Assurance Services

Assurance Update

(Half Day — 3 hours)

This course provides an update to key standards in the Canadian Auditing Standards (CAS) and other standards in the CPA – Canada Handbook – Assurance, including reporting standards, and addresses other relevant assurance matters.

It also highlights the impact these revisions will have on your practice, and shares practical tips for successful implementation.

Review Engagements Workshop

(Half Day – 3 hours)

This course revisits key concepts and requirements of CSRE2400, Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements.  It also explores areas where you can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these engagements.

This workshop includes activities and examples and provides useful resources. By providing Neverest with a few completed engagement files to review in advance to identify training focus points, explore your firm’s typical engagement trouble spots and obtain tips for documenting work appropriately.

Review Engagements Workshop (For File Reviewers)

(Half Day – 3 hours)

This course revisits key concepts and requirements of CSRE2400, Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements and is directed at senior staff and partners who perform the working paper file reviews of these engagements.

This workshop includes activities and examples and provides useful resources to help file reviewers review working paper files as effectively and efficiently as possible.  The course  also shares tips for communicating the results of the review process to staff. 

In addition, this workshop explores how you can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these engagements as a whole. By providing Neverest with a few completed engagement files to review in advance to identify training focus points, explore your firm’s typical engagement trouble spots and obtain tips for documenting work appropriately.

Compilation Engagements Workshop

(Half Day – 3 hours)

This course revisits key concepts and requirements of CSRS4200, Compilation Engagements. 

It also explores areas where you can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these engagements. By providing Neverest with a few completed engagement files to review in advance to identify training focus points, explore your firm’s typical engagement trouble spots and obtain tips for documenting work appropriately.

Audit Engagements Workshop

(Full Day — 5 hours)

This course revisits key audit requirements as it relates to planning, performing and reporting on engagements. By providing Neverest with a few completed engagement files to review in advance to identify training focus points, explore your firm’s typical engagement trouble spots and obtain tips for documenting work appropriately. Identify opportunities for maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of your audit engagements.

Engagement Management & File Reviews

(Full Day — 5 hours)

Many teams can fall into the trap of approaching every assurance engagement in the same way, every year. The secret to improving engagements lies in the practitioner’s ability to think creatively and take early action to successfully change their team’s course of action for improved results. Innovation is a skill, like any other, that can be learned and honed over time.

This course explores proactive strategies for ‘re-engineering’ assurance engagements for improved quality and efficiency.  Since working paper files are one of the most important outputs of an assurance engagement,  it also highlights the requirements and principles for producing good working papers. It outlines best practice approaches reviewers can use to review working paper files effectively and efficiently and shares tips and techniques for developing productive review notes that can be cleared properly and easily.

Assurance Re-Engineering Program

(4 Full Days — 20 hours)

This training course is designed for firm professionals at all levels (juniors to experienced managers and partners) who:

• Work together in an assurance practice, and;
• Are interested in identifying practical techniques for planning, performing and wrapping up their engagements more effectively and efficiently.

The Neverest instructor works with a firm designated representative to learn about your practice, including reviewing excerpts of working papers from completed assurance engagements. The Neverest instructor will use this understanding of the firm’s approach to appropriately customize course delivery.

Participants learn practical tools and techniques to “re-engineer” each engagement to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of all future audit and review engagements.

Tools & Techniques for Junior Professionals

(3 Full Days — 15 hours)

This course enables participants to understand the practical differences between the various types of assurance engagements. It explores the risk based audit approach and enables participants to recognize common risks and objectives for each audit area. It encourages staff to understand the link between planned audit procedures and the identified overall and financial statement assertion level risks. It provides an opportunity to execute audit procedures and learn how to effectively and efficiently create working paper documentation to demonstrate the nature, timing and extent of procedures performed. Finally, it reviews active listening techniques to enable participants to develop their abilities to gather relevant and reliable audit evidence through client interviews.

