CA Institute revises implementation guide on Auditing Standard on ‘audit documentation’

The CA Institute has come up with a revised implementation guide to the auditing standard (SA230) on ‘audit documentation’. 

This has been done to provide practical implementation guidance to auditors on this standard. The implementation guide was last issued in 2018. 

This auditing standard (SA230) prescribed the basic principles of audit documentation. These principles need to be followed by auditors while complying with the requirements of SA230.

“The revised guide incorporates/ provides further guidance on matters such as whether certain type of records constitutes audit documentation, whether an auditor is required to keep incomplete, initial draft, superseded audit work papers in final audit file, the nature of changes that constitute administrative process during assembly of final audit file, etc,” Sanjeev Kumar Singhal, Chairman, Auditing & Assurance Standards Board (AASB) of ICAI, told businessline.

Implementation guide

He highlighted that the Implementation guide to SA 230 deals with audit documentation. An effective documentation is the corner stone of audits, he added.

“Since the issuance of first edition of the implementation guide, members have raised various queries related to audit documentation”, he said.

ICAI has through the revised implementation guide strengthened the earlier version and included more FAQs and more interpretations of the Auditing Standard (SA230). 

The idea is to throw clarity on aspects such as assembly of audit file. There were different expectations of different regulators on this front. 

The revised implementation guide has now said what kind of administrative activities are allowed after signing of audit report and what are not allowed. For example, one cannot obtain a fresh audit evidence. The revised guide gives black and white what can be done and what cannot be done. This will help ICAI in its reviews and NFRA in its reviews and any regulator who is reviewing the auditor’s file will be able to draw guidance or interpretation from this guide.

Meanwhile, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is expected to in next few days issue a much-awaited Technical Guide on ‘Digital Assurance’. SEBI had requested ICAI to come up with such technical guide and CA Institute’s central council has now approved it, sources added.

COMMENT NOW