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How to survive a practice review

To help our users prepare for their next review – to get the proverbial ducks in a row – I requested the CAANZ NZ auditor oversight team to provide a list of the main issues encountered in their review work with audit firms.  They were kind enough to send me notes from a recent presentation […]

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Less Complex Audits for Less Complex Entities – what about Not-for-Profits?

Following on from our previous article regarding the Audit of Less Complex Entities (LCEs), we spoke to a number of our user firms and, along with 78 others stakeholders globally, responded to the IAASB request for submissions. The LCE discussion has tended to focus on smaller for-profit entities that make a direct economic contribution, but in New Zealand the […]

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Less Complex Audits for Less Complex Entities?

In recent decades the creep in complexity in the International Auditing Standards (ISAs) has made it difficult for auditors to do appropriate and cost-effective audit work for their SME clients. Using the full might of the ISAs on something like the local bowling club is a bit like using a rocket launcher to kill a […]

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What story does your audit file tell?

As I’m reviewing audit files I like to feel as if I’m reading a thriller, or at least a mystery story. The introduction sets the scene, including the characters and their world. Then we start to see the stakes – what is at risk? What do the characters want? What dangers are there that our […]

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Review Engagement vs Audit – what’s the difference?

Anyone who has been audited or who carries out audits know that there has been significant creep in requirements and subsequently costs over the least decade or so. This has made the other alternative – the Review Engagement – an alternative worth considering. What is a Review Engagement? It is a high-level assessment of financial statements by […]

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Special Purpose Reporting – what’s the right audit opinion?

What is the issue here? When a casual reader reads an audit report they expect to see a phrase that says something like “true and fair” or the more recent “fairly presented”. These are the words that indicate a “clean” report – so no need to read all the other boring detail! The problem is […]

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Emerging External Reporting (EER) – what is it and why should we care?

What is EER? The IAASB says: …EER refers to emerging forms of external reporting by entities that increasingly provide non-financial information that goes beyond the traditional (financial statement) focus on the entity’s financial position, financial performance and impact on its financial resources. More and more entities are broadening out on what they report in their annual […]

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What are agreed upon procedures engagements and when should they be used?

Just the facts! As the name suggests, Agreed Upon Procedures (AUP) engagements are a type of assurance engagement that focusses on factual findings, and as such is probably the simplest form of assurance. The practitioner is asked to verify a question of fact, and their work simply answers that question.  The International Federation of Accountants […]

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