Following the World Congress of Accountants 2014, His Holiness Pope Francis addressed the accountancy profession on being a positive force in the fight against fraud and corruption. As my IFAC presidency comes to a close, I today wrote to His Holiness about our subsequent efforts to intently and vigorously respond to his message.

Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Francis

Your Holiness,

On July 20, 2016 more than 50 senior executives, regulators, professionals, and academics gathered in Chartered Accountants Hall, London to discuss and debate how the global regulatory environment can be enhanced—with an ultimate goal of improving confidence in the financial and capital markets, business, and government.

Designed for use by small- and medium-sized practices (SMPs), this brochure explains and differentiates the range of audit, review, compilation, and agreed-upon procedures services SMPs can provide and tailor to meet the needs of their small- and medium-sized entity (SME) clients. It can help current and prospective clients understand the range of services available, as well as their benefits. 

A healthy economy needs a well-functioning accountancy profession, one supplying high-quality financial information produced by skilled professionals. These professionals are best supported by strong professional accountancy organizations (PAOs). A key success factor in achieving this is enhanced collaboration across the global, regional, and national levels of the accountancy profession and the involvement of the entire international development community.

2016 is a crucial year for G-20 countries and the global economy, with new opportunities to create an environment of sustainable, inclusive growth. Given the increasingly interconnected economy, achieving this kind of growth depends on improving integrity and transparency and, in turn, restoring trust in business and government alike.

Given the essential role of professional accountants in business in strong and sustainable organizations, financial markets, and economies, this guidance assists professional accountancy organizations (PAOs) in strengthening engagement with accountants in business, the public sector, and academia as a means to expand their reach, influence, and contribution.

The Guide aims first and foremost to help IFAC member organizations and their members in practice, especially SMPs, with the implementation of ISRS™ 4410 (Revised), Compilation Engagements, which is one of the International Standards on Related Services™ developed exclusively by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). 

The voice of your professional accountancy organization (PAO) matters.

The accountancy profession is most successful and sustainable with the support of healthy national and regional professional accountancy organizations (PAOs) that have robust, effective relationships with their national and regional stakeholders, including government and regulators.

The success of any PAO relies in large part on its ability to effectively communicate, and demonstrate, its relevance to society. This begins early in a PAO’s development with promotion of:

Developed in conjunction with CPA Canada, this guide aims to help professional accountants in practice, especially those operating in small- and medium-sized practices (SMPs), in conducting review engagements in compliance with International Standard on Review Engagements (ISRE) 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements. 

This guidance was written for all organizations, regardless of their size or structure, private or public, to support the accountancy profession’s facilitation of sustainable organizations, financial markets, and economies by providing guiding principles to manage the complexities of performing a robust project and investment appraisal. Greater rigor in the appraisal and decision process can be achieved by using the principles as a benchmark against which to assess an organization’s current practice.