Purpose of an audit
The auditor’s primary role is to provide an impartial (independent) report on the reliability of management’s financial statements
The purpose of an audit is to provide financial statement users w/an opinion by the auditor on whether the financial statements are presented fairly, in all material respects, in accordance w/the applicable financial reporting framework.
A firm must have annual inspections by the PCAOB only if
it conducts more than 100 audits of public companies
The audit partner in charge of an audit of a public company may only
Perform that role for 5 consecutive years
6 Elements of Quality Control
The Statement on Auditing Standards (SASs) constitute GAAS and must
be followed by auditors when AICPA auditing standards are applicable
Engagement partner
The person in the firm who is responsible for:
Overview of the audit process
Under Title II of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the auditor of an issuer cannot legally perform…
internal audit outsourcing services
Compilation
When the CPA is engaged simply to assemble into financial statement format the financial records of a private company and issue a compilation report without expressing any degree of assurance on the reliability of those statements
Preparation engagement
When the CPA is engaged to prepare the financial statements of a private company w/out expressing any form of assurance
Review
When the CPA is engaged to provide a lower level of assurance (relative to that of an audit) on financial statements of a private company by performing limited procedures…
5 primary responsibilities of the PCAOB
Preconditions for an audit
The use by management of an acceptable financial reporting framework in the preparation of the financial statements and the agreement of management to the premise on which an audit is conducted
In other words, mgmt is responsible for the fair presentation of financial statements and the design/implementation of effective internal control over financial reporting
Analytical Procedures
Evaluations of financial information through analysis of plausible relationships among both financial and nonfinancial data
Audit Data Analytics (ADAs)
Analysis of patterns, IDing anomalies, and extracting other useful info in data underlying/related to the subject matter of an audit through analysis, modelling etc -> this is all for the purpose of planning or performing the audit
5 step process applicable to using ADAs
Notable Item
An item that has 1 or more characteristics that, for the relevant assertions, may do the following:
test of controls
A test of control describes any auditing procedure used to evaluate a company’s internal controls. The aim of tests of control in auditing is to determine whether these internal controls are sufficient to detect or prevent risks of material misstatements.
control risk
Control risk is the risk that a misstatement due to error or fraud that could occur in an assertion and that could be material, individually or in combination with other misstatements, will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis by the company’s internal control.
Auditor’s specialist
an individual or organization possessing expertise in a field other than accounting or auditing, whose work in that field is used by the auditor to assist the auditor in obtaining sufficient appropriate audit evidence
Management’s specialist
an individual or organization possessing expertise in a field other than accounting or auditing, whose work in that field is used by the entity to assist the entity in preparing the financial statements
“Those Charged with Governance”
The persons or organization(s) w/responsibility for overseeing the strategic direction of the entity and the obligations related to the accountability of the entity
The auditor’s objectives are to…
critical accounting estimate
an accounting estimate where: