ACCA introduces integrated reporting into qualification
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) will be the first global accountancy body to introduce integrated reporting into its qualification. The body said students will be examined on integrated reporting, or IR, for the first time in the accountancy profession in December 2014.
It comes after the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) launched its new IR framework last month. IR applies principles and concepts that are focused on bringing greater cohesion and efficiency to the reporting process.
The IIRC framework rests on the central idea of the "multiple capitals" that an organisation uses and affects: financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and natural.
Alan Hatfield, director of learning at ACCA, said the change “resonates” with the body’s core values.
He added: “We continue to enhance our syllabus on a regular basis to ensure that ACCA members are at the forefront of good practice. This means that we can be confident that ACCA members are complete finance professionals, equipped with skills to work in all sectors.”
“Most of the elements of integrated reporting were already included in our global syllabus, but we have taken the opportunity to bring them together and IR will form part of our assessment going forward.”
This change resonates well with ACCA’s core values, such as opportunity, innovation and accountability, Mr Hatfield continued.
ACCA was the first professional accountancy body to examine in IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and the first, in 2000, to examine on the framework of GRI, the Global Reporting Initiative.
IR has been hailed as an opportunity to align business reporting more closely with shareholder value in a way that could ultimately support a more stable business and investment environment.
Larry Bradley, global head of audit at KPMG International, said: “It is time to move business reporting beyond merely a discussion of past financial performance. Integrated reporting can play a key role in the drive for better business reporting.”