Et kvalitativt studie af erhvervsstyrelsen kontroller af regnskaber

Abstract

This thesis investigates mistakes in annual reports without assistance from an auditor as well as the XBRL controls the Danish Business Authorities have implemented when reporting the annual report. The investigation is based on the option to opt out of using an auditor which in returns create demands for the management in the form of knowledge of legislations regarding the annual report. The thesis will end with suggestions to the Danish Business Authorities based on the study. Before 2012 the Danish Business Authorities only way to go through and ensure the annual report is correct would be through manual review of the annual report. This changed in 2012 when the XBRL format was implemented, the implementations meant that know the Danish Business Authorities had the option to sort the received data as well as set up a number of control elements that ensures these elements of the annual report is correct. In regards to this a qualitative study began looking through 400 annual reports, reported in 2017 began. For the study 11 elements of the annual report was chosen as the elements that would be looked for in the study as well as how well it was handled in the annual reports. The study concluded that the average annual report had 2,07 mistakes, based on the 11 control elements. There were a total of 828 mistakes reported and at least 1 mistake or more in 85 % of the annual reports. This study proved the initial hypothesis, where it was expected that annual reports without assistance of an auditor would be filled with flaws, though not stating whether or not annual reports with the assistance of an auditor has less flaws. This lead to a series of suggestions for the Danish Business Authorities. It is concluded that especially 4 suggestions would have a big impact as well as reasonable to implement, these 4 suggestions are for the following elements in the annual report, information on the average number of full time employees, accounting policies, information on conditions for opt-out of audit is considered complied with and a new solutions regarding default account plan. It is concluded that the measurable effect of the implementation would minimize the amount of flaws in the annual report with 49,76 %. This is based on the results from the qualitative study that was performed.