Professional Scepticism

This course will enable you to

• Explain how professional scepticism underpins high quality audit practice and ethical behaviour
• Understand how professional scepticism and judgement impact accountants and auditors
• Evaluate the different types of irregularities that an accountant might have to deal with
• Use judgement to identify fraud, money laundering, and financial irregularity
• Understand how to use the ISA regulatory requirements for quality control, compliance, and bias management

About the course

The IAASB describe adopting and applying a sceptical mindset as the personal and professional responsibility of every professional accountant. Auditors are required to plan and perform an audit with professional scepticism, recognising that circumstances may exist that cause the financial statements to be materially misstated. But how can auditors be confident when challenging management and be sure that they can justify their assumptions and opinions.

This course provides guidance on developing an attitude of professional scepticism and includes numerous examples which demonstrate the significance of judgement in financial accounting. You will develop a sceptical mindset and identify the common areas of accounting and financial reporting that will require you to use it. You'll also discover the important role that being sceptical can have on detecting and responding to fraud and other financial irregularities.