For the purposes of this Auditing Standard, the following terms have the meanings attributed below:

Assurance practitioner means a person or an organisation, whether in public practice, industry, commerce or the public sector, providing assurance services.

Engagement partner^[2] means the partner or other person in the firm who is responsible for the audit engagement and its performance, and for the auditor’s report that is issued on behalf of the firm, and who, where required, has the appropriate authority from a professional, legal or regulatory body.

Engagement partner should be read as referring to a public sector equivalent where relevant.

Engagement quality control review means a process designed to provide an objective evaluation, on or before the date of the auditor’s report, of the significant judgements the engagement team made and the conclusions it reached in formulating the auditor’s report. The engagement quality control review process is only for audits of financial reports of listed entities and those other audit engagements, if any, for which the firm has determined an engagement quality control review is required.

Engagement quality control reviewer means a partner, other person in the firm, suitably qualified external person, or a team made up of such individuals, none of whom is part of the engagement team, with sufficient and appropriate experience and authority to objectively evaluate the significant judgements the engagement team made and the conclusions it reached in formulating the auditor’s report.

Engagement team means all partners and staff performing the engagement, and any individuals engaged by the firm or a network firm who perform audit procedures on the engagement. This excludes an auditor’s external expert engaged by the firm or a network firm.^[3]

[Deleted by the AUASB.  Refer Aus 7.3]

Firm means a sole practitioner, partnership, or corporation or other entity of assurance practitioners.  Firm should be read as referring to a public sector equivalent where relevant.

Inspection means, in relation to completed audit engagements, procedures designed to provide evidence of compliance by engagement teams with the firm’s quality control policies and procedures.

Listed entity means an entity whose shares, stock or debt are quoted or listed on a recognised stock exchange, or are marketed under the regulations of a recognised stock exchange or other equivalent body.

Monitoring means a process comprising an ongoing consideration and evaluation of the firm’s system of quality control, including a periodic inspection of a selection of completed engagements, designed to provide the firm with reasonable assurance that its system of quality control is operating effectively.

Network firm means a firm or entity that belongs to a network.

Network means a larger structure:

1. That is aimed at cooperation; and
2. That is clearly aimed at profit or cost-sharing or shares common ownership, control or management, common quality control policies and procedures, common business strategy, the use of a common brand name, or a significant part of professional resources.

[Deleted by the AUASB. Refer Aus 7.4]

Partner means any individual with authority to bind the firm with respect to the performance of an audit of a financial report or historical financial information.  Partner should be read as referring to a public sector equivalent where relevant.

Personnel means partners and staff

[Deleted by the AUASB. Refer Aus 7.5]

Australian Auditing Standards means the suite of auditing standards issued by the AUASB, and includes ASA 805 Special Considerations—Audits of Single Financial Statements and Specific Elements, Accounts or Items of a Financial Statement, and ASA 810 Engagements to Report on Summary Financial Statements.

[Deleted by the AUASB. Refer Aus 7.6]

Relevant ethical requirements means relevant ethical requirements as defined in ASA 102.^[*]

Staff means professionals, other than partners, including any experts the firm employs.

Suitably qualified external person means an individual outside the firm with the competence and capabilities to act as an engagement partner, for example, a partner of another firm, or an employee (with appropriate experience) of a professional accountancy body^[#] whose members may perform audits of financial reports or audits of other historical financial information, or of an organisation that provides relevant quality control services.