Procedures

I believe that the ‘know your client’ procedures take place BEFORE acceptance of a new assignment

There’s little point in them taking place after appointment

These required procedures are there to enable the auditor to establish whether there may be any implications that could cause threats to compliance by the auditor with any of the fundamental principles detained in the Ethics Code

This Code of Ethics details examples of potential threats to an auditor’s integrity or professional behaviour such as queries concerning the conduct or reputation of the potential client’s owners, management or activities

Client acceptance procedures other than those associated with ‘know your client’ would include such practical matters as:

Auditor’s ability to carry out a professional assignment?
Existence of the in-house skills and experience to complete this assignment
Consideration of the locations, time scales, deadlines, restrictions, compliance requirements, financial reporting framework, fee level (and thus also threat to fee dependency!)

These concerns are all inward looking – the auditor questioning him (her) self of the ability to take on the assignment

These are just some of the examples that should go through the mind of the auditor before acceptance of the audit assignment and are quite clearly distinct from the ‘know your client’ procedures where enquiries are made of sources outside the audit firm

OK?