RMGs are guidance documents. The purpose of an RMG is to support PGPA Act entities and companies in meeting the requirements of the PGPA framework. As guides, RMGs explain the legislation and policy requirements in plain English. RMGs support accountable authorities and officials to apply the intent of the framework. It is an official’s responsibility to ensure that Finance guidance is monitored regularly for updates, including changes in policy/requirements.
Finance has developed a new annual performance statements self-assessment tool to help entities prepare and review their annual performance statements. This tool is designed to complement the recently released annual report templates.
These resources help entities meet PGPA requirements, improve reporting consistency, and streamline annual planning and reporting processes. The templates for non-corporate and corporate Commonwealth entities, along with the annual performance statements self-assessment tool, are available under Tools and templates. These resources are provided as guidance only, and their use is not mandatory.
For the 2025–26 reporting period, this RMG was recently updated to:
- clarify the reporting of significant issues, including non compliance with finance law, performance against the Commonwealth Procurement Rules and likely breaches of section 83 of the Constitution
- reflect updated and new annual report content requirements, including:
- Climate Action in Government Operations and Commonwealth Climate Disclosure actions
- gender equality reporting
- Future Made in Australia reporting.
Entities affected by machinery of government changes should also refer to RMG 119 Reporting requirements following machinery of government changes, as these changes may affect annual report reporting responsibilities.
Audience
This guide applies to the accountable authorities, chief financial officers, chief operating officers, program managers and officials responsible for contributing to the delivery of the annual report within non‑corporate Commonwealth entities.
Key points
This guide:
explains what an annual report is
lists the required content for annual reports
describes how to prepare and publish an annual report
specifies the digital publication requirements, including standard data templates that entities are required to complete when creating and publishing the annual report using the Digital Annual Reporting Tool.
Resources
Related resources including tables and data templates, glossary terms, an annual report template and relevant sections of the PGPA Act and Rule are located under Tools and Templates in the right-hand menu.
Entity Resource Statement and expenses for outcomes
- For non-corporate Commonwealth entities required to summarise the total resources of the entity and the total payments made by the entity in a table. The preferred format for this table is under Tools and templates.
List of requirements template - non-corporate Commonwealth entities
- This template includes the list of requirements set out in Schedule 2 of the PGPA Rule and is available under Tools and templates.
Digital Reporting Tool data templates
- This document contains all the data templates that are required to be completed for the Tool and is available under Tools and templates.
- Where a requirement has an associated data template, a reference to that template is provided above the requirement in this RMG.
- The financial data templates only capture a subset of the required information from the financial statements.
- The non-financial data templates help to meet minimum reporting requirements for either part or all of the provisions that they relate to.
