4 minute read 27 Jan. 2024
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Our commitment to Audit Quality – 2024

Authors
Jad Shimaly

EY Global Managing Partner – Client Service

Passionate about helping clients shape and implement an innovative transformation agenda on a global scale. Committed to promoting socioeconomic change. Lebanese Canadian. Husband and proud father.

Zahid Fazal

EY Canada Managing Partner, Assurance

Surfacing business insight that drives progress and possibility.

4 minute read 27 Jan. 2024
Related topics Audit Long-Term Value Assurance Board governance and oversight Consulting Corporate responsibility
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At EY Canada, we embrace our responsibility to perform audits that promote trust and confidence in financial reporting and the capital markets. Our commitment to audit quality is unwavering.

We are pleased to present the audit quality report of EY Canada. At EY Canada, we understand the enormous trust that is placed in us as independent auditors, and we embrace our responsibility to perform audits that promote trust and confidence in financial reporting and the capital markets. Our commitment to audit quality is unwavering.

As leaders, we set clear expectations for the quality of work our professionals do each day, and we foster a culture of integrity and accountability, based on strong ethics and our shared values of respect, teaming and inclusiveness. Quality is foundational to our audit practice, and we continue to reinforce the importance of executing every audit with objectivity and independence and acting with integrity in everything we do.

Our People

Developing and retaining our professionals is vital to who we are as a firm and to sustaining audit quality over the long run. We continue to focus on career development and the well-being of all of our professionals. While we are now bringing our audit teams together in person more often, we are committed to maintaining a hybrid work environment that gives our people the flexibility to work remotely part of the time. Further, our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts remain a top priority because we believe diverse teams drive better decision making and stimulate innovation.

 

How EY can help

Audit services

Audit services are the bedrock of our client work. We aim at providing high quality audits in the profession, innovating to provide confidence, value and transparency through our audits, and providing exceptional client service through multidisciplinary teams globally.

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Download EY Canada’s commitment to Audit Quality report

Our commitment to Audit Quality

Information for audit committees, investors and other stakeholders

Download full report (pdf)

A snapshot of key metrics

EY - Audit quality key metrics

Technology and Transformation

We have an ongoing audit transformation strategy focused on the future and are investing in innovative technologies and using a data-first approach to continuously enhance audit quality. The global EY organization is investing over US$1bn in next generation assurance technology to power data‑driven and artificial intelligence (AI)‑enabled assurance services. Over the past 12 months, more than 20 significant new assurance technology capabilities have been released including next generation data analytics and new AI‑enabled algorithms are being developed directly within our core EY Canvas audit platform to support teams with risk assessment and journal entry anomaly detection.

As companies continue to digitize and automate more aspects of their business, performing high quality audits requires more specialized knowledge of IT. As of January 1, 2024, a significant portion of the people in our technology risk competency in our consulting business have moved into assurance given the importance of IT skills to our assurance practice.

Our methodology requires the use of data analytics for fraud testing in audits of listed entities to assist in identification of unusual transactions and patterns that might indicate a material fraud. We require the use of our forensic specialists in audits on a targeted‑risk basis to assess potential risks of fraud using tools such as our journal entry fraud risk analyzer and documentation authenticity tool.

System of Quality Management

In 2023, we performed our first annual evaluation of our system of quality management in accordance with International Standard on Quality Management (ISQM 1), which was effective 15 December 2022.

We concluded that as of our fiscal year end on June 30, 2023, our system of quality management provided us with reasonable assurance that the system’s objectives were being achieved.

Looking ahead

We continue to engage with regulators, investors, audit committees and other stakeholders to address key topics for our capital markets, including the responsible use of AI and reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters. EY has launched an AI assurance framework that provides guidance on an entity’s development and usage of AI. We are also focusing on shaping the audit of the future and helping solve the profession-wide challenge of fewer people entering the profession.

Our commitment to the public interest

In closing, we take our responsibility to serve the capital markets very seriously. From our most senior leaders to the most junior members of our audit teams, we are each accountable for the quality of the firm’s audits. We continue to reinforce this message in our communications about driving greater consistency in audit execution and in our coaching and training.

Our mission will always be to serve the public interest by performing high-quality audits. We strive to continuously improve the quality of our audits to protect investors.

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Contacts

We welcome any comments and questions you may have about the matters discussed in this report. Please contact an EY Canada partner for more information.

EY - Jad Shimaly photo

Jad Shimaly
 Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, EY Canada

EY - Zahid Fazal photo

Zahid Fazal
Managing Partner, Assurance Services, EY Canada

EY - Janice Rath photo

Janice Rath
Partner, Professional Practice Director, EY Canada

Summary

As part of our commitment to serving the public interest, we have a responsibility to provide our stakeholders with an understanding of how we conduct our audits, how we maintain our independence, how we monitor our performance and what we are doing to continuously improve the quality of our audits. This annual quality report, which we have been publishing since 2013, is one way we provide that transparency.

About this article

Authors
Jad Shimaly

EY Global Managing Partner – Client Service

Passionate about helping clients shape and implement an innovative transformation agenda on a global scale. Committed to promoting socioeconomic change. Lebanese Canadian. Husband and proud father.

Zahid Fazal

EY Canada Managing Partner, Assurance

Surfacing business insight that drives progress and possibility.

Related topics Audit Long-Term Value Assurance Board governance and oversight Consulting
Upvote