New AICPA standard enhances audit procedures

The AICPA recently updated an auditing standard designed to modernize how practitioners obtain and evaluate audit evidence from external sources.

The new Statement on Auditing Standards: External Confirmations procedure was finalized by the AICPA’s key standard-setting body, the Auditing Standards Board.

The standards update introduces a new requirement for the auditor to use external confirmation procedures for cash and cash equivalents held by third parties unless certain conditions exist, and provides updates to reflect the increasingly widespread use of intermediaries in external confirmation procedures.

The standard also updates existing guidance to better address situations in which intermediaries are used in the confirmation process. Learn more.