Assurance Working Group
presentation at the World Congress of Accountants
15 Nov 2006
On
November 15,
2006, at the World Congress of Accountants (WCOA) held in Istanbul,
Turkey, the
Assurance Working Group (AWG) of XBRL International Inc. (XII)
presented the
paper “INTERACTIVE
DATA: THE IMPACT ON
ASSURANCE, NEW CHALLENGES FOR THE AUDIT PROFESSION” dated November
10, 2006,
during the Workshop “Assurance for Digital Reporting”. The paper
results from
research undertaken by the AWG, and was prepared in order to invite
discussion
regarding the assurance implications of Interactive Data (which refers
to
tagged data typified by XBRL, the Extensible Business Reporting
Language). The
use of Interactive Data for various reporting purposes, particularly
for filing
with regulators and governments, has grown considerably over recent
years. As
its use grows, reliance of users on the data expressed in that format
will
increase, leading to a need for assurance on that data by independent
auditors
or public accountants. At present, there are no internationally
acknowledged standards
to support the provision of such assurance.
The
AWG was
established by XBRL International in early 2005. The objective of the
AWG is to
provide support to standard setters in the development of relevant
guidance and
authoritative pronouncements for the audit profession on the use of
XBRL for
company reporting. In working with standard setters, the AWG will
support the
standards development process through the collaborative development of
the
deliverables outlined in the paper for use by the audit profession and
other
relevant capital market participants.
The
document can be
downloaded from here
and forwarded to
other parties interested in this topic. Readers are encouraged to
consider the
ideas in this paper. Any comments are
welcome and should be sent to: Jan Pasmooij (Chair, AWG) – j.pasmooij@nivra.nl or Bill
Swirsky (Vice Chair,
AWG) – Bill.Swirsky@cica.ca.
The
next meeting of
the AWG will be in Philadelphia, PA, USA at the 14th International XBRL
Conference on Thursday December 7th,
2006. The objective of this meeting is to work further on a
document that will
provide more detailed proposals for assurance services, based on the
WCOA 2006
document. Observers are welcome.
Announced by:
Jan Pasmooij
Chair - XBRL International
Assurance Working Group
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