Auditing: An International Approach

Auditing: An International Approach

Bahram Soltani

The business world is changing rapidly, but recent corporate failures and scandals have demonstrated, in dramatic fashion, that auditing is lagging behind. Financial markets need, now more than ever, reliable auditing that delivers high quality information. For economies to operate effectively, investors need control over company executives.

Auditing: An International Approachtreats auditing as a whole discipline the theory and the practice rather than discussing only auditing techniques. This approach raises the essential question of what auditing ought to be and how it should keep pace with change. The book discusses auditing concepts for a changing environment and how auditing is responding to public expectations. It analyzes the role of external auditors today as a vital part of decision making in the market economy and the need to expand their role beyond traditional financial statement audits.

Most importantly, the book presents external auditing in a new way, with a focus on fundamental, theoretical issues pertaining to the framework and conceptual structure of auditing on a global scale. This is balanced with a thorough and careful consideration of audit practices in the new millennium.

Features

The major feature of the book is its coverage of four fundamental areas in auditing: international issues including international standards, theoretical as well as practical aspects of auditing, major research work in auditing, and multidisciplinary topics. Unique in its extensive coverage of international, theoretical and multidisciplinary topics, the book aims at providing a clear understanding of the evolution of auditing in a changing environment. Each chapter includes:

• Learning objectives, end-of-chapter summaries and explanations of key terms to reinforce learning.
• Summaries of key topics on almost every page.
• Extensive references to guide further reading, research work and advanced studies.
• End-of-chapter review and discussion questionsto allow the students and other users to test their learning and to facilitate classroom discussion.
• An extensive glossary.
• Up-to-date citations of key regulators and scholars who specialize in different areas of auditing.

Audience

The book has been created for advanced auditing and accounting courses (and business-related degrees) at upper undergraduate and post-graduate levels. With its extensive coverage of auditing and assurance services in todays uncertain business environment the book should also be of interest to audit professionals, corporate managers, regulatory bodies, and researchers.

Bahram Soltani is Associate Professor of Accounting and Finance at the University of Paris I-Panthon Sorbonne.