The staff of the American Institute of CPAs, the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants and the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board have jointly released guidance on the use of specialists in COVID-19 environment, including some considerations involving the use of specialists when auditing financial statements during the pandemic.
The staff guidance, released Tuesday, aims to help accountants and auditors determine when there might be a need to use the services of a specialist to help them perform specific tasks and other professional activities within their own organizations, as well as when they serve their clients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The publication discusses some of the ethical considerations for accountants to think about when using a specialist, along with some of the circumstances that indicate a need for a specialist when auditing financial statements.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has forced many accountants and auditors to work remotely, as well as curtailed travel to client locations, particularly those located abroad, when travel restrictions remain in place in many countries.
Sofie Quidenus-Wahlforss is the CEO and founder of omni:us, an AI provider helping the insurance industry embrace digitisation. Sofie, who was recently listed as one of Forbes ‘Top 50 Women in Tech’, originally founded omni:us after several successful business ventures, the first of which was set up when she was 21. Twelve years later in 2015, along with her team of co-founders, Sofie launched omni:us as a way to enable insurance companies to fully automate and streamline the claims process, utilising emerging AI and machine learning technology to understand, extract and validate data from a large variety of documents.
Bethany Faford will graduate from Nichols College in May 2019 with a BS in business administration. She is currently majoring in accounting and minoring in criminal justice. She is enrolled in graduate school and will obtain her MS in accounting in May 2020. Bethany is a peer tutor at Nichols College and is part of both the Zeta Alpha Phi Honor Society and the Delta Mu Delta Honor Society. She has worked at a nonprofit organization for two years and will start work at a CPA firm in June 2019.
Cosmin Ene is CEO of LaterPay.
The guidance points out that the pandemic could also pose threats to ethical standards, and accountants may find it challenging with the changing laws and regulations pertaining to COVID-19. They may come under pressure to breach the principles of professional competence, due care and professional behavior. “Those who perform audits of financial statements may face additional challenges as well, including considerations related to auditor independence,” said the document. During the pandemic, accountants also might not have access to the usual resources they have at their offices to ensure competent performance, and they may need to turn to outside specialists to help them perform certain tasks or undertake some engagements.
The publication was developed by the staff of the AICPA under the auspices of a working group formed by the IESBA and national ethics standard setters from Australia, Canada, China, South Africa, the U.K. and the U.S. The working group was chaired by IESBA deputy chair Richard Fleck with the goal of developing implementation support resources to help accountants effectively apply the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) when facing circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic. IESBA and IAASB staff also provided their input. The working group plans to develop more COVID-19 guidance in the weeks ahead.
