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36 Insight | Audit and assurance
Quality assured
In the first in a series exploring the trends most likely to shape six areas of the accounting
profession over the next decade, we look at the impact on audit and assurance
As the business and regulatory environment evolves,
so do the demands made of professional accountants.
ACCA’s report, Professional accountants – the future,
highlighted the need for continued development of skills and
competencies relevant to the varied roles that individuals play.
The combination of technical knowledge, skills and abilities,
combined with interpersonal behaviours and qualities,
amounts to a personal ‘professional quotient’ (PQ) appropriate
to an individual’s particular role and stage of career.
For audit and assurance professionals, the challenge is to
respond to particular changes and new demands in the audit and
assurance field. ACCA’s research, based on a series of workshops
with members around the world, has confirmed the important
role played by audit and assurance in the operation of capital
markets and wider economic activity. Audit and other forms of
assurance report provide levels of comfort not only to current
and prospective shareholders, but also to management, boards,
trustees, regulators and other stakeholders. It’s therefore vital
that audit and assurance professionals develop the right mix of
skills and competencies to fulfil their roles properly.
Responding to change
Financial statements contain an increasing amount of data,
responding to demand for more transparency and comparability
in corporate reporting, and more relevant and useful information.
The nature of that data is also changing, including more nonfinancial
information, such as content related to corporate social
responsibility (CSR).
The audit market is also undergoing change. Reforms in
Europe are triggering a wave of audit tendering activity by larger
listed companies. Meanwhile, smaller companies are increasingly
Expert views
‘Professional scepticism will remain a key competency. We
need to apply our sixth sense as accountants and auditors
and move away from box ticking.’
Patricia Kintu FCCA, chief internal auditor, African
Development Bank
‘There is no single person who knows everything in the
audit world. The standards are too complicated. For the
future professional we have to build a teamwork mindset.’
William Mak FCCA, audit partner, PwC, Hong Kong
‘It will be important for finance professionals working in
audit and assurance to deliver other assurance services,
not just the traditional historical financial statement audit.’
Petr Škoda FCCA, audit partner, KPMG, Czech Republic
‘The volume of information is reasonably static, but we will
see it growing rapidly in the future and the analysis of data
will become more important. And we are moving from
retrospective analytics to predictive analytics.’
Ken Miller FCCA, operational advisory, Grant Thornton,
Australia
‘We will need to embrace the business cultures and ethics
of different countries.’
Lock Peng Kuan FCCA, partner, Baker Tilly Monteiro
Heng, Malaysia
Top 10 competencies in audit and assurance
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Professional ethics
Laws and regulations
IT knowledge
Communication
Management
Writing reports and other documents
Quality control
Fraud and error
Corporate social responsibility and integrated reporting
*
Non-audit assurance
*
Accounting and Business 07/2016