FAR Newsletter: FAR Practice Note & FAR obtains ISAE3000 assurance report

In this newsletter:

• FAR Practice Note: “Internal Controls” by Jean Bédard
• Join the FAR 2019 International Conference: “Evidence informed policy making for the future of the auditing profession”
• FAR and CentERdata obtain assurance report on internal controls for data handling
• New FAR website is launched! 
• FAR Vacancy: Program Coordinator  

FAR Practice Note:

“Internal Controls” - By Jean Bédard, Annelies Renders, Caren Schelleman, Mieke Jans, Mathijs van Peteghem, Nadine Glaudemans and Lei Zou.

The auditor’s reliance on client internal controls has always been a contentious issue. If clients have high quality internal controls, auditors should be able to rely on these controls, making the audit more efficient. However, what constitutes a “good” internal control system is unclear, which makes it difficult for the auditor to determine how to integrate a client’s internal control system into the auditing procedures.  

Research suggests that the quality of a client’s internal control system very much depends on the context of the firm, and no clear guidelines exist. This is worrisome, given that a high proportion of audit clients shows significant shortcomings in their internal control over financial reporting. Clear evaluation criteria are lacking and necessary, but the rise of data analytics is likely to partially solve this issue. Computer algorithms facilitate large-scale tests by the auditor and may flag suspicious transactions, reducing the need for the auditor to depend on their clients’ internal control systems.

To read the full practice note, click here (.pdf) 

Join the FAR 2019 International Conference: “Evidence informed policy making for the future of the auditing profession”

The FAR Conference is coming up soon! This year’s conference will take place on 3 and 4 June 2019 in Breukelen. 

There are limited spaces available, so register here today.

For the latest program details please visit: http://foundationforauditingresearch.org/4th-international-far-conference/.

FAR offers the unique opportunity to bring researchers and audit firms together for knowledge exchange and collaboration. The conference is focused on sharing findings from FAR Research Projects, as well as introducing new projects, disseminating existing knowledge on relevant questions from auditing practice, and discussing views from practice, standard setters and regulators. The conference is particularly of interest to audit researchers, audit practitioners and firm management, auditing standards setters, audit supervisors and auditing teachers.  

Curious about last year’s conference? Watch the video or read all about it here.  

We look forward to welcoming you on June 3 and 4 at Nyenrode Business Universiteit in Breukelen.

FAR and CentERdata obtain assurance report on internal controls for data handling

The Foundation for Auditing Research (FAR), jointly with its trusted data management service provider CentERdata, has reached another milestone and received a clean auditor’s assurance report on the design and implementation of FAR data gathering and security controls as per 26 April 2019 (the so called ISAE 3000 “type I” third-party-assurance report). In the auditor’s opinion, BDO states that “the description fairly presents the system as designed and implemented [and] the controls related to the control objectives stated in the description were suitably designed as at 26 April 2019. This confirms that the FAR affiliated audit firms can share (anonymized / transformed) confidential data with FAR researchers and can rely on the existing FAR-CentERdata processes for the confidentiality of their data. This is a world-wide unique structure where the Dutch auditing profession is actively sharing data in collaboration with academic researchers. With these data the researchers unlock academic insights relating to audit quality. This helps to inform the public and academic debate relating to the audit profession and help to improve audit quality. The report is available at the FAR Liaison of the affiliated audit firm.

New FAR website is launched

We are proud to announce that the new FAR website is now online. The new website contains the latest FAR updates, a clear overview of all FAR publications and is therefore a valuable source of information for both auditing researchers and auditing practitioners. The website is updated regularly with various interesting publications and research findings.

Furthermore, keep an eye on our events page for the latest events and masterclasses, for which you can register easily.

 
FAR Vacancy: Program Coordinator

The Foundation for Auditing Research aims to enhance the knowledge of what makes a good audit today and to continuously improve audit practices. The FAR pursues these objectives by researching the drivers of audit quality, by collaborating with other research institutes internationally, and by sharing its findings through research conferences and masterclasses.

To help us achieve these goals, we are currently looking at hiring a:

Program Coordinator

As Program Coordinator of FAR you will implement the research and data collection activities of the FAR. More specifically, you implement and support the management of research projects entrusted to scientific research teams (national and international), cooperation with affiliated audit firms (in particular with regard to data collection) and data management in cooperation with an external organization. You also support in the organization of conferences, master classes and other events.

Nyenrode Business Universiteit provides the management organization for the Foundation for Auditing Research (FAR). This management organization, consisting of a small team of around four people, is led by prof. dr. Olof Bik RA (Professor at Nyenrode and Managing Director of FAR) and prof. dr. Jan Bouwens (Professor at UvA and Managing Director of FAR) and is part of the broader program management team Accountancy at Nyenrode.  

Do you want to be part of a compact and close-knit team on one of the most beautiful university campuses in the world? 

Click here for the full vacancy (in Dutch).

Do you have suggestions on how to improve our newsletter or news you would like to share with us? Please let us know by sending an email to info@foundationforauditingresearch.org