SAS 122 has been issued by the Auditing Standards Board. That document replaces every one of the current SASs, except for numbers 51, 59, 65, 87, 117, 118, 119, and 120.
The clarified SASs, all 39 of them, will go into effect for your audits of 12-31-12 financial statements (okay, okay, the technical cutoff is financial statements ending on or after 12-15-12).
That means for your audits in 2013, you will have to be up to speed on the new SASs in the new-and-improved GAAS body of knowledge.
While there is still plenty of time, it might be good to start focusing on the new requirements. The AICPA offers three approaches of learning the new standards that a CPA could take:
Wait, hope and pray?
Hitch a ride with someone else?
Get on your own horse and hit the trail!
I recommend the third option.
Here is the announcement of the new SASs: ASB Issues SAS Nos. 122-124 Resulting from Clarity Project
The AICPA has a lot of material available. Check these out:
Superb starting point is a summary of SAS 122, Improving the Clarity of Auditing Standards.
That page points to a lot of other resources:
A good PowerPoint presentation gives brief background. Decent visuals in the presentation. (That’s where I got the above quote for getting on your horse and ride.)
Summary of differences between current SASs and clarified SASs
The SAS, which is very long, can be purchased here. It will be available October 28.
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