Annual Report

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In order to be a successful investor, most experienced investors would agree that it is important to understand as much as possible about what you are investing in. Fortunately, the SEC, or Securities and Exchange Commission, requires companies to publish a number of documents that provide valuable information on a regular basis. The annual report is one of these documents. Taking the time to read and understand it can help investors gain valuable information and make better investing decisions.

The typical annual report is divided into a number of sections. The first major section is typically a narrative section that typically includes a company overview, performance or year in review, and forward-looking statements. This is a chance for the company to provide information about the history and trajectory of the company that might not be apparent in the company's financial documents.

For example, in this first section a retail company like Target or Costco might describe its expansion strategy from the past several years and also detail how it intends to expand and build new stores in the upcoming years. In addition to providing information about its growth strategy, it might describe how it plans to increase its store size so that it can sell a wider range of products to suit its customers' needs. This type of information can help investors to better understand a company's competitive strategy and make a determination about whether the company is likely to be successful in the years to come.

The next section of the annual report is financial documents section where the company publishes its income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, auditor's report, and from time to time, graphs and charts to illustrate points about their financial position.

The auditor's report typically is included to reassure investors and others reading the annual report that the company's financial documents accurately represent a company's financial condition and results. The auditor is typically an independent third -party hired by the company to certify its financial documents.

The income statement shows how much revenue the company made, how much it paid out in expenses, and based on these amounts how much net income it made over a time period. Studying this document can help you better understand a company's profitability.

The balance sheet shows a company's current financial position. It displays the value of the company's assets, liabilities, and shareholders' equity. The current balance sheet, especially when viewed alongside previous balance sheets, can give you an idea of how well a company has been managing its finances.

The cash flow statement shows how much cash has moved in and out of the company during a specific time period.

This document, which is derived from both the income statement and balance sheet, can help give you additional information about how effectively a company is managing its money.

On top of simply displaying the financial documents, companies usually provide some description about these documents in the annual report. They might explain certain things like why a company took on more debt, issued new stock, or had higher expenses compared to previous years.

Not everyone takes the time to read the annual report, because it is typically lengthy, and frankly, boring to most people. However, ignoring it can be a big mistake. If investors take the time to read and understand this document, they will understand more about a company than the average investor, and therefore have an edge when it comes to making investing decisions.

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2008 Annual Report: it Governance, Risk and Compliance - Improving Business Results and Mitigating Financial Risk

IT GRC among the most mature

Marked by a focus on operational excellence, firms with the most mature IT GRC profiles have established an integrated approach to managing risk and reward within the IT function and across the entire organization. Among these firms, senior managers in IT are employing the balanced scorecard to:

1 .Regulate reward and risk decisions impacting the organization

2 .Establish policies and objectives for IT

3 . Institute a learning and growth culture that includes continuous quality improvement within the IT function

Within the IT function, and across legal, audit, internal controls, and business lines, the management of objectives for business reward and risk are being achieved with continuous quality improvement, control objectives, frequent measurement and reporting, common procedures, and high levels of automation, all complemented by IT service level objectives and contracts with IT vendors . Within the IT operations function, the focus is on common IT procedures, more automated controls, continuous measurement, and diligent IT change management and prevention procedures. Marked by the use of Six Sigma among some firms and simpler Continuous Quality Improvement cycles among many others, the most mature organizations establish a focus on operational excellence within IT that reflects results back into the objectives established and improved through the use of a balanced scorecard. Among these firms, the hallmark of the approach is: Make it easy to understand, easy to implement, and continuously improved.

