Week 1 The value of an audit, auditor ethics & independence
Assurance engagements
保证业务
People who are responsible for a specific task (called responsible parties or managers) need to account for their
performance with respect to that task. There may be many groups who will rely on this accounting for performance as an
aid to their decision making.
Example
:
Shareholders relying on financial reports produced by companies’ management
Government agencies replying on reports produced by entities to account for environmental considerations
Parents relying on information produced by schools or information contained on websites when deciding where to send
their children.
Assurance engagement
is defined as ‘an engagement in which a practitioner aims to obtain sufficient appropriate
evidence in order to express a conclusion designed to enhance the degree of confidence of the intended users other
than the responsible party about the outcome of the measurement or evaluation of an underlying subject matter against
criteria’
保证业务被定义为‘一个业务执业者目标在于获得足够合适的证据来表达一个结论为了提高预期用户可信
度而不是为被负责群体关于在标准比较下计算衡量结果对于鉴证对象信息’
Five elements of an assurance engagement
审计要素
:
-
Three-party relationship (assurance practitioner, responsible party, intended users)
三方关系
-
Underlying subject matter
鉴证对象信息
-
Criteria
基准
-
Sufficient appropriate evidence
证据
-
A written assurance report
报告
Types of assurance engagements
Reasonable assurance engagements
合理保证
: for assurance services on historical financial information, a reasonable
assurance engagement is termed an “audit”.
一种高水平保证。当注册会计师获取充分适当的审计证据将审计风险降
至可接受的低水平时，就获得了合理保证。由于审计存在固有限制，注册会计师据以得出结论和形成审计意见的
大多数审计证据是说服性而非结论性的所以审计只能提供合理保证，不能提供绝对保证
Limited assurance engagements
有 限 保 证
: for assurance services on historical financial information, a limited
assurance engagement is termed a “review”.
Agreed-upon procedures
议定程序
:
The auditor does not have the discretion to undertake evidence-collection procedures outside those that have
been agreed upon
审计人员没有自行决定的权利来进行证据收集程序在被同意的范围之外
The auditor only issues a report of factual findings, in which no conclusion is communicated and which therefore
expresses on assurance
审计人员只能根据事实发现进行报告，没有结论被提供
The assurance framework does not cover agreed-upon procedures engagements, where there is no conclusion
conveying a level of assurance
Not deemed to be of an assurance nature
Difference between reasonable and limited assurance engagements
Auditing
