Audit International - Overview

Caseware® International Inc. (Caseware) licenses certain content for Audit International™ in agreement with the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada). The content provides non-authoritative guidance on applying International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).

Audit International™ includes an optional module that allows auditors to record, track and summarise risks, controls and reportable items with a powerful centralised tracking system. You can create numerous reports to analyse the identified risks and controls, including Constellation™. Constellation is a graphical interface which displays all the key knowledge accumulated in the engagement file at different stages of the audit. The views and reports will ensure the auditor can identify, assess and respond to those risks of material misstatement that have the potential to materially affect the financial statements.

The automated tools, forms, checklists, work programs and questionnaires provided in Audit International are useful practice aids that can save time and money while ensuring efficiency, effectiveness, completeness and consistency.

CPA Canada describes their ISA Engagement Forms as, "designed to assist practitioners perform high-quality, cost effective audit, review and compilation engagements for small- and medium-sized entities (SMEs). The ISA Engagements Forms include either a Word or Excel template of each of the checklists, forms and sample letters. These time-saving practice aids allows you to customize the forms and letters to meet the needs of individual engagements."

For further information on applying ISAs to various sized entities, please see the IAASB articles, which are available on their website, www.ifac.org.

The practice aids are designed for small and medium-sized (SME) non-public entities, and do not address the wide range of circumstances, risk factors or specific industry issues that may exist for a particular client or groups of clients (such as those operating in a specialised industry, government or non-profit organisation, complex IT environments, etc.). Consequently, the practice aids should always be tailored, based on professional judgment, to address the known facts and circumstances of each engagement.

The practice aids have been updated for ISA requirements that are effective on or after December 15, 2023.

The following ISAs have not been addressed in this product and other resources or professional standards:

  • ISA 720 (Revised) Auditor's Responsibilities Related to Other Information

  • ISA 805 (Revised) Special Considerations - Audits of Single Financial Statements and Specific Elements, Accounts, or Items of a Financial Statement

  • ISA 810 (Revised) Engagements to Report on Summary Financial Statements

  • ISRE 2410 Review of Interim Financial Information Performed by the Independent Auditor of the Entity

Audit Workflow

Audit International's audit workflow can be divided into three phases.

Phase 1 - Planning and Risk Assessment - Perform preliminary engagement activities including whether the engagement can or should be accepted, determine materiality, organise the audit to ensure attention is focused on key areas, identify/assess risk of material misstatement in the financial statements through understanding the entity (including significant risks and design/implementation of relevant internal controls) and conclude by summarising the risk assessments.

Phase 2 - Risk Response - Design audit procedures that respond to assessed risks of material misstatement at the financial statement and assertion level, obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence and assess results of any need for additional procedures.

Phase 3 - Completing and Reporting - Communicate with management/those charged with governance (misstatements, findings, material weaknesses and significant deficiencies and written representations), complete the audit file ensuring significant judgments and conclusions have been finalised and subsequent events reviewed and form an opinion on the financial statements.

Audit Profiles

Audit profiles are used to disable built-in audit features and remove documents (practice aids) from the Document Manager. Caseware Audit International includes six (6) profiles.

  • Minimal - includes automatic documents and work programs. The default documentation included is not ISA compliant. This profile is designed for a simple local engagement.

  • Basic - includes automatic documents, work programs, materiality and the Financial Statement Areas worksheet. The default documentation included is not ISA compliant.

    This profile is designed for a simple local engagement in jurisdictions where ISAs are not required, but materiality concepts and basic risk assessment on financial statement areas are used to provide automated assistance in tailoring the audit work.

  • OneForm - includes automatic documents, work programs, materiality and the Financial Statement Areas worksheet. It also includes "OneForm" - a memo document designed as a framework for ISA documentation requirements.

    This profile is designed for a simple engagement where ISAs are required. A one-page memo form is provided as a framework to complete required documentation, including risk documentation.

  • OneForm+ - It includes automatic documents, work programs, materiality and the Financial Statement Areas worksheet. It also includes "OneForm" – a memo document designed as a framework for ISA documentation requirements. It includes Caseware's automated risk tracking and reportable item modules.

  • Core –It includes all available audit features and the Core documents included in the ISA Engagement Forms.

  • Tailor per engagement - It includes all available audit features and all documents included in the ISA Engagement Forms and supplementary documents to address ISAs in a larger entity (for example reliance on internal auditors). Optimiser guides the deletion of inapplicable areas.

For a comparison of all the profiles and general options, click here.

Audit Functionality

Audit International makes the audit process more intelligent through the use of Profiles and the built-in Audit Optimiser. Profiles are used to disable built-in audit features and remove documents (practice aids) from the Document Manager. The Optimiser tool works behind the scenes to build the most appropriate work programs, checklists and forms based on criteria defined by the engagement team. Further tailoring of the individual work programs and procedures will occur based on the assessment of risk of material misstatement at the financial statement and assertion level.

The built in workflow dashboard is designed to offer an easy way to navigate the engagement using the above three phases.

Refer to Audit Walkthrough for a flowchart and further explanation of how the data flows within the Audit International product.

Disclaimer

These forms are designed to assist practitioners in the implementation of the International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) for the audit of small- and medium-sized entities. The forms are not intended to be a substitute for the ISAs themselves.

Practitioners should utilise these forms in light of his or her professional judgment and the facts and circumstances involved in each particular audit.

Caseware® International Inc. and CPA Canada disclaim any responsibility or liability that may occur, directly or indirectly, as a consequence of the use and application of these forms.

Copyright

The Audit International™ template is copyrighted by Caseware® International Inc. Use of this template is subject to Caseware® International Inc.'s end user license agreement. All intellectual property rights in the software and content remain the exclusive property of Caseware® International Inc. or CPA Canada, where applicable.