Return Form Submission, Audit, Certification - Business Events

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Return Form Submission, Audit, Certification

The Return Form is a submission in which the event claim is reported to ABC for certification. Each attendance claim is subject to audit.

Principles

1. You must submit a Return Form by the Submission Deadline

2. ABC will issue a Certificate based on the Return Form

3. Each claim is audited to verify it is in accordance with the applicable Reporting Standards

Requirements 

1. You must submit a Return Form by the submission deadline

1. You will submit your Return Form to us, authorised by an appropriate individual representing your organisation.

2. Estimates and assumptions must not be made on the Return Form unless the Reporting Standards allow for them, or we have authorised them. 

3. The Submission Deadline is 30 days from the last day of the event. 

4. It is your responsibility to ensure Return Forms are submitted by the Submission Deadline. Failure to do so can result in a penalty and/or cancellation of your product’s ABC registration under the ABC Byelaws.

2. ABC will issue a Certificate based on the Return Form

1. We will publish the certified data on our website subject to any timing criteria applicable to the sector. We may also make arrangements to provide our data to be published via commercial data providers and to those who subscribe to our data services.

2. We will confirm when attendance figures will become publicly available, normally 5 working days after a draft Certificate has been sent to you.

3. Each claim is audited to verify it is in accordance with the applicable Reporting Standards

1. The audit must be carried out by ABC Staff Auditors. 

2. Requirements in relation to the auditor and audits will be covered by the ABC Byelaws, ABC Audit Programmes and contractual arrangements. 

3. Your first event claim will be audited prior to certification. 

4. Once an event is registered you are committed to the completion of the audit and issue of the certificate unless the event is cancelled.

5. If following an audit we identify material problems with the Return Form or Certificate then we will propose to revise the claim. If a Certificate has already been issued we will issue a revised Certificate with an Audit Report that identifies the changes. This replaces your original Certificate and must be used in its place. The process is as follows:

   1. We will send you a letter detailing the reason/problem giving rise to the amendment.

   2. You will have 10 working days from the receipt of this letter to provide any further information to us, or object to the revision of the claim.

   3. If you wish to object to the revision of the claim you must do this in writing to the Director of Audit who will investigate and provide a decision within 10 working days. If the objection is to a decision by the Director of Audit or the Chief Executive then the first level of appeal will be in accordance with the Review Procedure detailed in the ABC Byelaws. 

   4. Subsequent Certificates will not be issued until we have resolved all queries on a previous audit and issued the revised Certificate, if applicable.

   5. We publish details of Audit Reports on our website.

6. Subsequent Certificates of Attendance will not be issued until all audit queries on a previous certificate have been resolved and the Audit Report issued, if applicable.

Guidance

No additional guidance.