CPE Session 24: Sunday, August 7, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Electronic Filing and Reporting—Systems and Business Process Implications
Description/Objectives:
This workshop will outline the issues involved with the electronic filing and reporting of business and financial information. It will focus on the technologies used, the control of those systems and the assurance issues involved. The objectives of the workshop are to identify the technologies and demonstrate how the key elements work, describe the major forces shaping the controls, including the Sarbanes-Oxley act, that must be in place over the e-filing systems and set out the new approaches that need to be taken to assurance on electronic filings of data and reports.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has a major impact on this area. It requires that data be reported in a very rapid fashion in several instances. This need can be met only by electronic filing and reporting. It also requires management to sign off on the controls over the systems. This has raised the profile of controls, and led to a refocusing by management on the control issues.
The move toward reporting electronically data on a rapid basis has serious implications for accounting theory, assurance, and business information systems. This workshop will tie in all of these trends into a comprehensive view of the direction of accounting and assurance. The presenters are experts in this area and have done important research and publications on the topics to be covered.
Format/Structure:
The workshop will include the following:
- Slide presentations on the issues;
- Interactive technology demonstrations and hands-on exercises;
- Live Internet sessions, examining current electronic reporting on the Internet;
- Identification of the issues arising from the electronic reports examined;
- Round table discussions of the issues and their impact on accounting and assurance.
For variety, the workshop will move from slide presentation format to interactive, hands-on format to round table discussion. It will go from technological and environmental and organizational specifics to general issues having wide application and considerable importance in the emerging environment of financial and business reporting.
Intended Audience:
These parties include:
- management of entities that file information electronically with regulators and government departments;
- others involved in the electronic filing process (for example, legal counsel, filing agents, service bureaus, other professional advisors);
- securities commissions and other government departments and agencies that have implemented, or intend to implement, electronic filing;
- users of electronically filed information made available by regulators and by companies on websites.
- auditors of electronically filed or reported information;
- auditors who are engaged to express an opinion on the design and effective operation of controls over an electronic filing system.
Presenters:
Gerald Trites, St. Francis Xavier University
Eric E. Cohen, PricewaterhouseCoopers
* Denotes special requirements or prerequisite
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