The IAASB recently released a suite of proposed international standards on quality management. The proposals change the way professional accountancy firms are expected to manage quality—for audits, reviews, and other assurance and related services engagements.

This short video introduces the IAASB’s three quality management standards and explains why the proposals are important to firms and other stakeholders. 

Julie Corden was a member of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board from 2019 to 2024, nominated by the Transnational Auditors Committee. She has since continue to lead the IAASB's Fraud Task Force through its work to finalize revisions to ISA 240.

Ms. Corden has more than 23 years of experience, both in public practice and industry in Canada. She is currently a Partner in Deloitte Canada's National Office, where she is responsible for leading audit methodology, policies and guidance, including the firm's ISQM 1 implementation. She consults with and advises audit engagement teams on the application of the firm's audit methodology and the applicable professional standards. She is also a member of DTTL's global Audit Technical Advisory Board.

Ms. Corden was a member of the Canadian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AASB), and is a current and past member of various task forces and committees to assist the AASB and CPA Canada with standard-setting activities.

Ms. Corden is a Chartered Professional Accountant, a Chartered Accountant, and a member of CPA Canada and the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. She studied Accounting and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University (Canada).

Extended external reporting (EER) is becoming increasingly common and there is a growing demand for assurance engagements in relation to it. The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) seeks feedback on its progress in developing draft guidance in the first phase of its EER Assurance project. Public input is requested by June 21, 2019.

EER encapsulates many different forms of reporting including, but not limited to, integrated reporting, sustainability reporting and other reporting by entities about environmental, social and governance matters.

The IAASB Consultation Paper, Extended External Reporting Assurance , includes the first part of draft guidance for practitioners applying International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised), Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information, to EER assurance engagements. Input received will assist the IAASB in continuing to develop a complete non-authoritative guidance document due to be published in the second phase of the project.

This consultation includes draft guidance covering:

• The suitability of criteria (reporting framework or standards) used to prepare the EER report;
• Preparer-developed criteria to determine the matters reported on (a preparer’s “materiality process”);
• The types of misstatements that may occur in the EER report (building assertions);
• The materiality of misstatements in the EER report;
• The preparer’s governance and internal control over its process to prepare the EER report; and
• Narrative and future-oriented information in the EER report.

The IAASB invites input on the draft guidance from all stakeholders, especially those with practical experience in this evolving area of reporting, including practitioners and other experts involved in performing engagements, preparers of EER reports, investors and other users, standard setters, and regulators.

Comments on the Consultation Paper are requested by June 21, 2019.

The IAASB’s EER Assurance project is being run with the support of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

About the IAASB

The IAASB develops auditing and assurance standards and guidance for use by all professional accountants under a shared standard-setting process involving the Public Interest Oversight Board, which oversees the activities of the IAASB, and the IAASB Consultative Advisory Group, which provides public interest input into the development of the standards and guidance. The structures and processes that support the operations of the IAASB are facilitated by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). For copyright, trademark, and permissions information, please go to permissions or contact permissions@ifac.org.

This communiqué is part of a series from the IAASB Professional Skepticism Working Group, providing updates on the IAASB’s efforts to appropriately reflect professional skepticism in its standards, together with other relevant news and information. The previous edition is available online.

Johanna Field, CPA, CA, is a Principal, Auditing and Assurance Standards, at Chartered Professional Accountants Canada (CPA Canada), supporting the activities of the Canadian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. Specifically, she supports the Canadian Board in the revisions to International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 500, Audit Evidence, and determining guidance needed to support assurance on extended external reporting.

Ms. Field spent the first decade of her career with Grant Thornton LLP in audit and assurance. For six of those years, she worked in a national audit and assurance role, where she developed and delivered training, researched and wrote policy and publications, and maintained the firm's audit methodology under changing standards.

Ms. Field is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and Chartered Accountant (CA) and a member of CPA Canada and the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. Ms. Field also has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Prince Edward Island (Canada).