The accounting profession possesses many of the capabilities that connected reporting demands, including materiality assessment, professional judgement, governance, controls, measurement, assurance, and the ability to communicate complex information in a way that supports decision-making.
The central message of the first connectivity publication from the Global Accounting Alliance (GAA), The Connected Reporting Landscape, is that finance professionals are not simply contributors to connected reporting. They are uniquely positioned to lead it.
To act as the lead within your organisation on connected reporting, consider the following key insights from the report.
Be the orchestrator of knowledge collaboration across organisational functions
Connected reporting cannot be achieved by finance or sustainability teams working separately. Finance professionals can lead by bringing together sustainability, finance, risk, strategy, and operations to consider the same risks, opportunities, and assumptions through a common lens.
Convene joint discussions on climate and sustainability impacts.
Challenge whether sustainability disclosures and financial statements are based on the same assumptions.
Ensure risks discussed in sustainability reports are reflected in business planning and financial reporting.
The report identifies strong cross-functional collaboration as the single most important enabler of connectivity.
Apply materiality and professional judgement
A great strength of a finance professional is in determining what information matters for decision-making. Accountants can help organisations avoid both under-disclosure and over-disclosure by applying disciplined materiality assessments across financial and sustainability information
Assess whether climate-related risks should influence impairments, provisions, useful lives, or expected cash flows.
Challenge inconsistencies between narrative commitments and financial assumptions.
Focus reporting on information that is genuinely decision-useful.
Ensure the narrative and the numbers tell the same story
Connectivity means ensuring that sustainability-related disclosures, governance disclosures, and financial statements collectively describe the same business reality.
Test whether a net-zero commitment is reflected in capital expenditure plans.
Assess whether climate risks discussed in narrative reporting are reflected in impairment testing.
Review disclosures as an integrated whole rather than as separate compliance exercises.
Embed sustainability into business decision-making
Finance professionals can influence budgeting, forecasting, capital allocation, and risk management to embed sustainability considerations in decision-making processes.
Incorporate climate and sustainability factors into investment appraisals.
Include sustainability metrics in performance management.
Integrate sustainability risks into enterprise risk management frameworks.
The report presents the accountant's role as a bridge between three critical elements: data, decisions, and disclosures. This is perhaps the clearest description of the leadership opportunity: Accountants can connect operational reality, management decisions, and external reporting into a single coherent story.
This is the first of three linked GAA publications, the GAA Connectivity in Reporting Series, designed to build progressively from concept to implementation to practical tools.
The first report sets the foundation for the series by explaining what connectivity means and why it matters, as well as the role of the accounting profession in delivering high-quality, decision-useful reporting.
The second publication, “Connectivity in Governance and Processes,” will focus on embedding connectivity in governance, internal reporting, and decision-making, and the third publication, “Principles of Connected Reporting,” will provide a practical framework and tools for implementation.