As climate and other sustainability-related matters become increasingly central to strategy, governance, risk management and long-term resilience, stakeholders need reporting that shows how these issues connect to financial performance and value creation. Connected reporting helps bring sustainability and financial information together, supporting a clearer and more coherent understanding of an organization’s performance, risks and prospects.

The report examines why connectivity is becoming a defining feature of high-quality, decision-useful corporate reporting, and why it can be difficult to achieve in practice. It highlights the reporting risks created by fragmented information, organizational silos and checklist-driven approaches, while emphasizing the importance of governance, shared frameworks and collaboration across finance, sustainability, risk and strategy teams.

Drawing on the perspectives of the GAA’s ten professional accounting bodies representing more than 1.4 million accountants across over 180 countries, and informed by over thirty interviews with stakeholders across the reporting ecosystem, the publication sets out the important role professional accountants can play in supporting and driving more connected reporting. Their skills in judgement, measurement, controls, assurance readiness and cross-functional collaboration are essential to helping organizations tell a more complete story about performance, risk, resilience and long-term value.