Welcome to the Online Learning Center for Principles of Auditing & Other Assurance Services, 17/e by O. Ray Whittington and Kurt Pany.

Over the past few years, we have seen unprecedented changes in the auditing profession, including congressional hearings about the accounting profession and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. More recently, the AICPA Auditing Standards Board passed a set of eight Statements on Auditing Standards (SASs) referred to as the “risk assessment standards” designed to enhance audit effectiveness.

The goal of the seventeenth edition of Principles of Auditing and Other Assurance Services is to provide you with a clear perspective of the new auditing environment. How do we do this?

1. Balanced presentation. This text provides a carefully balanced presentation of auditing and assurance theory and practice. The concepts are written in a clear, concise, and understandable manner suitable for students who have not had significant audit experience. Real company examples are integrated throughout the text to bring this material to life. Keystone Computers and Networks, Inc., the text's illustrative audit case, is integrated into selected chapters, providing students with hands-on audit experience.
2. Clarification of the changes to the profession and the profession’s standards. The authors have included the most important new legal and auditing standards changes affecting the auditing profession to provide students with the most current and up-to-date auditing text available. Particularly emphasized are the profession’s risk assessment standards.
3. CPA Exam Support. The text includes both multiple choice questions and simulations aimed at helping students pass the new computerized CPA exam.
4. Strong support materials. The Online Learning Center provides instructors and students with a wealth of material to help keep students up-to-date. The OLC also contains quizzes and other resources to help students in this course.

Just as the cover provides a clear reflection, the auditor's responsibility is to reflect the true assets of the business and examine records and documentation as they really are without distortions.

O. Ray Whittington

Kurt Pany