CPA Exam Lab
All patterns
Using the work of others

Whose Work Is It

You can divide responsibility or assume it, but using others never shrinks your own responsibility.

How the exam words it

The playbook

  1. 1Referencing a component auditor divides responsibility and is not a qualification, assuming responsibility means supervising and reviewing their work.
  2. 2Using internal auditors or a specialist never reduces the auditor's responsibility for the opinion.
  3. 3Do not reference the auditor's specialist in an unmodified report, and evaluate everyone's competence and objectivity first.

The trap

Treating a reference to a component auditor as a qualification, or thinking others reduce your responsibility. A reference divides responsibility, it does not qualify.

How the exam varies it

The same pattern, re-skinned along these axes:

Component auditor, internal auditors, or specialistDivide responsibility versus assume responsibilityWhether to reference the other party in the report

Drill this pattern

8 questions of Whose Work Is It from across the AUD topics. Clear it by getting 5 right with a streak of 3.

Shows up in 2 AUD topics