Audit plan

ACCA F8考試：Audit plan

Rationale

The audit plan should be developed once the audit strategy has been established. It will address the various matters identified in the audit strategy, taking into account the need to achieve the audit objectives through the efficient use of the auditor's resources.

It is more detailed than the audit strategy and includes the nature, timing and extent of audit procedures to be performed by the engagement team members to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to reduce audit risk to an acceptably low level.

Content

The audit plan includes:

A description of the nature, timing and extent of planned risk assessment procedures. These procedures must be sufficient to assess the risks of material misstatement in accordance with ISA 315 Identifying and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement through Understanding the Entity and Its Environment (see Session 8).

A description of the nature, timing and extent of planned audit procedures at the assertion level for each material class of transactions, account balance and disclosure, as determined under ISA 330 The Auditor's Procedures in Response to Assessed Risks, including:

•audit procedures, if required, to test the operating effectiveness of controls; and

•the nature, timing and extent of planned substantive procedures.

Audit procedures required to be carried out to comply with all relevant ISAs for the assignment (e.g. external confirmations, accounting estimates, using the work of an expert, subsequent events, going concern and management representations).

Changes to Planning Decisions

•Planning is a continuous process. The results of the interim audit will affect the plan for the year-end work, the results of which (together with the interim audit) will affect the final audit strategy and plan.

•The auditor also will need to change the audit strategy and audit plan to take into account events as they unfold. For example:

• unexpected events (e.g. loss of a key member of the entity's management team);

• changes in the entity's environment (e.g. a regulator's report requiring changes to be made to the entity's procedures); and

• unexpected results from audit procedures (e.g. the results of substantive procedures contradict the evidence obtained through the testing of the operating effectiveness of controls).

•As a result of such events, materiality and financial statement risk, for example, may need to be reassessed and the planned nature, timing and extent of audit procedures reconsidered.