The Internet is increasingly used by companies to disseminate financial information. However, the extent to which the use of this new medium will change corporate reporting practice has received surprisingly little debate in the published literature. To widen the participation in the debate, this paper posits that the future of Internet-based financial reporting is contingent on technological and non-technological factors. This proposition is evaluated using the opinions of the immediate trends in online reporting obtained from seventeen UK experts in accounting and/or the Internet who responded to an open-ended questionnaire. These experts were drawn from academics, auditors, regulators, reporting companies and users of corporate reports. While the experts concur on some issues, they provide a range of different views in other areas. Some views are technology-driven, whereas others pay more attention to non-technological factors such as resistance to technological change, users' reluctance to read financial reports and the slow reaction of regulators. Some experts foresee minimum changes in financial reporting over the short term, while others adopt a more progressive or even radical perspective. This paper has synthesized these views into nine major categories which provide information on the role of the Internet in financial reporting. The results have important implications for all parties involved in financial reporting and also indicate avenues for further research.

Abstract. Internet based corporate reporting is wide spread amongst companies of all sizes in most countries around the world. The development of online reporting practice has been rapid, largely mirroring, and motivated by, the development of the world-wide-web since 1994, being the primary Internet medium for online reporting. A number of studies of these developments have occurred over this time seeking to plot how companies are exploiting the media of the Internet and how they are developing their reporting practices in response to this ubiquitous route to current and potential investors, and other stakeholders. In this paper, we

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The use of Internet technology for corporate reporting is now a well-established activity in many countries that have developed securities markets. From a supply perspective, any corporation in the world wishing to build an international profile or tap international sources of funds must have a corporate web site that includes an investor relations component. From a demand perspective, investors rely increasingly on corporate web sites for periodic and annual financial statements and also for press releases, speeches, investor conference calls as well as links to product and other information. Increasingly securities regulators are mandating the use of the Internet for corporate performance disclosure purposes. The rapid increase in voluntary and mandated Internet financial reporting brings the issue of audit of such disclosures firmly to centerstage.The use of Internet technology for corporate reporting is now a well-established activity in countries that have developed securities markets, raising many questions for the provision of audit and assurance on such reports. This paper reviews the state of guidance provided by securities regulators and audit standards setters. We find that, notwithstanding the recognition by various audit standards bodies of the need for further guidance to auditors on the implications of Internet financial reporting; the actual pronouncements made thus far by the various bodies around the world fall considerably short as a response to the challenges that arise from current and future Internet reporting technologies. We point in particular to shortcomings related to the way in which users interact with Internet financial reporting web sites, the implications of this interaction and on what we term 'information component' technologies such as the XML-based eXtensible BusinessReporting Language (XBRL). The paper sets out a range of institutional, standards setting and technological solutions to these issues. function associated with Internet financial reporting, the validity of the traditional boundaries of the audit function in an Internet-based disclosure environment, and the appropriateness, and use, of the audit report associated with Internet financial reporting. We review the state of guidance provided by securities regulators and audit standards setters. We find that, notwithstanding the recognition by various audit standards bodies of the need for further guidance to auditors on the implications of Internet financial reporting, the actual pronouncements made thus far by the various bodies around the world fall considerably short as a response to the challenges that arise from current and future Internet reporting technologies. We point in particular to the way in which users interact with Internet financial reporting web sites and the implications of this interaction and on what we term 'information component' technologies such as the XML-based eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). We discuss a set of institutional, standards setting and technological solutions to these...