skyscrapers looking from the ground and upwards

Standard setting

In 2014, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) issued 'A Framework for Audit Quality', which aimed to raise awareness of the key elements of audit quality, encourage key stakeholders to explore ways to improve audit quality and facilitate greater dialogue between stakeholders on the topic.

Driving the debate

ACCA's Tenets of a quality audit  (see right) build upon the IAASB's Framework and articulate the features that a quality audit should possess, recognising that these factors can sometimes exist in mutual tension.

An ongoing open and honest debate is needed about how audit quality can be maximised.

Owing to the way the factors interrelate, in some areas there may be different views about how best to achieve audit quality. In part, these views will be influenced by the political, economic and social environment, as well as technological developments. Hence, the notion of what makes up a quality audit may change over time.

IAASB's Framework for Audit Quality represented by an outer donut of segments, and inner flow of interactions and a triangular representation of audit quality. Description as follows: Clockwise contextual factors, business practices and commercial law, laws and regulation/financial reporting, applicable financial reporting framework, information systems, corporate governance, broader cultural factors, audit regulation, litigation environment, attracting talent, financial reporting timetable. Middle interactions, left to right regulators, users, auditors, management, those charged with governance. Inner trio presented in a triangle, top process, left of triangle – input, right of triangle - outputs
IAASB's Framework for Audit Quality

Your feedback

ACCA is pleased to contribute to this important debate and looks forward to receiving feedback on how the factors identified here can lead to improvements in audit quality.

ACCA welcomes comments on this report; please send your feedback to Antonis Diolas, Head of Audit and Assurance.

More in the ACCA tenets series