Hey everyone, this is Jeff Elliott from another71.com, and real quickly, I'm going to cover the 2013 CPA Exam Changes for the Auditing and Attestation exam, and any changes to the AICPA CPA Exam Content Specification Outline.

Now, for starters, the biggest change for the 2013 Auditing exam is going to be that they're going to sub in the clarified statement on auditing standards, which will go into effect July 1, 2013. So people taking Auditing the first half of the year don't have to worry about it.

So, that is the biggest change for auditing in 2013. If you don't care about the little tweaks to the content specification outline, you can shut the video off now.

But real quick, we're going to run through them, starting with engagement acceptance and understanding the assignment, the nature and scope of engagement, client acceptance, issues with the predecessor auditor, the engagement letter, and communication with the audit committee.

Now, there was a change to client acceptance and continuance. Basically the AICPA pulled out these five bullet points here and they have been omitted for 2013, dealing with the CPA firm's ability to perform the engagement, the experience and availability of firm personnel, whether independence can be maintained, integrity of client management, and appropriateness of the engagement's scope to meet the client's needs, that has been pulled out of the 2013 content specification outline.

Moving on to number two, Understanding the Entity and Its Environment, which is 16 to 20% of the exam, and that includes internal control. So, you have this long list of bullet points. Determine materiality, risk assessment, fraud consideration, documenting risk assessment procedures, entity and environmental factors, internal control, document understanding of the environment and internal control, assess and document risk of material misstatement, and identify and document significant risks. There's been two little tweaks, one to internal control and one to identifying and documenting significant risks.

First, internal control. In 2011 there was this verbiage here that says perform and document walkthroughs of transactions from inception through recording in the general ledger and presentation in financial statements. That has been omitted for 2013.

Second, this little blurb here about risk of fraud has been pulled out for 2013. Everything else there on the list remains.

Number three, Performing Audit Procedures and Evaluating Evidence, which is 16 to 20% of the exam. Develop overall responses to risks, perform audit procedures, and obtain and document evidence. There's been a change to obtaining and documenting evidence. And there was a sentence that says, identify matters for communication with those charged with governance. The AICPA pulled that out for 2013.

Number four, Evaluating Audit Findings, Communications, and Reporting, which also is 16 to 20% of your exam. That involves analytical procedures, evaluating evidence, evaluating documentation, reviewing the work of others, evaluating the financial statements, are they free of material misstatements, any going concern issues, and preparing communications.

No change in 2013. Accounting and Review Service Engagements, 12 to 16%. Plan the engagement, obtain and document evidence, prepare communications. Obtain knowledge of stated qualifications of accounting personnel has been omitted for 2013 under the obtain and document evidence section.

Finally, Professional Responsibilities, which is 16 to 20%. That involves ethics and independence and other professional responsibilities. And encompassing all of that is the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, the PCAOB, the SEC, the GAO, the DOL, SOX, and Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, and essentially what that AICPA did was, there's all these bullet points here.

They took the PCAOB, the SEC, and SOX and put it into one large bullet point. So, all of that to say, no change for 2013. This has been changes to the 2013 Auditing and Attestation exam. For the latest changes to the auditing exam, check out another71.com.

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