22522 Assurance Services and Audit

This subject addresses the provision of assurance services. It focuses mainly on the attest services offered by auditors to provide credibility of information in company and other organisation financial statements. It also considers the expansion of assurance services beyond the traditional financial statement audit into such areas as risk assessment, information system reliability, asset protection, detection and prevention of fraud and electronic commerce and deals with the methodology necessary to complete a financial statement audit or to provide other assurance services, and the criteria and professional standards used to measure information quality and integrity. The subject studies the audit process of understanding client's operations and risk, analytical review and the pivotal importance of evaluation of the quality of client internal control and evaluates internal control in a COSO framework. While internal control systems are evaluated assuming a business environment where information systems are an integral part of control systems and client operations, a variety of information technology environments (including the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems such as SAP e-commerce applications) are introduced. The subject provides an understanding of professional, ethical and legal requirements and responsibilities in completing and reporting on assurance tasks. It is accredited by the accounting professional bodies.