In this presentation, I summarise the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) experiment in ‘silent’ and ‘shadow’ reports, in 5 slides.

1. The CSEAR Silent and Shadow
Reporting Experiment…
Around 10 years ago, CSEAR began work producing silent
and shadow reports for public companies not yet adopting
public social or environmental reporting.
Even as reporting has improved, these approaches remain
useful for auditors to test their conclusions on difficult jobs
.
OCTOBER 2013

2. WHAT DOES IT SAY.
‘Silent’ reporting is a method of building a
picture of social and environmental performance
on the basis of statements made by the reporting
entity, either within its performance report,
website or media release.
Auditors can use this approach as a form of
analytical review to test the consistency with
reported performance data.
OCTOBER 2013

3. WHAT ELSE DOES IT SAY.
‘Shadow’ reporting is a method of building a picture
of performance in the basis of statements made by
‘others’, beyond the reporting entity. It is noted that
media releases (included within silent reports) may
also have an impact on this report.
This approach offers auditors another reference point,
and also a view of how stakeholders might accept
their audit opinion.
OCTOBER 2013

4. WHAT ELSE DOES IT SAY.
CSEAR developed the methods as an experiment,
and tested them on several public companies in the
early 2000s.
The approaches are on their website, and remain
useful where other forms of analytical review are
unavailable, or less suitable.
The HSBC silent report even includes a bit on antimoney laundering.
OCTOBER 2013

5. WHAT DOES IT MEAN.
•
The CSEAR reporting experiment was not
continued beyond the first round, but the
results are still interesting.
•
The experiment was not ‘embraced’ by the
subject companies, but then, auditors should
not be afraid of techniques that are
challenging for auditees.
The comments on these slides are the views of Tim Kirby, Sydney.
You should always read the report itself before putting any money on the line.
Tim Kirby, Sydney CA, CIA, LA-EMS
au.linkedin.com/in/timkirbysydney
OCTOBER 2013