IFAC Public Discussion

The IFAC SMP committee website hosts a collection of resources for use by SMPs and SMEs at http://www.ifac.org/smp/index.php#Resources. This includes lcredit crisis and recovery resources at http://www.ifac.org/financial-crisis/smp-sme-links.php and a more general database of relevant links to free resources at http://www.ifac.org/SMP/relevant_links.php. The committee also has its own Twitter site at http://twitter.com/IFAC_SMP.

Please let us know how useful you find these resources.

IFAC Leadership , its Members and Associates had been working tiredlessly to attain the purposes for which the global body was created including  other emergent issues.

I begin to wonder how to bridge the cultural and infrastrutural divide betwwen the developed and developing economies if the much celebrated campaign for global convergence of standards and practice must be achieved.

In these circumstances, it appeared to me that thought leaders must allow minor voices an opportunity to say something via surveys the like .

I also feel that IFAC should experiment with Volunter Group to help with spreading this Knowledge process to the unreachable, it worked through missionaries for the christian religion and some other similar initiatives like the International Professors Project seem to be working.

I wholeheartedly thank the initiators of this discussion board but alas the traffic is far below tollerance level.

Thank you.

Johnson Oluata.

Compliance with standard and guideline is easier in firms with more than five responsible individuals, whereas the sole Practitioner has some challenges to enable compliance.

In the above circumstance, I am of the opinion that SMP,s could be assisted if solution providers can have a well tailored software for SMP,s to gauge compliance.

Thank you.

Johnson

The search of the an assurance "loved by everyone" seems to be a job for Sisyfos... In a report by ICAEW recently "reclaiming the audit" was one (of several) possible ways forward. And from what I can see, the revised ISAs clearly gives us the opportunity of turning the audit into an intellectual process again, and bye bye to all this ticking the box. I am working in Sweden and I am interested in experiences from all over!! Is it time to show that we can perform cost-efficient audits för SMEs? The study IFAC just made released regarding bankers view clearly indicated the preference of audited financial reports! 

Thanks Ernesto

As new registered participant, I will submit  my commemt(s) as soon as I read the complete exposure-draft re: SMEs and SMP standard practice. Please give me time and thanks.

Hi Nicolaas,

Thanks for this. We look forward to hearing about your survey. Indeed it may serve as a model for a global survey.

Cheers,

Paul

In informal discussion with some of our SMP members they did not indicate any negative effect on their practices. We plan a survey to test this - will report back

Dear Geekay,

We are encouraged to hear that you find it useful. Expect the updated version to be issued in December 2009. Meantime, please sign up for SMP eNews (see www.ifac.org/smp and go to 'news') so you get notified when it is released.

Cheers,

Paul

I use the Guide for training and as a reference guide. We have provided copies of the guide to each member of the audit team.

The guide, in my opinion, takes the theory embeded in those voluminous standards and translates it into a form that makes application practical. Obviously it doesn't show you how to audit the various section of a financial statement but that I guess is not its purpose.

I am aware that Caseware has created a template built on the basis of this guide.

As a small practitioner in Ghana, where it is difficult to find meaningful courses on audit, the Guide has been a big help. I look forward to future revisions.