Glossary›Assurance, audit evidence and working papers
Glossary cluster
Cluster A
47 terms
Assurance, audit evidence and working papers
About this cluster
What an assurance provider tests, what they accept as evidence, and what a preparer has to be able to produce. Start with limited and reasonable assurance, then work through the evidence, procedures and independence rules that decide whether a disclosure survives review.
Terms in this cluster (47)
A1 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Working papers are the organised file of evidence, calculations and decisions that supports every number and statement in a climate disclosure.
A2 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Audit evidence is the information an assurance provider uses to decide whether a climate disclosure is materially correct.
A3 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Sufficient appropriate evidence is the two-part test an assurance provider applies to everything it collects.
A4 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Limited assurance is the lower of the two assurance levels.
A5 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Reasonable assurance is the higher assurance level and carries the same level of confidence as a financial statement audit.
A6 · Tier 2
ASAE 3410 Assurance Engagements on Greenhouse Gas Statements is the Australian standard for assurance over a standalone greenhouse gas statement.
A7 · Tier 2
ASAE 3000 is the AUASB’s general standard for assurance engagements other than audits or reviews of historical financial information.
A8 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Auditor independence means the firm assuring your climate disclosures must be free of any interest that would compromise its judgement, and must be seen to be.
A9 · Tier 1 · differentiator
A self-review threat arises when a firm has to evaluate its own prior work.
A10 · Tier 1 · differentiator
APES 110 Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including Independence Standards) is the ethical standard binding Australian accountants and their firms.
A11 · Tier 1 · differentiator
An audit trail is the unbroken documented path from a figure in your climate disclosure back to the original source record, through every calculation and adjustment in between.
A12 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Data lineage is the technical record of where each piece of emissions data came from, what happened to it, and who changed it.
A13 · Tier 1 · differentiator
General ledger reconciliation is the process of tying emissions activity data back to amounts already recorded in the finance system.
A14 · Tier 1 · differentiator
A source document is the original record that first captured an activity: a fuel invoice, an electricity bill, a meter reading, a fleet card statement, a freight manifest, a lease.
A15 · Tier 1 · differentiator
An assurance readiness review is a structured check of a climate disclosure file before the assurance provider starts.
A16 · Tier 1 · differentiator
A materiality threshold is the size of misstatement above which a reader’s decisions would change.
A17 · Tier 1 · differentiator
A material misstatement is an error, omission or misclassification in a climate disclosure large enough or sensitive enough to change a reader’s decision.
A18 · Tier 1 · differentiator
A basis of preparation is the written statement of the rules you applied to build the disclosure: the reporting boundary, the consolidation approach, the standards and emission factor sources used, the estimation methods, and any…
A19 · Tier 1 · differentiator
A management representation letter is a formal letter signed by management, usually including the CFO, at the end of an assurance engagement.
A20 · Tier 1 · differentiator
An assurance provider is the firm engaged to give a conclusion on your sustainability report.
A21 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Preparer and assurer separation means the party that builds the climate disclosure is not the party that gives assurance over it.
A22 · Tier 2
ISSA 5000 General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements is the international standard issued by the IAASB for assurance over sustainability information.
A23 · Tier 2 · differentiator
Recalculation is an assurance procedure in which the practitioner independently reperforms an arithmetic step in your emissions calculation.
A24 · Tier 2 · differentiator
Analytical procedures are assurance tests that evaluate emissions data by comparing it against expectations: prior year, budget, production volume, floor area, headcount, or a related figure in the financial statements.
A25 · Tier 2 · differentiator
Inquiry is the assurance procedure of asking people questions and evaluating their answers.
A26 · Tier 2 · differentiator
Vouching is tracing a figure recorded in your emissions data back to its supporting source document.
A27 · Tier 2 · differentiator
Sampling is testing a selection of items rather than every item, then drawing a conclusion about the whole population.
A28 · Tier 2 · differentiator
A walkthrough is where the assurance provider follows one transaction end to end through your emissions process, from the original source record to the figure in the report.
A29 · Tier 1 · differentiator
In a climate assurance engagement, completeness is the assertion that everything that should be in your emissions figure is in it: every site, vehicle, fuel type and month.
A30 · Tier 2 · differentiator
In a climate assurance engagement, cut-off is the assertion that activity has been recorded in the correct reporting period.
A31 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Internal controls over sustainability reporting are the documented processes that make climate and emissions numbers reliable before anyone assures them: who collects the data, who checks it, who approves the judgements, and how changes…
A32 · Tier 1 · differentiator
A significant judgement register is a single document listing every material judgement made in preparing the climate disclosure, the alternatives considered, the basis for the choice, the person who approved it, and the date.
A33 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Estimation uncertainty is the range within which a reported figure could reasonably fall, given the method and data used.
A34 · Tier 1 · differentiator
A modified conclusion is an assurance conclusion that is not clean.
A35 · Tier 1 · differentiator
A scope limitation is a restriction on the evidence an assurance provider can obtain.
A36 · Tier 2 · differentiator
An emphasis of matter is a paragraph in an assurance report that draws attention to something already disclosed in the sustainability report which the practitioner considers fundamental to a reader’s understanding.
A37 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Version control is the discipline of keeping one identified current version of each emissions file, with a dated log of every change, who made it and why.
A38 · Tier 3
APES 305 Terms of Engagement sets the requirements for how an Australian accounting firm documents and communicates the terms of a professional service to a client.
A39 · Tier 1 · differentiator
ASSA 5000 is the Australian standard that governs assurance over sustainability information, including the climate disclosures in a Corporations Act sustainability report.
A40 · Tier 1 · differentiator
ASSA 5010 sets the timetable for how much of an Australian sustainability report must be assured, and at what level, in each reporting year.
A41 · Tier 1 · differentiator
An assurance engagement letter is the written agreement between the entity and the practitioner that records what is being assured, at what level, against which criteria, and who is responsible for what.
A42 · Tier 1 · differentiator
An assurance conclusion and an audit opinion are the two output forms of a sustainability assurance engagement.
A43 · Tier 1 · differentiator
The practitioner’s report is the signed document in which the assurance provider states its conclusion on the sustainability report.
A44 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Group assurance is the assurance of sustainability information covering a parent and its controlled entities.
A45 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Reliance on internal audit is the extent to which an external assurance provider can use work already performed by the entity’s internal audit function.
A46 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Subsequent events are things that happen after the reporting date but before the assurance report is signed, which affect the sustainability information.
A47 · Tier 1 · differentiator
Third-party data provider oversight is the reporting entity’s responsibility for emissions numbers produced by an outside platform, consultant or data vendor.
All glossary clusters
A · Assurance, audit evidence and working papers