INTERNAL CONTROL OVER EXTERNAL FINANCIAL REPORTING: A COMPENDIUM OF APPROACHES AND EXAMPLES

The Internal Control – Integrated Framework sets forth three categories of objectives: operations, reporting, and compliance. The focus of the Compendium is the external financial reporting category of objectives, a subset of the reporting category. External financial reporting objectives address the preparation of financial reports for external parties, including:

• Financial statements for external purposes, and
• Other external financial reporting derived from an entity’s financial and accounting books and records.

Users will find relevant approaches and examples of how organisations may apply the principles set forth in the Framework in the design, implementation and conduct of internal control over external financial reporting. The approaches and examples are samples of activities for management to consider, rather than a complete or authoritative list.