IAASB, ISSB offer guides for implementing standards

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board released a first-time implementation guide Thursday for the International Standard on Auditing for Audits of Financial Statements of Less Complex Entities, while a different global standard-setter introduced an online tool for adopting sustainability standards.

The standard, also known as ISA for LCE, is designed specifically for audits of financial statements of smaller and less complex entities. The IAASB unveiled the standard in December 2023 and then released an adoption guide last September. 

The new implementation guide complements the adoption guide and includes an overview of the standard’s concepts, structure and format. It also features step-by-step insights into each part of the standard, with examples and comparisons to ISAs, equipping practitioners with the tools to effectively implement the ISA for LCE. 

The IAASB has posted other resources as well, such as supplementary guidance on the authority of the standard and on auditor reporting, videos and webinars at www.iaasb.org/ISAforLCE.

ISSB Roadmap Tool

Separately on the international financial standard-setting front, the International Sustainability Standard Board and its parent organization, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation, released a Jurisdictional Roadmap Development Tool for adopting ISSB standards.

The interactive tool develops the concepts set out in the Inaugural Jurisdictional Guide for the adoption or other use of ISSB standards into a practical application, to support jurisdictions and implementation partners as they navigate the policy considerations and key steps of planning and designing their roadmap for the adoption or other use of ISSB standards.

“As part of its objective to support effective and efficient capital markets, the ISSB is helping jurisdictions in the development of their adoption roadmaps,” said ISSB chair Emmanuel Faber in a statement Thursday. “The launch of the Roadmap Tool marks a significant milestone and confirms the ISSB’s commitment to developing tools and resources that are useful to jurisdictions. This Roadmap Tool equips regulators to make informed decisions about their approach towards adoption or other use of ISSB standards.”

By using the Roadmap Tool, jurisdictions will be able to make informed decisions on the regulatory process for how to adopt or otherwise use ISSB standards, reporting entities that will be subject to the requirements, the specific content covered in the sustainability-related disclosure requirements, addressing when requirements will become effective, setting a suitable timeline and whether there is a case for scaling and phasing in.

Along with the Roadmap Tool, the IFRS Foundation has also made available templates of the jurisdictional approaches described in the Inaugural Jurisdictional Guide. The templates provide jurisdictions and implementation partners with a reference to understand how a jurisdiction’s decisions — and the corresponding outcomes — can be understood by stakeholders and described by the IFRS Foundation.