Here’s an interesting one. In terms of the Companies Act, having a company’s Annual Financial Statements compiled independently often reduces the verification (review or audit) requirements.

Now, that was all before AI. It is now possible to give AI a Trial Balance and tell it to draft to International Financial Reporting Standards. You can’t get much more independent than that can you?

So, where does that leave us? Let’s have a look at Regulation 26(1)(e) which defines “Independently compiled and reported”

“independently compiled and reported” means that the annual financial statements are prepared—
(i) by an independent accounting professional;
(ii) on the basis of financial records provided by the company; and
(iii) in accordance with any relevant financial reporting standards

So, (i) says that AI produced AFS are not independently compiled if the bookkeeper fed it the Trial Balance. But they are if I, as a CA(SA), fed the same Trial Balance to the same AI. And yet, the consequences can decide on whether the AFS have to be Reviewed or even Audited.