Assurance Update (2024)

The objective of this course is to provide practitioners and firms with an overview of recent changes to assurance standards. We will review recently issued standards, the status of current projects, and recent exposure.

The course will examine:

Canadian Auditing Standards

Active Projects:

• Audit Evidence – Driven by the growing use of technology in audits, this project is examining the nature and extent of audit evidence and the need for exercising professional skepticism. The project will lead to changes in CAS 500 Audit Evidence, which was issued in 2009.
• Fraud – In light of several high-profile international corporate failures and significant accounting restatements that have put a spotlight on the area of fraud and the auditor’s roles and responsibilities relating to fraud detection. AASB expects to issue an exposure draft in Q1 2024.
• Going-concern – Recent high-profile corporate failures in recent years have sparked a public debate about auditors' responsibilities, with users questioning how much auditors should be able to detect from their audit procedures regarding the going concern of the entity, and what should be communicated to users about the entity's ability to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future. AASB expects to issue an exposure draft in Q2 2023.

Standard Issued:

CAS 600, Special Considerations—Audits of Group Financial Statements (Including the Work of Component Auditors) – Exposure draft was issued in May 2020 and the final standard will be issued in 2022. The revised standard clarifies the actions of the group auditor when communicating with component auditors, including communications relevant to the design of responses to assessed risks of material misstatement.

The course will also conduct a post-implementation review of the CAS 315 (Revised), Identifying and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement through Understanding the Entity and Its Environment standard, including the use of the reviewed PEG forms and methodology based on our standard represents a significant change from the old standard.

Note: Since a full session is available on this topic, it will only be covered at a high level during this session.

Other Canadian Standards Firms were also required to have implemented the new Canadian Standard on Quality Management (CSQM) 1, Quality Management for Firms that Perform Audits or Reviews of Financial Statements, or Other Assurance or Related Services Engagements; CSQM 2, Engagement Quality Reviews; and CAS 220 in December 2022. The course will briefly review our experience with our client’s implementations and the results of our clients going through the first year of practice inspections under the new standards.