Staff Audit Practice Alerts

The Staff Audit Practice Alerts highlight new, emerging, or otherwise noteworthy circumstances relevant to audits of financial statements. These Alerts are prepared by the staff of the IAASB and do not amend or supersede the ISAs or other authoritative material. 

• Emerging Practice Issues Regarding the Use of External Confirmations in an Audit of Financial Statements (November 2009)
• Audit Considerations in Respect of Going Concern in the Current Economic Environment (January 2009)
• Challenges in Auditing Fair Value Accounting Estimates in the Current Market Environment (October 2008)

About Staff Audit Practice Alerts

A Staff Audit Practice Alert is a staff publication. Staff publications are prepared by staff of the IAASB, have no authoritative status and have not been subject to the IAASB's due process. Staff publications are not meant to be exhaustive and reference to relevant standards themselves should always be made. Reading such publications is not a substitute for reading the standards and other authoritative material, and practitioners should determine whether and how to respond to circumstances highlighted in a staff publication based on the specific facts presented. Statements contained in a staff publication are not rules of the IAASB and do not reflect any IAASB determination or judgment, and accordingly, do not constitute authoritative or official pronouncements of the IAASB or IFAC. They are for information purposes only and are in all cases descriptive and not prescriptive.

Staff publications are used to help raise practitioners' awareness in a timely manner of significant new or emerging issues or other noteworthy circumstances relevant to engagements addressed by IAASB pronouncements, to direct their attention to relevant provisions of IAASB pronouncements, or to provide clarification to emerging questions by referring to existing requirements and application material and background information such as that contained in staff Basis for Conclusions documents.

Staff publications do not amend or override the standards or other pronouncements to which they relate that are currently effective, the texts of which alone are authoritative.

Process for Developing a Staff Audit Practice Alert

1. The IAASB is responsible for commissioning a staff publication.
2. In commissioning a staff publication, the IAASB advises staff on matters relevant to the development of the publication. This may include instructing staff on matters which would not be appropriate for inclusion in the publication.
3. For each publication, the IAASB Chair, in consultation with the IAASB Steering Committee and IAASB Technical Director, appoints a small group of IAASB members, and others as appropriate, to advise staff on the development of the publication. This advisory group provides input on technical and drafting matters, and reviews the general quality of the draft publication.
4. Before a staff publication is issued, all IAASB members are provided an opportunity to consider and comment on whether it is consistent with, and does not extend beyond, the authoritative pronouncement to which it relates.
5. Staff, in consultation with the appointed advisory group, is responsible for addressing any substantive concern raised by IAASB members. All IAASB members are then provided an opportunity to consider and comment on how these concerns have been addressed by staff.
6. The IAASB Technical Director, in consultation with the IAASB Chair, is responsible for approving release of a staff publication. Staff publications are made available only on the IAASB's website.