A group of international accounting organizations plans to sponsor four new auditing research projects.
The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants is teaming up with the International Association for Accounting Education and Research on the auditing research initiative, with the support of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. ACCA is providing the funding.
The groups anticipate the research will help to inform debate within the profession on a range of important subjects relating to auditing and assurance, and thereby contribute to public confidence in financial reporting.
By conducting the research, ACCA and the IAAER hope to contribute to the development of the assurance profession around the world and the quality of the standards underpinning the services. The research is expected to provide insights into matters of relevance to the IAASB, which operates under the auspices of the International Federation of Accountants.
Research topics have been selected in the following four areas: international consistency and convergence in the application of auditing standards; the implications of Extensible Business Reporting Language for audits of, or other assurance services on, financial statements; the use of risk-based audit methodology by small- and medium-sized practices; and the nature of professional judgment in auditing.
We welcome this research, as we expect it to make a contribution to the implementation and application of international standards and our future standard-setting decisions, said IAASB chair Arnold Schilder in a statement.
The research will be conducted by international teams from Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., and will be presented in stages. Research designs will be presented at the International Symposium on Audit Research this summer. Interim research findings will be presented in the spring of 2011, and final results will be available in October 2011.
