Auditing standards are the guidelines an auditor uses to determine whether financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principals (GAAP). The rules for generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS) are summarized in the Miller GAAS Guide and Wiley Practitioner's Guide to GAAS.
Lexis has an electronic edition of the Wiley Guide (ACCTG;GAAS), as well as the GAAS Guide (ACCTG;GAAS
) and Applying GAAP and GAAS (ACCTG;GAPGAS).
SASs: The Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) promulgates Statements on Auditing Standards (SASs). The AICPA sells SASs individually (e.g., Statement on Auditing Standards #36), in groups (Statement on Auditing Standards #1-85) or in the multi-volume AICPA Professional Standards looseleaf service (use Appendix B at the end of Volume 1 to find where each SAS appears in the service). The AICPA periodically compiles SASs by subject and publishes them under the title Codification of Statements on Auditing Standards.
If you don't have any of these handy:
- You may be able to borrow them from a large law firm or an accounting library.
- You may be able to find an SAS in the Journal of Accountancy, which is available on Lexis & Westlaw.
- Subscribers can get the entire AICPA Professional Standards in the "reSOURCE" section of CPA2Biz.com, and through RIA's Checkpoint or CCH's Accounting Research Manager.
- You can buy SASs in hard copy from the AICPA by calling the Member Satisfaction Department at 888-777-7077.
Government Auditing Standards: The GAO posts Government Auditing Standards (the "Yellow Book") and related information at www.gao.gov/govaud/ybk01.htm. The Yellow Book is also available through CCH's Accounting Research Manager.