ISA 230 Working-Paper Schema
The working-papers schema codifies ISA 230 conforming working-paper structure across five jurisdictions: IAASB (the IFRS / ISA baseline), US PCAOB (AS 1215), UK FRC (FRC ISA 230), EU CSRD (sustainability-assurance documentation), and Swiss FER. Every jurisdiction enforces a 60-day documentation-completion deadline measured from the report date and a retention range of five to ten years (the upper bound varying by regime).
Each working paper carries a SHA-256 payload hash so engagement bundles can attest to integrity via a Merkle tree: leaves prefix-byte 0x00 over the payload, internal nodes prefix-byte 0x01 over (lhs || rhs). Required fields include preparer, prepared-at timestamp, reviewer, signoff, and retention-years; optional fields cover description and review notes.
Use this schema when building an audit working-paper repository, when designing review-trail tooling, or when reasoning about evidentiary integrity across long retention windows.
- Fields
- 0
- Standard refs
- 0
- Catalog version
- 0.14
- License
- Apache-2.0
{
"engagement_bundle_fields": [
{
"field": "engagement_id",
"required": true,
"type": "string"
},
{
"enum_ref": "jurisdictions",
"field": "jurisdiction",
"required": true,
"type": "Jurisdiction"
},
{
"field": "period_end",
"format": "rfc3339-utc",
"required": true,
"type": "datetime"
},
{
"field": "report_date",
"format": "rfc3339-utc",
"required": true,
"type": "datetime"
},
{
"field": "working_papers",
"required": false,
"type": "Vec<WorkingPaper>"
},
{
"field": "description",
"required": false,
"type": "string"
}
],
"framework": {
"isa_refs": [
"ISA 230",
"PCAOB AS 1215",
"FRC ISA 230"
],
"merkle": {
"leaf_concat": "payload prefix-byte 0x00",
"leaf_hash_algorithm": "SHA-256",
"node_concat": "lhs || rhs prefix-byte 0x01"
},
"model": "ISA 230 working papers + Merkle-attested engagement bundles",
"retention_range_years": {
"max": 10,
"min": 5
}
},
"jurisdictions": [
{
"code": "iaasb",
"describes": "IAASB / IFRS-based.",
"documentation_deadline_days": 60
},
{
"code": "us_pcaob",
"describes": "US listed (PCAOB).",
"documentation_deadline_days": 60
},
{
"code": "uk_frc",
"describes": "UK FRC.",
"documentation_deadline_days": 60
},
{
"code": "eu_csrd",
"describes": "EU CSRD / ESRS.",
"documentation_deadline_days": 60
},
{
"code": "swiss_fer",
"describes": "Swiss FER.",
"documentation_deadline_days": 60
}
],
"schema": "working-papers/v1",
"working_paper_fields": [
{
"describes": "Unique working-paper identifier.",
"field": "wp_id",
"required": true,
"type": "string"
},
{
"describes": "Human-readable title.",
"field": "title",
"required": true,
"type": "string"
},
{
"describes": "Lower-case 64-char SHA-256 hex digest of the payload bytes.",
"field": "payload_hash",
"format": "sha256-hex-lowercase",
"length": 64,
"required": true,
"type": "string"
},
{
"describes": "Verifier id, name, role.",
"field": "preparer",
"required": true,
"type": "Preparer"
},
{
"field": "prepared_at",
"format": "rfc3339-utc",
"required": true,
"type": "datetime"
},
{
"describes": "Optional reviewer (verifier id, name, role).",
"field": "reviewer",
"required": false,
"type": "Reviewer"
},
{
"describes": "Optional signoff with attestation + timestamp.",
"field": "signoff",
"required": false,
"type": "Signoff"
},
{
"describes": "Retention period (ISA 230 / PCAOB AS 1215 / FRC / Swiss equivalent).",
"field": "retention_years",
"max": 10,
"min": 5,
"required": true,
"type": "u8"
},
{
"field": "description",
"required": false,
"type": "string"
}
]
}