The following abbreviations are used throughout this report:
- AASB
- Australian Accounting Standards Board
- ANAO
- Australian National Audit Office
- AOSSG
- Asian-Oceanian Standards Setters Group
- APES
- Accounting Professional and Ethical Standard
- APESB
- Accounting Professional and Ethical Standards Board
- APPC
- Australian Public Policy Committee
- AQRB
- Audit Quality Review Board
- ASA
- Australian Auditing Standard
- ASIC
- Australian Securities and Investments Commission
- ASIC Act
- Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001
- ASQC
- Australian Quality Control Standard
- ASRB
- Accounting Standards Review Board (of New Zealand)
- ASX
- Australian Securities Exchange
- ATO
- Australian Taxation Office
- AUASB
- Auditing and Assurance Standards Board
- CALDB
- Companies Auditors and Liquidators Disciplinary Board
- Corporations Act
- Corporations Act 2001
- CPAAOB
- Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board (of Japan)
- CPP
- Certificate of Public Practice
- EC
- European Commission
- EU
- European Union
- FASB
- Financial Accounting Standards Board (of the USA)
- FRC
- Financial Reporting Council
- FRC-UK
- Financial Reporting Council (of the UK)
- FRSB
- Financial Reporting Standards Board (of New Zealand)
- FSA-UK
- Financial Services Authority (of the UK)
- FSA-J
- Financial Services Agency (of Japan)
- FSB
- Financial Stability Board
- GAAP
- Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
- GFS
- Government Finance Statistics
- IAASB
- International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board
- IASB
- International Accounting Standards Board
- ICAA
- The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
- IFAC
- International Federation of Accountants
- IFRS
- International Financial Reporting Standards
- IIRC
- International Integrated Reporting Committee
- IPA
- Institute of Public Accountants (formerly National Institute of Accountants)
- IPSAS
- International Public Sector Accounting Standard
- IPSASB
- International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board
- ISA
- International Standard on Auditing
- MOU
- Memorandum of Understanding
- NIA
- See IPA
- NZASB
- Accounting Standards Board (of New Zealand)
- NZAuASB
- Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (of New Zealand)
- NZICA
- New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants
- PCAOB
- Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (of the USA)
- PPC
- Public Practice Certificate
- PPQA
- Public Practice Quality Assurance Review
- PSB
- Professional Standards Board (of New Zealand)
- QA
- Quality assurance
- RCA
- Registered company auditor
- RDR
- Reduced Disclosure Regime
- SEC
- Securities and Exchange Commission (of the USA)
- SEM
- Single Economic Market
- SMEs
- Small and medium-sized entities
- SMSF
- Self-Managed Superannuation Fund
- TTAASAG
- Trans-Tasman Accounting and Auditing Standards Advisory Group
- Treasury
- Australian Treasury
- UK
- United Kingdom
- USA
- United States of America
- XRB
- External Reporting Board (of New Zealand)
Australian auditors, auditors, individual auditors, audit firms and audit companies
The ASIC and Corporations Acts use a number of terms to describe the individuals, firms and companies that may be appointed as auditor for a company or a registered scheme under Part 2M.4 of the Corporations Act.
The expression 'Australian auditor', which is used in Part 12 of the ASIC Act for setting the scope of the FRC's auditor independence function, is defined in section 5 of that Act to mean an individual auditor, an audit firm or an audit company.
In the Corporations Act, the terms 'individual auditor', 'audit firm' and 'audit company' are used to describe the manner in which the requirements of the Act apply to the different structures under which an audit practice may be conducted: sole trader, partnership and company.
For purposes of consistency and to simplify drafting, this report uses the expression audit firm to refer to all three structures.