Audit planning and risk assessment

Support materials on achieving audit objectives and audit materiality.

• Materiality in the audit of financial statements
• Bank reports for audit purposes: Points to remember

Articles written by practitioners and ICAEW staff in the area of Group audits.

• Know your limit
  Professional risks cannot be eliminated, but they can be managed. Christopher Arnull introduces new ICAEW guidance that can help. 

• Leaping into action
  Audit teams don’t always identify, assess and respond to risk appropriately. Stacey Hillyard shows us the hoops to be jumped through.

• Learning from Goliath
  Smaller firms can learn from the challenges faced by the world’s largest networks

• Small firm big challenge
  Auditor competencies can be a huge topic even for smaller audit firms. Gill Spaul takes a look at recruitment, development and support.

• Judgement calls
  One of the subjects most frequently raised by regulators and other file reviewers is the work fulfilled by auditors to comply with ISA 315 Identifying and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement Through Understanding the Entity and its Environment.

• Focus on relevance
  Audit quality and efficiency are not mutually exclusive on smaller entity audits, as Christiana Diola and John Selwood explain

• New horizons
  The world is changing, society’s requirements are changing and the profession needs to change too. Martin Martinoff explains how AuditFutures is leading the way

• All change please
  The IAASB’s new and revised auditor reporting standards are an opportunity for audit firms to show innovation, respond to investors’ needs and demonstrate the value of audit, says Chris Cantwell

• Behind the scenes
  This article looks at how auditors of small entities need to understand the design and implementation of internal controls, even when they take a fully substantive approach to risk assessment.

• Interact; It's good to talk
  Identifying who is charged with governance, ensuring appropriate communication takes place and demonstrating this on the audit file are vital to the success of smaller entity audits, as Adrian Gibbons outlines.

• Devil in the detail
  ISA 200 overall objectives of the independent auditor and the conduct of an audit in accordance with international standards on auditing includes an explicit requirement for an auditor to plan and perform an audit with professional scepticism. Demonstrating professional scepticism that has been applied in the audit can provide challenges such as fraud, related parties and accounting estimates.

• Big questions small audits
  These Q&As discuss some of the issues associated with the idea of proportionality as it is applied to audits that are conducted using International Standards on Auditing (ISA).

• FRS 102 and the new UK GAAP
  The transition to the new UK GAAP and FRS 102 prompted an interesting question during the recent roadshows of the Audit & Assurance and Financial Reporting Faculties. John Selwood focuses solely on the role auditors might play during this change. 

• Engagement letters 
• Fit and proper declaration 
• New client information 
• Subcontracting - employing a subcontractor 
• Subcontracting - acting as a subcontractor 
• What if you have not issued an engagement letter?

These webinars cover the top 10 issues affecting auditors during clarified ISA implementation.

• Right First Time with the Clarified ISAs - webinars
• Interaction with management on smaller entity audits
• Faculty Roadshow 2012: efficient and effective auditing of smaller entities   
• Faculty roadshow follow up Problems auditing the new UK GAAP
• Auditor competencies and challenges for firms
• Key issues for auditors arising from audit inspections
• The thinking audtior
• Accounting estimates in SMEs

Guidance and support from the IAASB in the area of audit planning.

• ISA Module: ISA 620 Using the work of an expert
• ISA Module: Materiality, Misstatements..Pt 1
• Staff Questions & Answers - Applying ISAs Proportionately with the Size and Complexity of an Entity
• IAASB Staff Issues Q&As to Guide Auditors' Effective Implementation of Clarified ISAs; Addresses SME Issues

• Q&As - New appointments and new UK GAAP
• Q&As - documentation and materiality considerations
• Q&As - demonstrating and documenting professional scepticism