Frequently Asked Questions in International Standards on Auditing

Chapter 1: What is the Role of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board?
Chapter 2: Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Who can be an auditor and sign the auditor’s report?
2. What are the fundamental principles of professional ethics?
3. What give rise to a threat to an auditor’s independence and objectivity and how can those threats be managed?
4. What are the issues an auditor has to consider before accepting appointment as auditor and how does the auditor deal with conflicts of interest?
5. Are there any rules governing the way in which fees are charged to clients?
6. Can a professional accountant accept gift from a client?
7. What happens if family or close relationships exist between an auditor and the client?
8. What are the overall purpose and main features of an audit?
9. Is there a difference between an internal auditor and an external auditor?
10. What is an ‘assurance engagement’?
11. What terms have to be agreed between an auditor and their client?
12. What are the responsibilities of auditors in relation to fraud?
13. How do accounting standards interact with the work of an auditor?
14. Who inspects the work of auditor does to ensure they are doing it correctly?
15. What are a ‘hot’ and a ‘cold’ file review?
16. Can an auditor prepare the financial statements and then audit them?
17. What happens when an auditor finds a material error?
18. How does the auditor plan for an audit for financial statements?
19. What factors does an auditor take into consideration when performing a risk assessment on their client?
20. What is the concept of ‘materiality’ and how is it applied in an audit?
21. What constitutes audit evidence and how is it gathered?
22. If a client uses the services of an expert to carry out certain valuations in the financial statements, does the auditor have to carry out any procedures?
23. Can an auditor appoint their own expert to corroborate certain aspects of the financial statements?
24. What are the financial statement assertions?
25. Why does the auditor have to attend the year-end inventory count?
26. If a client appoints a new auditor, does the incoming auditor have to do any work on the previous year’s financial statements?
27. What are ‘external confirmations’?
28. What are analytical procedures?
29. An auditor uses ‘audit sampling’ as part of their testing procedures – what exactly is this?
30. How does an auditor make sure accounting estimates, fair value accounting estimates and the related disclosures are fairly stated in the financial statements?
31. What are ‘relate parties’ and how does the auditor audit these?
32. Does the auditor have to do any work beyond the year-end date?
33. What is mean by “error projection”?
34. What are written representations?
35. If the company is the parent of a group of companies, are there any other issues the auditor should consider?
36. What is the auditor’s report and how is it structured?
37. What is the difference between ‘reasonable assurance’ and ‘limited assurance’?
38. What happens if the auditors conclude the financial statements do not give a true and fair view (or do not present fairly in all material respects)?
39. What is an emphasis of matter paragraph?
40. Is what circumstances must an auditor resign?

Chapter 3: Test Your Knowledge
Chapter 4: Answers
Chapter 5: Additional Recommended Reading
Appendix I: Summaries of IFRS and IAS
Appendix II: Illustrative Audit Tests

Steve Collings, FMAAT FCCA is the audit and technical partner at Leavitt Walmsley Associates Ltd – a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants based in Sale, Manchester in the United Kingdom. Steve trained and qualified with the Association of Accounting Technicians in 2000 and then went on to qualify as an Associate Chartered Accountant (ACCA) in 2005. In 2010 he became a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). He also holds the ACCA’s Diploma in IFRS and International Standards on Auditing (both of which he obtained in 2008), Certificates in IFRS and International Standards on Auditing and holds the Certificate in IFRS for SMEs which he obtained in 2012.

Steve specializes in financial reporting and auditing issues and has been writing professionally for several years. He is an Editorial Board member for Wiley Insight IFRS and the financial reporting editor for AccountingWEB.co.uk. In addition, Steve lectures around the UK on financial reporting, auditing and solicitors accounts rules.

Steve won Accounting Technician of the Year at the 2011 British Accountancy Awards. He won the Outstanding Contribution to the Accountancy Profession award from the Association of International Accountants in 2013.