What are ISAs and CASs?
International Standards on Auditing, or ISAs, were developed by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). The IAASB is an independent, international standard setting organization that is supported by professional accountancy bodies – including the Canadian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AASB) – worldwide. ISAs are a single set of globally adopted, high-quality standards dealing with audits of historical financial information. Currently, there are 36 ISAs; dealing with the audit of financial statements. The IAASB is redrafting them in a new Clarity Format that will be used by auditors worldwide. The Canadian AASB will adopt the 36 clarified ISAs for financial statement audits for periods ending on or after December 14, 2010. The Canadian ISAs will be renamed Canadian Auditing Standards (CASs) and will constitute Canadian Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS).
