IFRS for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

The idea behind this paper has a rather long history. During the internet boom, the opportunity arose in 1997 of working together with ORACLE experts on major internet projects. In 1998, this turned into a company and there followed many projects and turbulent trade fairs. At the same time, the dissertation on the topic of the web trust audit was finished at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in 2001. The introduction of quality assurance as a consequence of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, with the concomitant proliferation of checklists and procedures, provided the stimulus for the development of software of our own and as an extension it very soon also became clear that the implementation of the international financial reporting standards (IFRS) for small and medium-sized businesses could be largely automated. The solutions on offer were of little help, for two primary reasons: 1. The business model of the audit is based on a calculation of hours and for exactly this reason auditing teams have been growing and procedures becoming more complex since the mid-eighties, quite in contrast to the opportunities presented by the rapid development of technology during this period. 2. The software on offer is either very rudimentary and limited to a collection of checklists, or it attempts to solve every conceivable problem, which leads to a Leviathan.