08 Jun 2020

ACCA launches Covid-19 audit impact report

Going concern, audit evidence and accounting estimates are just some of the key issues auditors around the world are responding to during the Covid-19 crisis, ACCA report finds.

Based on the practical experiences shared by members of ACCA’s Global Forum on Audit and Assurance, the report shines a light on a number of areas that auditors are required to focus on during these challenging times. Primarily aimed at those audit firms that are carrying out their work for organisations with March 2020 and June 2020 year ends, the report will also be instructive for those with December 2019 year ends and those that have taken advantage of the additional time granted by regulatory authorities around the world to file audited financial statements. The report identifies eight major areas that where auditors need to consider, or reconsider, how their work has been or will be affected by the pandemic. These are:
  1. Identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement
  2. Auditor’s responses to assessed risks
  3. Audit evidence
  4. Auditing accounting estimates
  5. Subsequent events
  6. Going concern
  7. Modifications to the audit report opinion
  8. Emphasis of matter paragraph in the auditor’s report
The report also acknowledges that the auditing profession was already some way down the road to embracing digitally transformative audit processes ahead of the Covid-19 crisis, so that it has been able to adapt when face-to-face meetings and audit inspections were ruled out due to the spread of the virus. The report therefore brings together responses from regulators and audit and accounting standard setting bodies, such as the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) with guidance on how particular standards should be applied during the crisis. View the full version of the audit impact report >> 
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