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Financial information for accounting periods that end after 20 September 2007 will be subject to a new statement of standards. The measure is being brought in with little more than two months’ notice by the Auditing Practices Board and will apply to accounting periods that have already started.
     
Although primarily aimed at auditors they will inevitably affect finance directors and internal auditors as they prepare accounting statements.
     
The chairman of the Auditing Practices Board, Richard Fleck has rejected pleas to give audit firms more time to implement the standard. “The APB considers it desirable to apply the standard as soon as practicable to half-yearly reports prepared under the rules and regulations implementing the European Transparency Directive,” he said. But he admitted: “An implementation date of 20 September is relatively demanding and will require the immediate attention of audit firms.”
    
The new standard adopts the text of the International Accounting Standards Board’s ISRE 2410, which was issued in 2005, but the UK Auditing Practices Board has expanded the international base standard. These additions are to clarify certain matters, says Fleck, such as the rules of the Transparency Directive that apply to UK and Irish listed companies.
    
The board claims its approach should not result in a significant overall increase in the amount of work carried out by auditors but warns that firms may find it necessary to bring forward some procedures that would normally be conducted later in the financial year for the audit of the full-year accounts.

These measures include the updating of the auditor firm’s understanding of the business and the environment that it operates in, including internal control.