In business, maintaining reports is not an easy task. It is very difficult, and without any proper guidelines in this method, it will become a loss for the company. There are many techniques for collaborating with stakeholders and focusing on shareholders. Many companies prefer integrated reporting and traditional financial reporting for these methods.
Integrated Reporting vs Traditional Financial Reporting
The main difference between Integrated Reporting and Financial Reporting is that integrated reporting focuses on collaborating with stakeholders. But in traditional financial reporting focuses on shareholders. Both methods come under-reporting, and it is used based on the type of work they do and their future requirements.
Integrated reporting helps us to collaborate with many companies, which results in more stakeholders for the company. There are seven principles that are followed in integrated reporting as Strategic Focus and orientation of the future, Connecting Information, Relationships with Stakeholders, Materiality, Conciseness, Reliability, and Completeness, and Consistency, and Comparability.
Traditional financial reporting can be divided into two categories such as external financial reporting and internal financial reporting. Its main aim is focused on the shareholders of the company. The main objective of traditional financial reporting is to prepare and publish the related financial statements of the company. It is not only useful for shareholders. It is also useful for those who are interested.
Comparison Table Between Integrated Reporting and Traditional Financial Reporting
| Parameters of Comparison | Integrated Reporting | Traditional Financial Reporting |
| Definition | It collaborates with many companies to increase stakeholders. | It is focused on the shareholders of the company. |
| Advantages | It is a single report; therefore, it is easier to access. | It uses straightforward techniques and tools. |
| Disadvantages | Data analysis will be difficult. | It fails to meet the information of the stakeholders. |
| Government Body | This method is promoted by the international integrated reporting council. | This method is promoted by the international accounting standards board. |
| Information | This method focuses on both financial and non-financial information. | This method focuses only on financial information. |
What is Integrated Reporting?
Integrated reporting is the communication that happens in a corporate sector. It provides information about that organization’s strategy, its performance, and leads generated. All these things happen either in the long term or short term. The main purpose of integrated reporting is to explain the things that are happening financially. It contains all the information related to both financial and other aspects.
We need Integrated Reporting to disclose the financial aspects of the company. This will provide a transparent clear-cut image in front of society. It will help us to improve our company’s levels. It helps to identify how a company creates this social value, especially over time. It is also called as Integrated Reporting Pilot Programme. It is shortly called IRRP. This program first came into existence in 2011, and it was launched by IRRC. This company is one of the best multinational companies in the world.
There are around 1600 companies that are using this integrated reporting in their company. It is used in 64 countries worldwide. This comes under the accounting sector. In order to learn this, students should have opted for commerce in this 11th class. It will again continue in their higher studies as well. They will implement this method in the workplace. But it again depends upon the nature of the place they work with.
What is Traditional Financial Reporting?
Traditional Financial Reporting is used to give details of the organization regarding reports and its related financial services. It will give details related to financing in the form of the date when it is invested, its performance, changes, and everything in a precise form. The content can include the company’s assets, liabilities, ownership structure, income statement, profits, and losses. We can also get information regarding the cash flows as well.
In traditional reporting, the results can be included in the form of an excel sheet or a PowerPoint presentation. In recent days traditional financial reporting has failed to answer its customer queries. This created a huge impact on this method. And customers are seeking some other methods to move. But on the other hand, it is one of the powerful methods in the areas of finance.
This method will give the exact values, and it is good for knowing specific table calculations. Statistical data methods can be answered by this traditional financial reporting method. It is one of the important topics in reporting section. It failed to answer the ability of long-term direction of the company, but traditional reporting has answered that query, and many business organizations are moving to that side.
Main Differences Between Integrated Reporting and Traditional Financial Reporting
- Integrated Reporting is mostly used in all businesses, and it is adopted by many companies. On the other hand, traditional financial reporting is practiced only in industrial sectors.
- Integrated Reporting’s main aim is to connect all the stakeholders while traditional financial reporting will be profitable for shareholders.
- In integrated, the information will be focussed on two sectors. On the other hand, in traditional financial reporting, the information will be focused on only one sector.
- The main focus of integrated reporting is to maintain different types of reports that come under the financial sector. In traditional reporting, its focus will be only on the shareholders.
- Integrated reporting engages almost all sectors. But traditional financial reporting only engages stakeholders only when they are important for the business.
Conclusion
Both Integrated Reporting and Traditional Financial Reporting are in existence, and they are used by many sectors in the world. Their main purpose is to do reporting in an efficient way. Traditional Financial reporting is used by many companies because of its modern approach and the shareholders. In today’s competitive world of business, maintaining a good report of shares is not an easy task.
In order to that, we need efficient reporting to perform this task. In order to learn, students should have opted for the commerce stream in their 11th class. They will study this more in detail in their higher studies. It will be implemented only in their workplace.
References
- https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJAIM-10-2019-0124/full/html
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593113000085