1.

Introduction
For many years companies used to communicate with their shareholders and potential and interested parties through the use of hard copies annual reports. However, due to the changing nature of the business environment the hard copies financial reporting model becomes less effective and less timely in meeting the needs of information s users, thus less capable of enhancing their abilities in making the sound investment decision (Green, 1997; and Ashbaugh et al., 1999; Mohamed et al., 2009). Therefore, companies started to widely practice financial reporting over the internet, in order to meet users need for more relevant and reliable information and in a timelier manner. The last decade witnessed a dramatic increase in the use of the internet in financial reporting around the world. A number of academic and professional studies have examined and presented evidence of IFR practices in various countries. These include Craven and Marston (1999) and Gowthrope (2004) - UK, Deller et al. (1999) - US, UK and Germany, Gowthorpe and Amat (1999) Spain, Hedlin (1999) Sweden, Lymer et al. (1999) International Comparison, Pirchegger and Wagenhofer (1999) - Austria and Germany, Marston and Polei (2004) Germany, Trites (1999) - US and Canada, Oyelere et al. (2003), Fisher et al. (2004) and Laswad et al. (2005) - New Zealand, Marston (2003) - Japan, Xiao et al. (2004) - China, Smith and Peppard (2005) Ireland, Khadaroo (2005) Malaysia, and Chan and Wickramasinghe (2006) Australia, Bozcul et al. (2007) Turkey, Ismail and Sobhy (2009) Egypt, Salawu (2009) Nigeria, Mohamed (2010) Middle East. They indicate the growing use of the Internet for corporate dissemination of information, including providing annual reports on the Internet, and that the extent and sophistication of IFR practices vary across countries. The use of the internet in disseminating financial information has undoubtedly resulted in many benefits including the ability of providing unlimited amount of 2

disaggregated, real time, and easily accessible information (Pike and Lanis, 2003). Despite the benefits that result from using the internet in financial reporting, many other challenges and issues are created. Within the internet financial reporting environment, some issues arise that are expected to affect the quality of the information generated within such environment, as well as affecting the auditors role and responsibility toward such information. The quality of financial information reported on the internet is considered a significant matter, due to the unfavorable effect unreliable internet financial information can have on the different information s users. The objective of this paper is to examine Egyptian auditors perceptions of internet financial reporting practices and the effect of such practices on the quality of the information available for the users as well as on the auditors responsibilities in relation to information generated within such environment. The rest of this paper is structured as follows. A review of relevant literature is provided in Section 2. This is followed by a discussion for the proposed research methodology. Section 4 provides analyses and discussions. Summary and conclusions along are presented in Section 5.

2. Literature Review
Within todays information era, considerable changes have occurred in the way businesses are conducted; organizations are structured; as well as how the needs for the information are met. Therefore, within todays changing business environment, the role of accounting in reporting information should develop to cope with such environment. The use of the internet is one of the most important technologies available for the accountants to meet the needs of the information s users in todays environment (Fisher et al., 2004). The internet can benefit both the preparers and users of financial information by introducing many bene

E- Financial reporting is the process of providing financial information in electronic way regards to a Banks financial position, performance and for a specific flow of funds period which are then provided to external users. Traditionally financial reporting by corporate was in print (hard copy) format and the annual reports were mailed to the users of the financial statements. Financial information was also released to media by way of press releases. The exponential growth in Internet usage is steadily changing the way users access financial information. Today, it is imperative for a corporate to have a website. Corporate are increasingly using Internet for Financial Reporting in the last few years. The article throws light on the changing scenario of financial reporting, the issues involved and the trends in Internet financial reporting in India and other parts of the world. A few years ago, the users of financial statements depended on the hard copies (print) of Annual report to reach them. Not everyone had access to the Annual reports / financial information and at times one had to either get the information from a library or from an analyst. With Financial information and Annual reports being available on Internet, anyone can access the information.

fits represented in the reduction of the costs associated with the information collection, processing