auditing and assurance services in … · their accounting body ... slides prepared by roger...

Copyright 2003 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd

PPTs t/a Auditing and Assurance Services in Australia by Gay & Simnett

Slides prepared by Roger Simnett 1

AUDITING AND ASSURANCE

SERVICES IN AUSTRALIA.

AUTHORS: GAY & SIMNETT

Prepared by

Roger Simnett

Copyright McGraw-Hill 2003




PART ONE:

The Auditing and Assurance Services

Profession




CHAPTER 1

ASSURANCE AND AUDITING: AN

OVERVIEW




OVERVIEW OF CURRENT

ENVIRONMENT

Crisis of confidence in current financial system. Need to consider role played by

• Accounting standards

• Corporate governance

• Ethics

• Independence of auditors

• Business complexity and globalisation.




AUDITING PROFESSION’S

RESPONSE TO CRISIS OF

CONFIDENCE

• Numerous reviews and committees

• Auditing standards revisited

• Auditing independence revisited

• Auditor’s role in corporate governance considered




THE ASSURANCE

FRAMEWORK

• Many parties provide reports to users as an aid to decision-making.

• Reports may potentially be biased due to the vested interests of the report providers.

• Users may demand that credibility of report be enhanced by having someone who is both independent and expert examine the report.




OBJECTIVE OF ASSURANCE

ENGAGEMENT

‘ … for a professional accountant to evaluate or measure a subject matter that is the responsibility of another party against identified suitable criteria, and to express a conclusion that provides the intended user with a level of assurance about a subject matter.’

ISAE 100/AUS 108 para.4




Fig. 1.1 Diagrammatic summary of an assurance

service engagement (p. 9)




FORMS OF ASSURANCE

SERVICES • Audit engagements — high level of

assurance, positive expression of opinion.

• Review engagements — moderate level of assurance, negative expression of opinion.

• Agreed-upon procedures engagements — no assurance, report of factual findings.




ATTEST V DIRECT

REPORTING

• Audit and review engagements can involve either an attest or direct reporting engagement.

• Attest engagement — auditor issues an opinion on written assertions made by party responsible for the subject matter.

• Direct reporting engagement — auditor issues an opinion directly on the subject matter, (no written assertion is made by the party responsible for the subject matter).




AUDITING DEFINED

• A Statement of Basic Auditing Concepts (ASOBAC) (American Accounting Association) defines auditing as:

A systematic process of objectively obtaining and evaluating evidence regarding assertions about economic actions and events to ascertain the degree of correspondence between those assertions and established criteria and communicating the results to interested users.




• Systematic process — audits are structured activities;

• Objectivity — freedom from bias;

• Obtaining and evaluating evidence — allows the auditor to determine the support for assertions or representations;

• Assertions about economic actions and events — describes the subject matter of an audit;

• Degree of correspondence…established criteria — the purpose of the audit is to determine conformity with some specified criteria; and

• Communicating results — the results must be communicated to interested parties.

The important parts of this definition:




ATTRIBUTES OF

ACCOUNTING INFORMATION

• Relevance

• Reliability

• Comparability

• Understandability

These four attributes of accounting information provide the basis for the audit function.




• Conflict of interest — managers may present biased information as they are also evaluated on the information.

• Consequence — information provided forms the basis of many users’ decisions.

• Complexity — many users do not have the expertise required to determine the quality of information presented.

• Remoteness — the separation of owners from management prevents users having assessing information quality.

DEMAND FOR ASSURANCE Arises because users are not in a position to establish the credibility of the information they are presented with, due to:




Hypotheses relating to demand for

assurance:

1. Agency theory (stewardship hypothesis)

2. Information hypothesis

3. Insurance hypothesis




Fig. 1.3 Simple diagram of agency relationship

between managers and investors (p.16)

Entrust resources

ManagersInvestors

Required periodic reporting

on use of resources

Verification

by independent expert




HISTORY OF THE AUDIT

FUNCTION

• Audits have been performed at least since the thirteenth century.

• Audits until the early 1900s focused on the company’s solvency and the detection of fraud and error.

• Since the 1940s: the overall objective of auditing has been the expression of an opinion as to whether the financial report is materially misstated.

