News and Articles
Announcements, product updates, and deep dives on auditing standards and practice.
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AI and the Auditing Profession
In November I attended a Technology Quality Management Roundtable in Auckland co-hosted by the IAASB and XRB. In this article I cover some of the key points
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Building value by building quality
In his 2009 book Start With Why, and accompanying record-breaking TED talk, Simon Sinek describes how unless we understand and can articulate why we do what
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The LCE Standard – the biggest change in auditing since 2009?
The new Less Complex Entities Auditing Standard has at last been approved for NZ. This represents the biggest change in the audit landscape since the
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What's wrong with AI?
Yes, we’re a tech company and all tech companies are getting excited about AI right? Why would we not be excited? In this article I look at some of the
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Depreciation as an estimate
Reading the accounting standards, depreciation is clearly regarded as an estimate. Yet in many of our audit files this is ignored. Why?
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Conference 2025 - Round up
Our first national conference was a great success. Below are some of the highlights.
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Less Complex Audits for Less Complex Entities?
We started to hear about a new audit standard for Less Complex Entities way back in 2019.
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New Audit Standard for Groups – ISA 600 (Revised)
For periods beginning on or after 15 Dec 2023 (effectively year ended 31 December 2024) there is a new standard for Group Audits. Early adoption is
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Proposed Standard for Service Performance in Review Engagements
In April 2024 the XRB issued a draft standard to be used where Service Performance Information (SPI) is included in a Review Engagement. This is a welcome
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Updates to NFP financial reporting thresholds
For accounting periods that end on or after 28 March 2024, the threshold levels for not-for-profit entities have changed. Let’s review New Zealand’s reporting
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Document Management Tools and Audit Assistant
Many firms using Audit Assistant also have specific document management systems for their wider document management and cloud storage requirements. Users have
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Updates to audit engagement letters
If you are preparing engagement letters for assurance engagements, there are some changes of which you should be aware. These are contained in PS 3: Terms of
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Materiality for Not-For-Profits – what is the best approach?
Many audit firms have their own internal policies and methodologies for setting materiality. However many of our smaller firms struggle with a consistent
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Changes to reporting for small not-for-profits in NZ
For those who prepare and audit financial statements for “small” (under $5m expenditure) charities and other not-for-profits, there are some important changes
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What’s different with the new NZ AS1 (Revised)?
The new standard for the audit of service performance (NZ AS1 (Revised)) is actually much simpler than the original standard released over three years ago.
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Walk-through tests – are they necessary?
So we have a typical small not for profit: poor division of duties, no real controls apart from two signatories for payments, a review of financial results at
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Tier 3 charities with revalued assets – help!
So, you are preparing financial statements for a Tier 3 charity – or auditing them – and the board have come up with the bright idea that they will use a
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Common pitfalls in Tier 3 audit files
In assisting a range of Audit firms with their Quality Control I get to see quite a few files for review, mostly Tier 3 charities. There are a number of
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Compiling a file for an audit?
Audit Assistant has been making online collaboration tools for auditors for many years, so we thought why not use this incredible functionality to help
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The latest on the LCE (Less Complex Entities) standard
Is this project that we have all eagerly anticipated actually going to happen? It appears so. I recently attended an IFAC webinar (recording is here) that
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ISA 315 Overview – Understanding the Entity and Environment and Controls
We’ve talked about risk assessment, professional scepticism, responding to identified risks, and the business model in terms of ISA 315 (revised 2019). But
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ReviewTools by Audit Assistant
Ever wish you could take your current complex review and documentation processes and put them into one bespoke, secure, elegant online solution without
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Instituting continuous improvement practices
Kaizen, also known as continuous improvement, is a long-term approach to work that systematically seeks to achieve small, incremental changes in processes in
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ISA 315 Overview – Understanding the Business Model
The concept of understanding an entity’s business model, including how it uses Information Technology (IT) is new in ISA 315 (Revised 2019).