The International Integrated Reporting Council has posted a set of answers to frequently asked questions about integrated reporting and how it is transforming corporate reporting around the world.
The IIRC has been encouraging companies and their accountants to go beyond financial reporting and also report on issues such as corporate governance, sustainability, strategy and other matters. Members of the IIRC includes major businesses and investors, global leaders in the accounting profession, financial standard-setters, the World Bank, UN agencies and the World Economic Forum.
The principles of integrated reporting are being adopted by over 1,700 organizations in more than 70 countries – with these answers to frequently asked questions expected to encourage yet more organizations on the journey.
“Over the past 30 years, relationships in the market and in society, the skills of the company’s own workforce and the knowledge and ideas contained within the company may be ‘intangible assets,’ but they are now the true value drivers of a successful company in the 21st century,” said IIRC CEO Richard Howitt in a statement. “These concepts are at the heart of why integrated reporting is winning fast-growing acceptance amongst companies around the world. It is one in which social and relationship, human, natural and intellectual capital are just as important to the company, in the new era of ‘multi-capitals’ in which the business can prosper.”
IIRC CEO Richard Howitt speaking at the American Accounting Association conference
On the IIRC’s frequently asked questions webpage, users can provide direct feedback to the IIRC about which answers they found helpful, and which were not. The IIRC plans to use the feedback to evolve and add to the webpage over time.
This publication is part of a two-year program of technical guidance about integrated reporting the IIRC is publishing. The program comes after a 2017 review into the effectiveness of the International Integrated Reporting Framework, which whilst finding strong evidence demonstrating that it is a robust and successful tool for supporting this new approach to reporting, also identified areas where the market needed guidance to develop effective and robust integrated reports.
Howitt has written a blog post discussing the concept of integrated reporting and explaining why the IIRC has developed the FAQ page.
