What’s News? For decades now, audit firms, especially small firms, or SMPs, as they are known nowadays, have insisted on the substantive approach, without any regard for controls. This was due to fears of blowing the budget, not knowing how to audit systems, or deciding that they would have to go substantive anyway, when controls prove to be ineffective. The result was that the audit client received less bang for their buck, in that feedback on system weaknesses was shoddy, and risks were not properly identified, as the requirements of ISA315 were interpreted as that one could not [...]

What’s News? With the implementation of quality management systems to comply with ISQM, audit firms are compelled to be aware of threats to the ability of engagement teams to issue appropriate audit reports, and threats to the system of quality management to ensure that the firm as a whole does not issue inappropriate audit reports. When an engagement partner is nervous about a new industry, a very large client, or a complex audit, as examples, this would be seen as a threat. Typically, these threats require immediate attention, and engagement monitoring reviews will address the threat too late, [...]

What’s News? Auditors are all excited about the advancements in AI, and are scrambling to implement this tool in the enhancement of their procedures on the one hand, while trying to figure out policies to curtail its abuse, and guide its proper use, on the other. In the meantime, they don’t have a clue about where its boundaries are, and what it is capable of. The intention is not to give you the solution to any of these mentioned dilemmas, but to pull you back to two basic audit and audit regulation principles. The Oldest Principle: Auditors as [...]