American Institute Of CPAs Proposes To Update Standard For Blockchain Audit Evidence

Blockchain, News | June 25, 2019 By:

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has proposed to update standard for audit evidence to embrace new technologies, such as blockchain.

Founded in 1887, the AICPA represents the CPA profession nationally regarding rule-making and standard-setting, and serves as an advocate before legislative bodies, public interest groups and other professional organizations. The AICPA develops standards for audits of private companies and other services by CPAs; provides educational guidance materials to its members; develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination; and monitors and enforces compliance with the profession’s technical and ethical standards.

The new proposal, titled Proposed Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS), will replace the existing SAS No. 122, Statements on Auditing Standards: Clarification and Recodification, as amended, section 500, Audit Evidence, along with amending several other AU-C sections in the AICPA Professional Standards.

The proposal will establish guidelines on how blockchain and data analytics evidence should be evaluated by preparers and auditors. It includes the application of professional skepticism; the expanding sources of information to be used as audit evidence; and the accuracy, completeness, relevance and reliability of audit evidence.

The proposal also include a recommendation to help auditors determine if sufficient and appropriate audit evidence has been obtained and allow them to consider a multidimensional set of metrics to evaluate evidence from sources, including the use of automated tools and techniques.

AICPA Chief Auditor Robert Dohrer said that given the rapid evolution of audit evidence sources that are available today, it is critically important that auditors have a robust, durable set of attributes that allows them to make consistent assessments about the sufficiency and appropriateness of audit evidence obtained.

“This proposed SAS modernizes our standards to recognize the sources of information and the technologies that were not available to auditors when the standard was last updated,” Dohrer said.