Using a case study approach, participants work in small group ‘audit teams’ to plan, execute and report on an audit engagement. Teams learn to identify the risks and objectives of each audit area and work together to ensure planned audit procedures are appropriately targeted to risks. At the conclusion of each audit area, teams compare the approach and procedures used to those that would typically be used in review engagements.

Tools & Techniques for Intermediate Professionals

(3 Full Days — 15 hours)

This course develops the technical and supervisory skills of individuals.

It provides an in-depth examination of how to perform a risk assessment. It explores gaining the appropriate depth of understanding of entity level and activity level risks and controls, including a sufficient understanding of information technology risks and controls. It provides technical guidance in areas that are common trouble spots: using sampling and analytical procedures effectively and auditing complex areas such as management estimates, payroll, and revenues. Participants learn techniques for performing working paper file reviews effectively and efficiently. In addition, this course targets the development of some key soft skills when interacting with clients and colleagues. In the spirit of continuous improvement, participants will also gain strategies for soliciting constructive and timely feedback from supervisors and partners and learn how to contribute to the firm by providing meaningful performance feedback to staff in a professional manner.

Tools & Techniques for Senior Professionals

(2 Full Days — 10 hours)

This course advances the skills of experienced professionals by improving their abilities to lead assurance engagements, manage engagement teams and interact with clients and other stakeholders.

Using project management techniques, participants explore each phase of an assurance engagement to find opportunities to improve engagement effectiveness and efficiency. The benefits of coaching and mentoring staff are explored while introducing a framework that encourages flexibility for success in leading teams.

Understanding IT Controls Workshop (For Audits of Less Complex Entities)

(Half Day – 3 hours)

This workshop focuses on the CAS requirements for understanding information technology (IT) controls in audits of less complex entities and explores ways to obtain and document this understanding.

Technology use by small and mid-sized clients may not always be complex, but its use still creates risks. By providing Neverest with a few examples of documentation related to IT controls from completed audit engagement files to review in advance to identify training focus points, this course is tailored to your firm’s specific needs. Explore your firm’s typical trouble spots and obtain tips for documenting your understanding appropriately.

System of Quality Management (SOQM) Workshop – Planning & Implementation (Revisited)

(Half Day – 3 hours)

The suite of quality management standards referred to as the Canadian Standard on Quality Management (CSQM) include the following:

• CSQM 1, QualityManagement for Firms that Perform Audits or Reviews of Financial Statements, or Other Assurance or Related Services Engagements
• CSQM 2, EngagementQuality Reviews
•  Revised CAS220 Quality Management for an Audit of Financial Statements

CSQM 1 required the design and implementation of the SOQM for audits or reviews of financial statements or other assurance engagements by December 15, 2022, with evaluation of the SOQM to be performed within one year.

 SOQM for related services engagements were required to be designed and implemented by December 15, 2023, with the evaluation of the SOQM to be performed within one year.

This workshop revisits the ‘risk-based approach’ to quality management and provides an opportunity to revisit the design, implementation, operation, and evaluation of your firm’s SOQM. It includes activities, examples, and also provides useful resources to participants.

This workshop is designed for decision makers within your firm, usually partners and senior staff responsible for quality management matters, and with responsibility for the various practice-related matters such as HR, IT, etc.

By providing Neverest with your SOQM to review in advance to identify training focus points, the content of this workshop is customized to apply to your firm’s specific system of quality management.

System of Quality Management (SOQM) Workshop – Monitoring & Remediation

(Half Day – 3 hours)

This workshop focuses on the monitoring and remediation components of your SOQM.  It explores how these processes can be completed and documented not just to meet the requirements of CSQM 1, but ultimately, to work towards continuous improvement in quality. 

This workshop is designed for decision makers within your firm, usually partners and senior staff responsible for quality management matters, and with responsibility for the various practice-related matters such as HR, IT, etc.

By providing Neverest with your SOQM to review in advance to identify training focus points, the content of this workshop is customized to apply to your firm’s specific system of quality management.