The audit area has information and guidance on completing all stages of an audit as well as making the decision around whether or not an audit is required. There are links to technical help, webinars, publications and events as well as audit representations.
Learn whether your organisation qualified for audit exemption for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2016, under the Companies Act 2006 as amended by SI 2015/980. ICAEW's Technical Advisory Service provides guidance covering: group eligibility; eligibility of UK subsidiaries; and audit exemption conditions.
Read about preparing financial statements for audit-exempt organisations, including filing requirements
Learn more about other services and forms of assurance that may be of benefit to audit-exempt organisations.
ICAEW has developed guidance for practice firms on what to include in engagement letters. This page provides a series of sample wordings to help you draft your own engagement letters.
ISA 210 sets out the requirements for agreeing audit engagement terms. This guide looks at the requirements and highlights potential implementation challenges for auditors.
ISA 200 highlights the importance of objectives in auditing standards. Understanding ISA 200 is fundamental to understanding the challenge of implementing ISAs. This guide seeks to help auditors understand the overall objectives of the auditor and how they relate to the individual objectives and requirements in ISAs, and the role of professional judgement and scepticism.
Auditor independence refers to the independence of the external auditor. It is characterised by integrity and an objective approach to the audit process. The concept requires the auditor to carry out his or her work freely and in an objective manner.
Auditors can learn a lot from each other’s experiences of first year audits. Geoff Swales canvasses opinion.
Proposals to revise ISA 315 will be far-reaching, so ICAEW is urging the IAASB to take the time to get it right, says Katharine Bagshaw. She covers inherent and significant risks, IT, work on controls and ‘smaller and less complex entities’
Tool to support you in planning and helping you to achieve your audit objectives.
Understanding and documenting internal control has always been a challenging area in smaller entity audits. This guide helps auditors to understand the requirements in this area and addresses common questions from auditors such as how to evaluate the control environment and deal with the entity’s information system.
Risk assessment is critical to the conduct of all financial statement audits. The idea of a ‘risk-based’ approach to auditing has been around for at least 20 years, and it is not a difficult concept: it refers to the focus of the audit process on those areas that are most at risk of material misstatement. But both auditors and regulators report problems in in applying the relevant auditing standards consistently.
Don’t step any closer to audit data analytics without reading these tips and insights from Lisa Leighton of BHP Chartered Accountants.
With external audits under unprecedented levels of scrutiny, root cause analysis (RCA) can be a useful tool for those tasked with improving audit quality. The Audit and Assurance Faculty has published this practical paper for its members outlining what RCA is and what auditors need to consider to make the most of this useful tool.
In the light of increasing public interest in the quality of audits, the faculty considers that the audit of related parties is an area where further improvements in audit quality and efficiency can be achieved.
Despite concerns about process and reliability, external confirmations can often provide persuasive audit evidence. This guide for auditors looks at the requirements in ISA 505, External confirmations, highlighting circumstances where external confirmations can add value and common questions asked by auditors.
Auditors are required to obtain written representations from management. Written representations are primarily dealt with in ISA 580. This guide addresses auditors’ questions about what written representations are required and the complications that might arise.
Many people were taken by surprise when the FRC announced at the end of June of this year that it was withdrawing Practice Note 26 (Guidance on Smaller Entity Documentation).
Applying the materiality requirements in International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) can be challenging. As highlighted in inspection findings, reviews and from experience in practice, it’s an area where improvement could be made.
Materiality is more than a number. David Gallagher explores how this professional judgement can help to steer a more efficient and effective audit.
In this webinar David Gallagher will address how to apply these principles effectively and how to record them efficiently. He will briefly summarise the key requirements of the ISAs but the main focus will be on effective application and will include practical guidance and examples.
How may auditors improve their professional judgements and communications on materiality? Katharine Bagshaw explores recent insights.
Professional scepticism is central to the work of auditors and yet audit regulators and others continue to express concerns that auditors are not sufficiently sceptical. This report explores what auditors and other stakeholders think about how it can be enhanced and who is responsible for it.
This webinar looks at the consequences of an auditor lacking scepticism in terms of bad monitoring visits or claims against the firm.
For small and medium-sized entities, there are three key areas that need to be considered. Here, seasoned file reviewer Jeremy Williams offers practical pointers on displaying these key audit skills and judgements.
It’s not enough to be sceptical, you have to demonstrate it in practice. Simon Kettlewell offers some advice.
There are many documentation requirements in International Standards on Auditing but the extent of documentation of judgement is a particularly critical area for auditors. This guide helps auditors understand why professional judgement is important and the extent to which they need to document it.
ISA 540 (Revised) Auditing accounting estimates and related disclosures is effective for audits of financial statements for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2019.
In this 20 minute webcast, Louise Sharp, Manager, International Standards covers the key enhancements in, and potential challenges introduced by, ISA 540 (Revised) Auditing accounting estimates and related disclosures. The revised standard is effective for audits of financial statements for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2019.
Accounting estimates are increasingly common in financial statements and, by their very nature, can be challenging for auditors to audit. This guide looks at the requirements in ISA 540 Auditing accounting estimates, including fair value accounting estimates, and related disclosures and answer questions from auditors about practical challenges.
When performing audits of financial statements, it is important that you identify all relevant accounting estimates to which the requirements in ISA 540 apply. You can find out more below on how to spot accounting estimates and not overlook the more obvious ones in your audit.
The risk that an accounting estimate might be materially misstated is influenced by a number of factors. You can find out more below on risk factors and how they may influence your audit of accounting estimates.
When performing an audit, you need to use your judgement to determine whether an accounting estimate, identified as having high estimation uncertainty, gives rise to a significant risk. The examples and guidance below are designed to help you when considering whether estimates with high estimation uncertainty may give rise to significant risks.
Documenting the audit of accounting estimates is important because it provides evidence that the audit complies with ISAs. You can find out more below on what needs to be documented, and when, in your audit of accounting estimates.
IAASB issued a suite of revised and new auditor reporting standards (ISAs) addressing the audits of complete sets of general purpose financial statements in 2015. The changes mainly focus on increasing transparency about the audit performed. This guide outlines the key requirements for auditors.
Guidance for auditors on the audit report. Updated in May 2018, it assists auditors in managing the risk of inadvertently assuming a duty of care to third parties in relation to their audit reports.
Audit and Assurance Faculty Guides and Technical Advisory Services helpsheets prepared by ICAEW technical specialists to assist you in your day-to-day work. We offer practical advice, respond to frequently asked questions and highlight the issues you may need to consider. Audit and Assurance Faculty Guides were formerly known as 'Helpsheets'.
All group audits will be affected by recent Financial Reporting Council guidance on review of component auditors’ work. Geoff Swales of PwC explains the requirements of ISA (UK) 600 and outlines the work of the group engagement team.
International standards on auditing (ISAs) apply to the audits of groups of companies and ISA 600 specifically deals with special considerations that apply to group audits.
This guide is designed to explain the main changes that are needed to the audit report of a group compared to that of a company only.
This guide is designed to explain the main changes that are needed to the separate audit reports of a group and parent company compared to that of a company only.
Technical helpsheet issued by to help ICAEW members to understand their responsibilities regarding subsidiaries when auditing the group accounts and the implications on the auditor’s report where access to the financial information of subsidiaries is denied by the parent entity.