Disclosure workflow

Disclosure management software for listed issuers

Disclosure management software is how a listed issuer plans, drafts, approves and records its market announcements. Issuers keeps the filing calendar, announcement drafts, multi-step approvals, the material event log and MAR insider lists in one workspace with a full audit trail.

Contract award, Baltic rail program

Northwind Industrial, ad hoc release, version 4

Step 4 of 5

1

Draft

M. Ortiz, Investor relations, Oct 12, 08:10

Done
2

Figures review

L. Brandt, CFO, Oct 12, 09:02

Approved
3

Legal sign-off

S. Okafor, General counsel, Oct 12, 09:47

Approved
4

Final approval

R. Hale, CEO, Due 10:30

Waiting
5

Publish

IR website and wire, After approval

Locked

Comment from legal on v3 resolved. Insider list open for event ME-2026-014.

01 How it runs today

General counsel and finance director reviewing an announcement draft together at a conference table — One draft, one chain of named approvers.

The approval lives in reply-all and the deadline lives in someone's calendar

At most small and mid caps, a release starts as a Word file attached to an email. The CFO edits a figure, legal replies to an older version, and the CEO approves by text message from an airport. Twenty minutes before the market opens, nobody is fully sure which file is final or who signed it off.

Deadlines sit in a shared calendar kept by the company secretary. Insider lists under MAR are a spreadsheet saved on a drive, rebuilt for each event. When an auditor or the regulator asks who knew about a contract before it was announced, the answer takes a week of searching inboxes.

Issuers replaces that with one record per disclosure: the deadline, the draft, every version, every approval, the event behind it and the people on its insider list. For filings with the SEC, the calendar and drafting side is covered in more depth under SEC reporting software.

02 Calendar

A disclosure calendar that knows the regime, the owner and the status of each deadline

Periodic reports, event driven releases, exchange notices and closed periods sit in one calendar. Each item has a regime (SEC, MAR or exchange rules), an owner and a status. Reminders go to the owner and the approvers at the intervals you set, and an overdue item turns red on the workspace home. The calendar with reminders is included on every plan, Growth included.

Upcoming disclosure deadlines
Due	Item	Regime	Owner	Status
Oct 16	Form 8-K, contract award	SEC	S. Okafor	In approval
Oct 22	Closed period starts, Q3	Internal policy	Company secretary	Notified
Nov 6	Q3 results release	Exchange	M. Ortiz	Drafting
Nov 9	Form 10-Q, Q3	SEC	L. Brandt	Drafting
Nov 14	Interim report, EU listed bond	MAR	L. Brandt	Not started

03 Events and insiders

Each material event carries its delay decision and its insider list

ME-2026-014, Baltic rail contract

Delayed, art. 17(4)

Inside information since: Oct 9, 16:40
Delay decided by: R. Hale, S. Okafor
Reasons recorded: Contract signature pending, immediate disclosure would prejudice negotiations. Delay not likely to mislead the market. Confidentiality monitored daily.
Regulator notice: Prepared, sent on publication

Insider list, art. 18

4 people

R. Hale
CEO, negotiation lead, added Oct 9 16:40
L. Brandt
CFO, contract value, added Oct 9 16:52
S. Okafor
General counsel, terms, added Oct 10 08:05
External counsel
Adviser, acknowledgement received Oct 10

Under the EU Market Abuse Regulation, article 17 requires an issuer to disclose inside information as soon as possible and allows a delay only under strict conditions, with the regulator informed when the information is published. Article 18 requires a list of everyone with access to that information. Issuers records the decision, the reasons and the list as one event, so the file is complete on the day you publish. Our guide to MAR insider lists covers what each list must contain.

The software records decisions, it does not make them. Whether information is inside information, and whether a delay is justified, stays with your legal team.

04 Audit trail

Every version, comment and approval is kept, and nothing can be edited afterwards

When an auditor, the audit committee or the regulator asks how a release was approved, the answer is one export rather than a week in the inbox. The trail is append only. It holds the text of each draft version, who changed what, every comment, each approval and rejection with its reason, calendar changes and insider list entries. How it is stored and protected is described on the audit trail and security page.

12 months

Growth. Calendar, reminders and their history.

7 years

Public. Drafts, approvals, material events and insider lists.

7 years

Enterprise, plus full export and your own retention policies.

05 Compared

Lighter than a reporting suite and far safer than an email chain

Reporting suites such as Workiva and DFIN are strong at building full periodic reports with linked financial data, tagging and filing, and many large filers use them for the 10-K and 10-Q. They are not built around investor relations, ad hoc announcements or MAR insider lists. An email chain is what most small caps use, and it leaves no reliable record.

Issuers disclosure workflow compared with an email chain and with a reporting suite
Work	Email chain	Reporting suite	Issuers
Deadline calendar	Shared calendar	Yes, for periodic reports	Periodic and event driven, SEC, MAR and exchange
Approvals	Replies, not recorded	Review workflows	Named chain per announcement type, logged
Full report authoring and tagging	No	Yes, core strength	No, you keep your filing agent or suite
MAR insider lists	Spreadsheet	Usually not included	Per material event, with delay reasons
Link to IR website and CRM	None	Separate	Same workspace
Price	Staff time	Quoted	Workflow from $1,499 a month billed yearly

Growth includes the disclosure calendar with reminders. Approvals, the material event log, insider lists and the 7 year trail come with Public and Enterprise. Issuers is software for issuers, and your team stays responsible for what it publishes.

Compare plans

Questions

Questions issuers ask before they start

What is disclosure management software?

Disclosure management software is the system a listed issuer uses to plan, draft, approve and record what it tells the market. It holds the calendar of periodic and event driven obligations, the drafts of announcements, the sign-offs from finance, legal and the CEO, and the log of material events and insiders. In Issuers it sits in the same workspace as your investor CRM and IR website, so an approved release publishes from the record that was signed off, and the trail shows who decided what and when.

How do approvals work before an announcement goes out?

Each announcement type has an approval chain, for example IR drafts, the CFO reviews figures, legal signs off and the CEO gives final approval. Every step is a named person with a deadline. Approvers see the draft, the comments and the changes since the last version, then approve or return it with a reason. Nothing reaches the IR website or the publication checklist until the last step is approved. Enterprise lets you define custom chains per entity and per announcement type, for groups with several listed or reporting companies.

How long is the audit trail kept?

The audit trail records every draft version, comment, approval, rejection, calendar change, material event entry and insider list change with the user and the time. It is kept for 12 months on Growth, for 7 years on Public and for 7 years with export on Enterprise, where you can pull the full record for an auditor or regulator and set your own retention policies. Records cannot be edited after the fact, only added to. The security page covers how the trail is stored.

Does it handle MAR insider lists?

Yes, on Public and Enterprise. When you open a material event, Issuers starts the insider list for it under MAR article 18 with each person, the reason they hold inside information, and the date and time they were added. People can be notified of their duties from the list, and the acknowledgement is recorded. If you delay disclosure under article 17, the event keeps the reasons and the time of the decision so the notification to the regulator can be prepared when the information is published. Our guide on MAR insider lists explains the rules.

Put every announcement through one approval chain

The full disclosure workflow with approvals, material event log and MAR insider lists is included on Public from $1,499 a month billed yearly. Growth includes the disclosure calendar with reminders.