ISA 570 (Revised 2024): what changes for auditors
What the IAASB says ISA 570 (Revised 2024) changes in going concern work, when it applies, and which firm templates and papers to review first.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
On many audit files the going concern paper is one of the most templated: a list of indicators, a box for management's assessment, and a conclusion that barely changes from one year to the next. ISA 570 (Revised 2024) is meant to make that paper work harder, and firms that wait for their first affected year-end before reading it will be rewriting templates in the middle of fieldwork.
This article sets out what the IAASB says the revision does, when it takes effect, and how a firm in South Africa, Nigeria or Kenya can prepare its papers and people in time.
Why the IAASB revised the standard
The IAASB states that ISA 570 (Revised 2024), Going Concern, responds to corporate failures that raised questions about auditors' responsibilities. When a company collapses soon after a clean audit report, the public question is always the same: did the auditor see it coming, and if so, why did nobody say so? The revision is the standard-setter's answer to that pressure.
The IAASB's publication page for ISA 570 (Revised 2024) summarises the aims in three statements, and each one points to a different part of the file.
A stronger evaluation of management's assessment
The IAASB states that the revised standard significantly enhances the auditor's work in evaluating management's assessment of the entity's ability to continue as a going concern.
On most files, that evaluation is where the real work sits: management's forecast, the assumptions beneath it, the period it covers, and the support for any plan to raise finance, sell assets or cut costs. Read the revised requirements on this evaluation side by side with your current template. The IAASB's own description suggests this is where the change will be felt most, and a template that only asks "has management prepared an assessment?" will not be enough.
More consistent work and clearer reporting
The IAASB also states that the revision will increase consistency in auditing practices on going concern, and will strengthen transparency through communications and auditor reporting on going-concern matters in a consistent manner.
Consistency is a message to firms as much as to individual auditors. If two managers in the same firm would reach different conclusions on the same facts because their papers ask different questions, the methodology is part of the problem. Transparency points to the outputs: what the auditor tells those charged with governance and what the auditor's report says about going concern. Expect report templates and governance communications to need attention, not only the working paper.
When it applies, and what comes with it
ISA 570 (Revised 2024) is effective for audits of financial statements for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026. The IAASB states that ISA 240 (Revised), on fraud, takes effect at the same time, and it encourages jurisdictions to consider early adoption of ISA 240 (Revised), ISA 570 (Revised 2024) and the narrow-scope amendments for listed and public interest entities as a cohesive package. The publication also includes conforming and consequential amendments to other ISAs, so the change reaches beyond the going concern paper itself.
In practice, by the IAASB's date:
- a client with a December year-end first falls under the revised standard for the year that begins in January 2027;
- a March year-end client, for the year that begins in April 2027;
- a June year-end client, for the year that begins in July 2027.
Planning for those audits starts well before the year ends. Before treating the IAASB's date as binding on a client, confirm how and from when the standard applies in your jurisdiction, through IRBA in South Africa, the FRC and ICAN in Nigeria, or ICPAK in Kenya, and whether early application is open to you.
Which papers will need to change
A practical inventory for the methodology partner:
- Planning and risk assessment. The going concern section of the risk assessment and the indicators it lists.
- Evaluation of management's assessment. The forecast review, the assumptions tested, the period covered, and the challenge of management's plans.
- Written representations. The going concern wording in the representation letter.
- Communications with those charged with governance. What the team reports and when.
- Auditor's report templates. The going concern sections, including material uncertainty wording.
- Completion and review checklists. The questions a reviewer asks before sign-off.
- Papers touched by the conforming amendments. Check the list in the publication and follow it to the affected areas.
For the evaluation itself, see the auditor's going concern evaluation, and for what the client's statements must say, going concern disclosure.
Updating templates in Achekam
Achekam does not pull a live feed of standards and regulatory changes; its Standards & Regulatory Updates page shows what its knowledge base records. The firm therefore has to track the revision itself and decide when its templates change. Achekam ships working-paper template packs written in its own words for a firm to adopt and approve, marked as unapproved platform content until the firm adopts them. Do not assume any pack reflects the revised standard; check it against the text.
A firm's partners keep the firm's own methodology and working-paper templates beside Achekam's platform methodology, and a template version is published only by someone other than its author. When the going concern templates are rewritten, publish them as a new template version, decide how audits of earlier periods will continue on the existing papers, and let a second partner or manager release the new version after reading the revised standard.
Planning for the first affected year-ends
- List clients by the start date of their first affected period.
- Train the team before planning begins on those engagements, using the standard's text rather than summaries.
- Identify clients that already show going concern indicators. They will be the hardest first-year applications and deserve the most senior attention.
- Tell clients early that the auditor's evaluation of management's assessment is being strengthened, so finance teams expect closer questions about their forecasts.
- Build extra time into the first-year budgets for the papers that change.
A revised standard is easiest to absorb before the first file that needs it. Starting with the template inventory now leaves the first affected year-ends for the work itself.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
