Auditor

The law requires companies to appoint an auditor (now called a CPA auditor according to the Chartered Professional Accountants) only if they made a public offering  for the issue of their shares. If it is not a public company, it is not necessary to appoint an auditor, unless a creditor required it. In most cases, there will be no appointment of auditor.

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In 2009, amendments were made to the Professional Code and Chartered Accountants Act to oversee the exercice of the public accounting by the CA, by the CGA with a public accounting licence and by the CMA, holders of a public accounting licence.

Other changes, with the arrival of the new Canadian Standards of Audit (NCA) in force for audits of financial statements for periods ending as of December 14, 2010, come to modify the terminology we had the habit of using.

While before, we had the auditor who produced an "Auditor's Report" and the accountant who issued a "Revue Engagement Report" or a "Notice to Reader", here are now the distinctions between the three different existing missions and the qualifications of experts involved.

Actually, the annual financial statements of a company are accompanied by one or the other of the following three reports, according to the Chartered Professional Accountants:

1. The Audit Report prepared only by a CPA auditor  (formerly the Auditor's Report) as part of an audit mission
2. The Review Engagement Report prepared only by a CPA auditor as part of a review engagement mission, the title of auditor to be then followed by the words "limited to the review engagement"
3. The Compilation Report generally prepared by a CPA without a public accounting license as part of a compilation mission (formerly the Notice to Reader)