What is connected reporting?

Connected reporting aims to provide a new approach to corporate reporting and to address the growing dissatisfaction, amongst both preparers and users, with the incompleteness, length and complexity of many organisations' Annual Report and Accounts.

A connected report should be focused on the needs of long-term investors and executive management. Reported information should identify and explain the connection between the organisation's strategic objectives, the industry, market and social context within which the business operates, the associated risks and opportunities it faces, the key resources and relationships on which it depends, and the governance, reward and remuneration structures in place. Further, it should explain the connection between delivery of the business's strategy and its financial and non-financial performance.

The result is a more concise, rounded and balanced picture of an organisation's overall performance which reflects the organisation's strategy and the way it is managed.

The CRF has built on, and is compatible with, the work of other organisations which have developed sustainability reporting guidelines, in particular the Global Reporting Initiative, the United Nations, AccountAbility and Defra/Trucost, and can be used in conjunction with these frameworks.