Improving business results and mitigating financial risk

The Continuous Quality Improvement effort for the governance of IT and the balancing of reward and risk associated with the use of IT takes place at all levels within IT, and across the organization, among the most mature organizations An empirical IT GRC capability maturity model Primary benchmark research conducted by the IT Policy Compliance Group during the past two years has resulted in a GRC Capability Maturity Model (GRC CMM) with specific practices, competencies, and capabilities associated with each maturity level . This fact-based GRC Capability Maturity Model can be used to assess current maturity levels and quantify the business outcomes associated with each maturity level, as well as identify desired business outcomes and the capabilities, practices, and competencies needed to improve results. The scale employed for the GRC CMM borrows from prior research, including significant contributions made by ISACA and the IT Governance Institute. Against this scale, the business results, financial losses, financial risks, business disruptions, and regulatory compliance experience of more than 2,600 firms have been mapped, from worst (level 1) to best (level 5) results.

The competencies, capabilities, and practices associated with each maturity level in the GRC CMM are those of the firms with specific business results at each level. This basis for the practices, capabilities, and competencies in the GRC CCM delivers empirical insight into what is working and not working, based upon primary research and facts, not hypothesis .

Implications and analysis

The way to improve business results and to reduce risk, loss, and expense is to increase or enhance the IT GRC competencies, practices, and capabilities governing the business rewards and risks associated with the use and disposition of IT . While most organizations will need to improve results, operating at the highest maturity level may be inappropriate for some firms . For some, the desired objective may be to operate at level 4 .5 or 4 .0 on the GRC CMM maturity scale . As a result, improving the balance between business reward and risk for a specific organization is going to be a journey that must be taken relative to the industry within which it competes.

Organizational competencies The organizational competencies implemented by the most mature firms include leadership by IT, legal, audit and finance functions; employee training and a culture of compliance; improvements to specific practices and capabilities within IT operations; IT assurance and audit; and a continuous quality improvement effort . Organizational competencies • IT, legal, internal audit, and finance leadership

• Employee training and a culture of compliance

• Improvements to IT risk assessments, data protection, IT audit, risk, and compliance practices and capabilities

• Adjustments to spending in IT to support needed capabilities

• A continuous quality improvement program for IT GRC

• An integrated IT GRC program

These are the hallmarks of an integrated IT GRC program being implemented by the most mature firms .

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2008 Annual Report: IT Governance, Risk and Compliance - Improving Business Results and Mitigating Financial Risk

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How to create an annual report (latest trends)?

I have to make an annual report for my company. Although I downloaded a few annual reports from other companies, I want to have a clear idea of what to include (for what purpose?) and what the latest trends are when writing an annual report.

There are three key parts to an annual report.

1) MD&A
2) Statutory filings
3) Other

If you are a private company, then usually the annual report is only the statutory filings bound up on white paper with a cover on it. Sometimes private companies want to sex this part up because the Board wants to have something nice to put on their desk. If this is the case, then outsource to a PR firm. They'll do a nice job. If you don't have the budget, then put about 10 pages on the front of a picture of the Board (if available), some nice photos of the office and/or its business and then supliment with a few stock photos. You can then add a few graphs that would summarize the year's progress versus its history (if it can be done easily and looks positive). Otherwise - think simple and nicely done. You probably want to omit the MD&A because its a waste of management time since the target audience for the document is the Excecutive Board and Board of Directors. Unless the CEO is a major narcissist who loves to write 5 page essays on his company's progress - then skip it.

If you are a public company, then you do all of the three sections. However, do yourself a favor and outsource the first and last part to a PR firm. They'll do a professional job and give you a template to work off of next year. If you don't have the budget, then use other public companies' reports as templates. This is how:

a) You actually start off with "Other". This is the "Yay Team" section that has nice pictures of how happy, fun (yet serious) and responsible the company is.
b) Then you have the MD&A (Management Discussion and Analaysis). This is where the Chairperson writes a speech about how the year went. This is usually backward looking and all forward looking information is omitted due to the lack of safe-harbor statement on an annual report.
c) The statutory filings (10K) are then bolted on the back, including all the extra stuff needed for publicly listed companies (e.g. shareholdings, etc.). Your auditors will do this.

Enerplus files 2009 Annual Report and oil and gas reserves and operational information
Enerplus Resources Fund has filed its Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2009 with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval in Canada, and has filed its Annual Report on Form 40-F for the year ended December 31, 2009 with the U.S.

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