At the beginning of the text are four chapters setting out the audit environment dealing with the role and organization of the accounting profession in the context of auditing, the nature and purpose of financial statement audits, an explanation of the nature and significance of ethical responsibilities in meeting professional expectations and a discussion as to the legal responsibility of auditors to those relying on their services. The basic techniques of planning and performing the audit are explained in Chapters 5 to 9. Their application to major transaction classes and account balances and the issue of the auditors’ report is then described in Chapters 10 to 15. This aspect of the audit process is developed in a logical and consistent fashion explaining the implications of risk assessment in developing the audit strategy and the relevance of assertions in identifying the applicable audit objectives. The final two chapters, 16 and 17, look to the impact of IT and e-Commerce and identify issues likely to be of concern to the next generation of auditors.