Auditing has become an essential component in market societies and the need for auditing skills has risen in line with globalization. This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the role of financial statement auditing in contemporary society, including the auditor's role in evaluating the financial reporting of an auditee--a topic of central concern in the recent comprehensive review of the auditing profession in the Brydon Report (2019).

The experienced authors provide insight into auditing research to help readers understand its function, regulation, and role in theory and practice. With focus on private sector financial statement auditing and its regulation, the book includes perspectives on social theory, history, and the importance of professional standards. The thought-provoking final chapter challenges students to consider the effectiveness of auditing in evaluating increasingly risky and complex accounting estimates involving assumptions about future events.

A fundamental approach to auditing theory, this textbook will be useful reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students across business and accounting fields.

Wally Smieliauskas is a professor of accounting at the University of Toronto, where he has been a faculty member since 1979. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1980. He has published a variety of research on auditing issues, including a textbook now in its 8th edition. At the University of Toronto, Professor Smieliauskas developed the first degree-credit auditing course (in 1981) and the first advanced audit course (in 1990). In 1988-1993 he was the first director of the pioneering MBA Co-op program in Professional Accounting. The program is designed to facilitate the entry of undergraduate and graduate students from various fields into the profession and to provide a broader management education as well as specialized training in accounting, auditing, and tax topics. It has evolved to become the Master of Management & Professional Accounting (MMPA) program now offered through the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus.

Minlei Ye is an associate professor of accounting at the University of Toronto, where she been a faculty member since 2009. She received her PhD from the University of British Columbia in 2009. She has published several auditing research articles in top-tier accounting journals. She has taught advanced auditing courses with Prof. Wally Smieliauskas for MMPA students.

Ping Zhang is a professor of accounting at the University of Toronto, where he has been a faculty member since 2000. He received his PhD from the University of Waterloo in 1994 and was a faculty member at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. He has published several research papers on auditing issues.