FINANCIAL REPORTING CONSIDERATIONS

　　In almost all circumstances, financial statements will not be finalised until a period of time has elapsed between the year-end date and the date on which the financial statements are (expected to be) issued. Therefore, regard has to be given to events that occur between the reporting date and the date on which the financial statements are (expected to be) authorised for issue.

　　IAS 10, Events After the Reporting Period stipulates the accounting and disclosure requirements concerning transactions and events that occur between the reporting date and the (expected) date of approval of the financial statements. Among other things, IAS 10 determines when an event that occurs after the reporting date will result in the financial statements being adjusted, or where such events merely require disclosure within the financial statements. Such events are referred to in IAS 10 as ‘adjusting’ or ‘non-adjusting’ events.

　　Students who have studied Paper F3, Financial Accounting will have come across such terminology and it is imperative that they can differentiate between an adjustingand a non-adjusting event. IAS 10 prescribes the definitions of such events as follows:

　　Adjusting event

　　An event after the reporting period that provides further evidence of conditions that existed at the end of the reporting period, including an event that indicates that the going concern assumption in relation to the whole or part of the enterprise is not appropriate.

　　Non-adjusting event

　　An event after the reporting period that is indicative of a condition that arose after the end of the reporting period.

　　AUDITOR’S RESPONSIBILITIES

　　So far we have considered the financial reporting aspects relating to events after the reporting period. The second part of this article will now consider the auditor’s responsibility in relation to ensuring all events occurring between the reporting date and the (expected) date of the auditor’s report have been adequately taken into consideration, and sufficient appropriate audit evidence has been gathered to achieve the objective. It is important that where students have studied Paper F3, Financial Accounting, knowledge of accounting standards such as IAS 10 is not set aside or forgotten when it comes to papers such as Paper F8, Audit and Assurance. There is a very close relationship between accounting standards and auditing standards.

　　ISA 560, Subsequent Events outlines the auditor’s responsibility in relation to subsequent events. For the purposes of ISA 560, subsequent events are those events that occur between the reporting date and the date of approval of the financial statements and the signing of the auditor’s report.

　　The overall objective of ISA 560 is to ensure the auditor performs audit procedures that are designed to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to give reasonable assurance that all events up to the (expected) date of the auditor’s report have been identified, properly accounted for/r disclosed in the financial statements.

　　ISA 560 also covers events that are discovered by the auditor after the date of the auditor’s report but before the financial statements are issued.