Patent ID: 7831488

Claim:
A method of facilitating confirmation by a third-party of confidential business information about an audited business client that is maintained by such third-party, when such confirmations are requested by an auditor user conducting a financial statement audit of the business client in accordance with professional accounting standard for auditors, said method comprising the steps of: storing an audit number associated with the audited business client in a database in a computer system; storing verification data in the database in the computer system; receiving at the computer system identification data transmitted from the auditor user over a communications network; processing the identification data and the verification data to determine user authorization to further access the computer system; receiving at the computer system from the user the audit number via the communications network; testing the received audit number in the computer system to determine whether it is valid; receiving at the computer system from the auditor user a confirmation request via the communications network, the confirmation request comprising account identification data, the account identification data associated with both the audited business client and an account in a financial institution, the confirmation request further comprising a date; indicating to the third-party the confirmation request via the communications network, the third-party determined in part based on the account identification data; receiving at the computer system response data transmitted via the communications network from the third-party in response to the confirmation request, the response data comprising the account identification data, the date, and the confidential business information needed to confirm the audited business client's financial statements, the confidential business information comprising account balance data reflecting an account balance associated with both the account identification data and the date; receiving from the user a request for the response data; and upon receiving said request, performing one or more of generating within the computer system one or more reports accessible to the user via the communications network, the report comprising at least one of the response data and the account identification data, and transmitting the response data from the computer system to the user via the communications network.