• Audits from early 1900s to 1940s: added objectives of verification of financial report accuracy and attestation to financial report credibility.




AUDIT APPROACHES SINCE

THE 1940s I

These have evolved over time:

• Balance-sheet approach — involved auditor auditing the assets and liabilities with little emphasis on profit and loss account items.

• Transactions cycle approach — emphasised the review of controls which operated within each transaction cycle and provided for limited testing of balance sheet items.




AUDIT APPROACHES

SINCE 1940s II

• Financial risk analysis approach — auditor considers relative financial risk and materiality in planning the audit, such that audit work is concentrated in areas where there is a higher risk of misstatement.

• Strategic business risk approach — as well as financial risk, auditor considers business strategy, associated business risks, and management’s plans to respond to changes in the business environment.




THE AUDITOR, CLIENT AND

PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP

• The auditor’s primary reporting responsibility is to resource providers of the client entity; however the client entity usually engages the auditor and pays the auditor’s fees.

• The auditor also discusses the audit findings with management prior to releasing information to the resource providers.

• In order to combat pressures on independence and objectivity, the auditing profession has issued a series of ethical rulings and professional standards to guide the auditor in the conduct of his/her duties.




THE EXPECTATION GAP

• The reasonableness gap: gap between what society expects auditors to achieve and what they can reasonably be expected to accomplish;

• The performance gap arising from deficient standards; and

• The performance gap arising from deficient performance by auditors.

Defined as: ‘the gap between society’s expectations of auditors and auditors’ performance as perceived by society’.

Three components:




Fig. 1.5 Structure of the gap between audit

expectation and audit performance (p.26)




FOUR MAJOR ISSUES IN

EXPECTATION GAP

• The nature and meaning of audit report messages;

• Early warning by auditors of corporate failure;

• Auditor’s responsibility for the detection and reporting of fraud; and

• Auditor’s ability to communicate different levels of assurance.




THE ROLE OF AUDITING

STANDARDS

• Auditing standards (AUSs) in Australia are developed by the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AuASB) of the AARF. In most cases AUSs reflect International Standards on Auditing (ISAs).

• Prescribe the basic principles and essential procedures which govern the professional conduct of an auditor.

• Mandatory for members of the two accounting bodies, but currently do not have legislative backing.

• Failure to observe these standards may expose a member to investigation and disciplinary action from their accounting body (APS1.1).




AUSs & AGSs

• Auditing Standards (AUS) outline basic principles and essential procedures which are identified with ‘black letter’ (bold type).

• Black letter requirements are mandatory for auditor to follow if information is material, except in rare and exceptional circumstances.

• Rare and exceptional circumstances include where option for departure identified within basic principle or essential procedure (e.g. AUS 506 re Attendance at stocktake).




AUDITS UNDER THE

CORPORATIONS ACT 2001

• Management responsible for the preparation and presentation of appropriate accounts. Accounts to be accompanied by a report of an independent auditor appointed by the shareholders.

• Corporations Act 2001 (ss 292-306) indicates that directors must prepare statements of financial position and performance, directors’ declaration and other related notes and reports, together with any other information or explanation as is necessary to give a true and fair view.




OTHER APPLICATIONS OF THE

ASSURANCE FUNCTION

Evidence-gathering methods of auditing also employable in audit of activities other than financial reports.

• Compliance audit — examination for the purpose of reporting on Performance audit — analyses organisation structure, internal systems, work flow, and managerial performance: efficiency, effectiveness and economy of these items.

• Comprehensive audit — usually includes components of compliance, performance and financial report audits.

• Internal audit — audits performed by staff of the entity as a service to management.

• Forensic audit — investigate audit, associated many times with fraud detection.

• legality and control of operations.




CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE OF

CURRENT ISSUES • Expanded range of services provided by auditing

firms — what is the impact on independence?

• Strategic business risk audit methodologies — are these an attempt to sell other services, and is management becoming the client of the audit rather than the shareholder?

• Effect of globalisation — is business becoming too complex and can the auditor rely on auditing standards?

• Independence — from the three issues above, is the auditor truly independent?

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