Why audit failures often begin with silence (Ep. 18)

Companies keep failing within 12 months of a clean audit report, with material uncertainties that were never adequately disclosed. ISA 570 Revised is the IAASB's response, and it doesn't change what preparers must do. It changes how hard auditors have to think.Judith Leung puts eight questions to Wayne Basford on ISA 570 Revised: what has changed, when it becomes mandatory, and why firms shouldn't wait.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:• Why the revision came from audit failures and the expectation gap, not from any change to IAS 1• Why the auditor must now understand and evaluate management's own going concern process• How contradictory evidence, management bias and "not documented, not done" fit into the new requirements• How ISA 570 Revised lines up with ISA 240 Revised and the "stand back" requirement• When it becomes mandatory, and why June 2027 audits should already reflect itFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting, helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com.🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith LeungYouTube: @BasfordConsultingWebsite: basfordconsulting.comFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com

Australia is restructuring how its accounting, auditing and sustainability standards are set. The question the consultation doesn't ask is whether the existing boards delivered what Australia needed over the past 20 years.Wayne Basford and Judith Leung work through ten themes from Basford Consulting's submission to the Financial Reporting Council on External Reporting Australia (ERA), the new entity that will oversee three specialist boards.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:• Why the submission calls for an independent assessment of the existing boards before the new structure is settled• Why standards should start with Australian users: private businesses, lenders, not-for-profits and government, not just investors• Why Australia should revisit IFRS for SMEs and build a simpler tier of standards• The case for tier two climate reporting and a broader sustainability remit• How skills matrices, board evaluations, conflict disclosure and open meetings could make External Reporting Australia accountableFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting, helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com.🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith LeungYouTube: @BasfordConsultingWebsite: basfordconsulting.comFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com

Manchester City was charged with 115 alleged breaches of Premier League rules. The club rejects the commission's findings and has appealed, but the accounting question at the centre is one every auditor should recognise: if an owner funds a sponsor who then pays the club, is that revenue, or owner support that belongs in equity?Wayne Basford and Judith Leung use the case to unpack related party transactions, revenue recognition and fraud risk.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:• Why profit-based rules can create pressure to manipulate revenue, even when a club will never go bust• How owner funding routed through a sponsor can end up reported as revenue• How the ISA 240 fraud triangle applies to pressure, incentive and rationalisation• Why related party transactions create the opportunity, and what ISA 550 expects auditors to do• The questions audit committees should ask their CFO and auditorFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting, helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com.Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith LeungYouTube: @BasfordConsultingWebsite: basfordconsulting.comFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com

How has the accounting profession changed over the past 25 years, and has practice kept pace?In this opening episode of Inside the Accounting Profession series, Wayne Basford and Bruce Andrews discuss the forces reshaping the accounting profession, from technology and professional-firm bureaucracy to corporate governance and IFRS application.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:Why large professional firms can struggle to adapt quicklyHow technology gives smaller firms greater agilityWhat Australia’s adoption of IFRS achievedWhy IFRS application can still differ across jurisdictionsHow revenue timing affects comparability and accountabilityFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com

IFRS has been with us for more than 20 years, but has it really changed financial reporting in practice?In this episode of Financial Reporting Conversations, Wayne Basford and Judith Leung are joined by James Scott from JD Scott & Co. to unpack the IFRS Practice Gap: the difference between what the standards say and what companies actually produce.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:Why IFRS can still become a compliance exerciseHow revenue, consolidation, leases, and business combinations go wrong in practiceWhy technical accounting knowledge is often missing when it matters mostHow preparers, auditors, and regulators all shape the IFRS Practice GapFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com

When an audit fails, the issue is not always a bad test or a missed checklist. Sometimes, the real problem is that the engagement partner was missing when it mattered most.In this episode of Financial Reporting Conversations, Wayne Basford and Judith Leung unpack why the engagement partner must be involved early, not just at final review. They explore how weak planning, poor risk identification, ineffective engagement team discussions, and late file review can all contribute to audit failure.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:Why the engagement partner’s role starts before final reviewHow poor direction and supervision can undermine audit qualityWhy ETDs should be more than a compliance tick-boxHow late partner review can leave audit teams exposedFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com

AI in accounting is changing how technical papers, reports, training content, and audit resources are prepared. But faster does not always mean better.In this episode of Financial Reporting Conversations, Wayne Basford and Judith Leung discuss how AI in accounting can improve efficiency, support technical research, and help professionals produce more polished work. They also unpack the risks: convincing but flawed analysis, hallucinated references, weak application of IFRS principles, and accounting papers that look right until someone tests the reasoning.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:Why AI in accounting can speed up technical workWhy professional judgment still matters under IFRSHow AI-generated accounting papers can mislead auditors and preparersWhy facts, contracts, and critical thinking still drive the right answerFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com

When an audit goes wrong, the problem is not always that the auditor missed the issue. Sometimes, the issue was known but not communicated early, clearly, or to the right people.In this episode of Financial Reporting Conversations, we unpack audit communication failures. Wayne and Judith discuss why communication with management, those charged with governance, shareholders, creditors, and regulators matters, and how delayed escalation can create pressure to sign an audit opinion without sufficient appropriate audit evidence.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:Why audit communication failures can undermine audit quality Why issues must be escalated beyond the finance teamHow internal control deficiencies, audit adjustments, and modified opinions should be communicatedWhy late communication can increase pressure on auditors and directorsHow the audit report becomes the final communication to stakeholdersFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com

When companies collapse shortly after receiving a clean audit opinion, the same question always follows: where were the auditors? But audit failure rarely begins at the moment the opinion is signed.In this episode of Financial Reporting Conversations, Wayne Basford and Judith Leung unpack how audit failures quietly develop through a cascade of decisions made throughout the audit process from client acceptance and understanding the business to risk assessment, audit procedures, and failures in professional skepticism.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:Why audit failures often begin long before sign-offHow poor client acceptance decisions affect audit qualityWhy understanding the business drives risk assessmentHow “filing exercises” replace genuine auditingWhy contradictory audit evidence is often ignoredHow audit failure becomes a cascade of decisionsFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com

When companies collapse shortly after receiving a clean audit opinion, attention often turns to technical failures. But what if the deeper issue is commercial pressure inside the audit process itself?In this episode of the Why Audits Go Wrong series, we explore how commercial pressure, fee dependence, and client retention incentives can quietly erode audit quality. Wayne Basford and Judith Leung unpack the tension between professional skepticism and commercial realities, and explain how audit firms can drift from investigative auditing into “filing exercise” behaviour.🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn: Why commercial pressure can undermine audit quality  How fee dependence affects auditor judgment  Why low audit fees create dangerous audit behaviours  How firm culture shapes professional skepticism  Why regulators repeatedly identify commercial pressure in audit failuresFinancial Reporting Conversations is brought to you by Basford Consulting helping professionals go beyond compliance and get financial reporting right.For technical insights, training, and resources that make the unknowns in financial reporting known, visit basfordconsulting.com🔗 Connect with us:LinkedIn: Wayne Basford & Judith Leung YouTube: @BasfordConsulting Website: basfordconsulting.com