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Definition

Integrated Reporting Framework

The Integrated Reporting Framework connects strategy, governance, performance, prospects, and the resources and relationships a company uses or affects to explain how it creates, preserves, or erodes value over time.

What is the Integrated Reporting Framework?

The IFRS Foundation's Integrated Reporting Framework guides preparation of an integrated report. It focuses on value creation, preservation, or erosion over the short, medium, and long term.

Paragraphs 3.1 and 4.1 organize the work around seven Guiding Principles and eight Content Elements. They connect governance, strategy, risks, performance, and outlook.

Why does the Integrated Reporting Framework matter to you?

An investor or board may ask for an integrated report, not separate financial and sustainability sections placed together. Paragraph 1.13 says an integrated report makes the connections between information explicit. Paragraph 1.17 says a communication that claims to be an integrated report and references the Framework should apply every bold italic requirement, subject to the stated exceptions.

How does the Integrated Reporting Framework work?

Start with material matters affecting value over time. Trace the resources and relationships used or affected through business-model inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes. Then answer all eight Content Element questions and show their links. Paragraph 1.20 also calls for the board or other governing body to state that it accepts responsibility for the report's integrity and whether, or to what extent, the report follows the Framework.

What mistakes should you avoid?

  • Treating the eight Content Elements as isolated chapters instead of connected questions.
  • Reporting only positive outcomes and omitting material value erosion or trade-offs.
  • Calling a document an integrated report without checking the bold italic requirements.

Is the Integrated Reporting Framework mandatory?

The Framework does not itself create a filing duty. Paragraph 1.14 allows an integrated report to meet a compliance requirement, but the applicable law or listing rule determines whether your company must report.

Is an integrated report the same as a sustainability report?

No. An integrated report primarily explains value over time to investors and lenders. A sustainability report may focus more broadly on the company's economic, environmental, and social effects. Disclosures can support both, but paragraph 1.12 says the integrated report should be a designated, identifiable communication.

Example

Hypothetical India retail example: Suppose a retail chain in India maps its annual report against the Framework's eight Content Elements. Its draft answers six: overview, governance, business model, risks and opportunities, strategy, and performance. It omits outlook and basis of preparation.

The first-pass count is 6 / 8 = 75%. The finance lead assigns the two missing questions before governance review. This percentage is a progress check, not an adherence score: paragraph 4.3 says the Content Elements are questions requiring judgement, not a checklist of specific disclosures.

Where it comes up

Claiming a communication is an integrated report under the FrameworkInternational Integrated Reporting Framework, paragraph 1.17 (checked 2026-08-20)Official sourceGovernance responsibility statement for an integrated reportInternational Integrated Reporting Framework, paragraphs 1.20-1.21 (checked 2026-08-20)Official sourceEight linked Content Elements posed as questionsInternational Integrated Reporting Framework, paragraphs 4.1-4.3 (checked 2026-08-20)Official source

Related terms

Sustainability Reporting

Sustainability reporting is the process of publishing evidence-backed information about a company's environmental, social, and governance impacts, risks, opportunities, policies, targets, and performance for a defined period and business boundary.

Materiality

Materiality is the test a company uses to decide which sustainability topics matter enough to manage or report because they could affect its finances, reflect significant impacts on people or the environment, or both.

ESG

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) groups the evidence a company provides about its environmental effects, treatment of people and business oversight when investors, customers or rating providers ask.

Sources

  • IFRS Foundation

    Framework purpose, application requirements, governance statement, Guiding Principles, Content Elements, and integrated-report form

    2026-08-20

  • IFRS Foundation

    Current 2021 revision, the Framework's 19 requirements, capitals terminology, and relationship to sustainability reporting and IFRS S1 and S2

    2026-08-20

Last verified 2026-08-20

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Integrated Reporting Framework Definition | Keslio