The report outlines six common weakness: Risk assessment ISA 315 (revised 2020) introduced a range of changes, with a clearer emphasis in some areas, such as the understanding of IT systems and controls. Where there are complex IT systems, the ‘understanding’ may require more specialist expertise within the audit firm, which is not always recognised. ICAEW […]

As audit professionals, staying informed of regulatory trends and expectations is essential—not just for compliance, but for improving the quality and credibility of our work. ICAS recently published its findings from the 2024 audit monitoring visits, revealing a mixed picture of audit quality across firms. While a notable amount of good audit work was observed, […]

As auditors, our responsibility is to provide an independent opinion on a company’s financial statements. However, this role is sometimes misunderstood, particularly by third parties who may attempt to rely on the audit report for purposes beyond its intended scope. This is where the Bannerman paragraph becomes important — acting as a disclaimer to clarify […]

The long-awaited changes to company and LLP size thresholds and changes to the content of the Directors Report have now been confirmed. On 9 December 2024, The Companies (Accounts and Reports) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024 / 1303) were made (available here: https://bit.ly/40s4DZ5). The changes set out in the Regulations are effective […]

A company is allowed to shorten their financial year as many times as they like. The minimum period that it can be shortened by is 1 day. But a company cannot change its year end when its accounts are overdue. A company can only shorten the year-end for the current financial year or the one […]

It has been announced that new regulations increasing company size thresholds (also removing certain requirements from the Directors’ Report) will be effective from 6 April 2025 via the government publishing The Companies (Accounts and Reports) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2024.   New monetary size threshold changes (effective from 6 April 2025):-   Micro Small Medium […]

 

The two companies failed to maintain a registered UK address (which is required by the Companies Act 2006), having changed registered addresses multiple times since they were incorporated and with one registered to a residential address where there are over 41,000 companies registered (this address is now under investigation by the Insolvency Service). Also, after […]

In late 2022, the implementation date for ISQM1 was fast approaching and many firms were frantically trying to finalise their Systems of Quality Management (SOQM) and get this in place (checking objectives, that risks and responses were all appropriately identified, assessed, documented and getting ready for implementation).   One year later many firms were once […]