Audit and Assurance Essentials: For Professional Accountancy Exams, + Website

CHAPTER 2

TAKING ON PROFESSIONAL WORK AND MAINTAINING STANDARDS

Covering: professional standards, changes in a professional appointment, professional ethics, the audit appointment process, ISA 210 Agreeing the Terms of Audit.

Why do I need to read this section?

In many jurisdictions, anyone can call themselves an accountant, but not everyone can call themselves a Chartered Accountant or a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Professional accountants and their work are regulated, particularly audit work. Laws and regulation, auditing and accounting standards, professional ethics and the requirements of professional bodies all govern what accountants and auditors may and may not do.

Under most syllabuses, on almost every paper at every level, there is a question on taking on a new engagement or changing an existing one. It is easy to examine ethical requirements and they are important in practice. They are even more important when professional bodies come under pressure from regulators to improve training and standards, as they do from time to time.

What is important in this section?

Just about everything! Examiners set a very wide range of questions on ethics. In recent years, questions about whether a firm is able to accept a particular type of engagement have become more common. This is because of the increase in the range of services practitioners can offer, bringing with it questions about independence, competence and conflicts of interest. There is an increasing tendency among ...