visual hierarchy across complex documents such as annual, sustainability, and integrated reports.

By separating visual design from data and narrative creation upstream, InDesign helps preserve brand fidelity and presentation quality while allowing late-stage content updates with minimal disruption to the overall layout.

Highlight: key features to look for in your corporate reporting platforms

In the complex world and processes of corporate reporting, one type of tool might stand out above others: the actual corporate reporting platforms, where your report really comes to completion.

With multiple stakeholders to serve, leaders should prioritise features that enable automation, collaboration, and data trustworthiness. Among the most important capabilities are:

Automated Data Integration

Tools should connect seamlessly with ERP, CRM, and other business systems. Eliminating manual imports reduces both time and risk – advantages particularly critical in regulatory cycles.

Collaboration & Workflow Management

Reports require multiple contributors. Built-in collaboration, with tracked workflows and version control, ensures efficient team input without messy handovers.

Audit Trails & Security Controls

Trust is everything. Comprehensive audit trails and granular access rights safeguard information throughout the reporting process. CtrlPrint's ISO 27001 certification, for example, is a strategic differentiator that directly builds trust with a target audience working with highly sensitive data

Conclusion: choosing with confidence the best corporate reporting tools for you

Corporate reporting is no longer just about compliance. It is about choosing the right tool that strengthens governance, accelerates reporting cycles, and builds trust with stakeholders. While generalist platforms offer a broad spectrum of functions, it is the specialisation that builds the deepest trust.

The right decision depends on your priority, but we think a mix of the suggested tools is the best way forward to cover all the complex aspects of corporate reporting:

• Annual and financial reporting? CtrlPrint offers unmatched collaboration and compliance focus.
• Board-level insight? Board Intelligence may be the best fit.
• Consolidation and analytics? Consider OneStream.
• ESG reporting? CtrlPrint, or tools like Envizi stand out.

By defining your strategic needs first – whether ESG, board reporting, or financial consolidation – you can select the platform that fits, and ensure reporting becomes a driver of both efficiency and credibility.

Glossary of Acronyms

For quick reference, here are some key definitions:

• ESG: Environmental, Social, and Governance
• CSRD: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive
• ESRS: European Sustainability Reporting Standards
• ESEF: European Single Electronic Format
• ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning
• GRI: Global Reporting Initiative