Printing an Annual Report in Tanzania: The Timetable Nobody Plans For

An annual report is two documents in one cover. It is a statutory record of the year's accounts, and it is the most widely read statement a company makes about itself. The two purposes pull in different directions, and the production timetable is where the conflict becomes expensive.

The audit is the first constraint. The audited numbers arrive late, the board approves them later still, and the printer is expected to deliver a finished book shortly after. A printer that is asked to produce four hundred copies in ten days will either refuse, charge a premium or compromise on the proofing. The company that books the press slot before the audit is signed is the company that gets a calm production.

The paper and binding are the second. An annual report is judged in the hand, and the choice of a coated or uncoated stock, a matt or gloss finish and a perfect or sewn binding changes both the cost and the impression. A sewn binding opens flat and lasts; a perfect binding is cheaper and cracks if the book is thick. The choice should be made with a physical sample, not a description.

The colour is the third. A chairman's photograph, a chart of the year's results and a brand colour are the elements most likely to disappoint. A digital proof on an uncalibrated screen is not a proof. The printer should supply a contract proof for the cover and a laser proof for the text, and the chart colours should be checked against the brand specification rather than against the screen.

The confidentiality is the fourth. An annual report contains unpublished results, and the printer's staff see them before the market does. The supplier should sign a confidentiality agreement, restrict access to the file, and confirm how the waste sheets and the proofs are destroyed. A leak traced to a print shop is a regulatory problem for the company, not only a commercial one.

The digital edition is the fifth. A PDF that is posted on the website is read on a phone, and a PDF that is a photograph of a printed page is unreadable on a phone. The report should be produced as a tagged, accessible PDF with real text, bookmarks and a file size that does not defeat a mobile connection. The same layout can serve both, and the digital file should be planned from the start.

The quantity is the sixth. The shareholders, the regulator, the AGM, the libraries and the file copies determine the print run, and the run is usually smaller than the company assumes. A short run on a digital press is economical for a few hundred copies; an offset run is economical for a few thousand. The printer should quote both and explain the break point.

The timetable is the last. A realistic schedule works backwards from the AGM: the board approval, the audit sign off, the proofing, the printing and the binding, with a week of slack for the unexpected. The company that works backwards discovers that the binding is the stage that cannot be compressed, and that the proof is the stage that should not be.