Облік і фінанси (Jun 2024)
Conceptual Foundations for Providing Integrated Reporting Assurance
Abstract
By encouraging businesses to report on sustainable development, information about the impact of companies' activities on the environment is becoming increasingly available to all stakeholders. Given that the integrated report contains more qualitative and quantitative, subjective and prospective information about the company's values, traditional approaches used during the audit of financial statements may not provide adequate assurance about the reliability of the integrated report data. The article aims to reveal the conceptual foundations of providing integrated reporting assurance by analyzing the development of regulatory support for this process. The features and advantages of the integrated reporting assurance were disclosed. It was revealed that the main factor in developing the concept of providing integrated reporting assurance is the standardization processes of such a service, both at the international and national levels. The authors conducted a detailed review of the standards used by assurance providers for integrated reporting/sustainable development reporting. The primary standards in this area are AA1000AS and ISAE 3000, and from 2024, ISAE 3000 will be replaced by ISSA 5000. The article also described two types of assurance the auditor could obtain during the audit of integrated reporting. The study results indicate different forms of assurance regarding integrated reporting based on the list of providers performing the verification and the standards they use. Based on applying analogy and abstract thinking, the authors outlined the necessary steps to introduce the concept of integrated reporting assurance in Ukraine. The results of this study support the findings of other researchers that the institutional environment in a country has a decisive influence on the adoption of integrated reporting and the need for its assurance.
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