Generally Accepted Auditing Standards

Generally Accepted Auditing Standards, or GAAS, are sets of standards against which the quality of audits are performed and may be judged. Several organizations have developed such sets of principles, which vary by territory.

1. The auditor must have adequate technical training & proficiency to perform the audit.
2. The auditor must maintain independence (in fact and appearance) in mental attitude in all matters related to the audit.
3. The auditor must exercise due professional care during the performance of the audit and the preparation of the report. The auditor must diligently perform the audit and report any misleading statements in the report.

Standards of Field Work

1. The auditor must adequately plan the work and must properly supervise any assistants.
2. The auditor must obtain a sufficient understanding of the entity and its environment, including its internal control, to assess the risk of material misstatement of the financial statements whether due to error or fraud, and to design the nature, timing, and extent of further audit procedures.
3. The auditor must obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence by performing audit procedures to afford a reasonable basis for an opinion regarding the financial statements under audit.

Standards of Reporting

1. The auditor must state in the auditor’s report whether the financial statements are presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
2. The auditor must identify in the auditor’s report those circumstances in which such principles have not been consistently observed in the current period in relation to the preceding period.
3. When the auditor determines that informative disclosures are not reasonably adequate, the auditor must so state in the auditor’s report.
4. The auditor must either express an opinion regarding the financial statements, taken as a whole, or state that an opinion cannot be expressed, in the auditor’s report. When the auditor cannot express an overall opinion, the auditor should state the reasons therefore in the auditor’s report. In all cases where an auditor’s name is associated with financial statements, the auditor should clearly indicate the character of the auditor’s work, if any, and the degree of responsibility the auditor is taking, in the auditor’s report.

ISAs

International Standards on Auditing are developed by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board of the International Federation of Accountants. Derivatives of ISAs are used in the audit of several other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom.

Certified Public Accountant

Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA. Individuals who have passed the Exam but have not either accomplished the required on-the-job experience or have previously met it but in the meantime have lapsed their continuing professional education are, in many states, permitted the designation “CPA Inactive” or an equivalent phrase. In most U.S. states, only CPAs who are licensed are able to provide to the public attestation (including auditing) opinions on financial statements. The exceptions to this rule are Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan and Ohio where the “CPA” designation and the practice of auditing are not restricted.

Many states have (or have had) a lower tier of accountant qualification below that of CPA, usually entitled “Public Accountant” or “Licensed Public Accountant” (with designatory letters “PA” or “LPA”), although other titles have included “Registered Public Accountant” (RPA), “Accounting Practitioner” (AP), and “Registered Accounting Practitioner” (RAP). This designation was intended as a designation for non-certified accountants who were practicing public accounting before a state accountancy law was enacted to regulate the accounting profession. The majority of states have closed the designation “Public Accountant” (PA) to new entrants, with only about six states continuing to offer the designation. Many PAs belong to the National Society of Accountants.

Many states prohibit the use of the designations “Certified Public Accountant” or “Public Accountant”/”Licensed Public Accountant” (or the abbreviations “CPA” or “PA”/”LPA”) by a person who is not certified as a CPA or PA in that state. As a result, in many circumstances, an out-of-state CPA is restricted from using the CPA designation or designators letters until a license or certificate from that state is obtained.

Texas additionally prohibits the use of the designations “accountant” and “auditor” by a person not certified as a Texas CPA, unless that person is a CPA in another state, a non-resident of Texas, and otherwise meets the requirements for practice in Texas by out-of-state CPA firms and practitioners.

Many other countries also use the title CPA to designate local public accountants.