How to read a standard reference

Two families of document

Everything this handbook refers to comes from one of two families.

Accounting standards say how a transaction is recognised, measured and disclosed, and what the financial statements must show. In New Zealand they are the NZ IFRS standards, issued by the External Reporting Board. Each one carries an international standard from the International Accounting Standards Board with New Zealand additions, which is why they are called NZ IAS 1, NZ IFRS 15, and so on.

Auditing and assurance standards say how the work of checking those financial statements is planned, performed, documented and reported. In New Zealand they are the ISAs (NZ), issued within the External Reporting Board, alongside the PES standards for ethics, quality management and engagement quality reviews. Each ISA (NZ) carries an international standard from the IAASB with New Zealand additions.

Reading an identifier

The identifier is the shorthand a working paper uses. Take NZ IAS 1.15:

Part	Means
NZ IAS 1	The New Zealand standard: NZ IAS 1, Presentation of Financial Statements
.15	Paragraph 15 of that standard

And ISA (NZ) 230.8:

Part	Means
ISA (NZ) 230	The New Zealand auditing standard: ISA (NZ) 230, Audit Documentation
.8	Paragraph 8

The naming carries history you will meet constantly:

• IAS numbering is old — standards issued before the International Accounting Standards Board was formed in 2001, and still in force. IAS 1, IAS 2, IAS 7.
• IFRS numbering came after. IFRS 9, IFRS 15, IFRS 16.
• IFRIC and SIC are interpretations: short documents that settle how a standard applies to a particular situation.
• FRS is used for New Zealand domestic standards that have no international equivalent.
• (Revised) in an auditing standard's name means it has been rewritten. ISA (NZ) 315 changed substantially in 2019, and ISA (NZ) 570 was revised in 2024. Citing the superseded version is a real and common error.

Why paragraph numbers matter

A reference to "the standard on going concern" is not checkable. A reference to paragraph 16 of ISA (NZ) 570 is: it says one specific thing, and a reader can find it in a minute.

For the audit side this matters even more than for accounting. An auditor's working paper cites paragraphs, because the whole point of the paper is that somebody else can re-perform the reasoning.

Effective dates

Every standard here has a date from which it applies, usually expressed as periods beginning on or after a certain date. Two standards on the same subject can both exist while the older one still applies to an earlier period.

The library records, for each standard, the effective date as the publisher states it, plus the date the document was issued and the date it was compiled to. When you quote a standard, check all three. A version compiled in one year may carry the same number as a version compiled a decade later and say something different.

Following a reference to its source

Every citation in this handbook can be followed. Each one gives you:

• the identifier, so you can search for it;
• the publisher — the XRB for New Zealand standards, IFAC for the IAASB Handbook;
• the address of the document on the publisher's own site;
• the SHA-256 of the copy this handbook was checked against.

The last item is what makes the reference checkable rather than merely pointed at. If the publisher later issues a new version, the fingerprint in this handbook will no longer match the document at that address — which is exactly the signal that says go and read the new one.

The limits of a reference

Quoting a paragraph is not applying it. A paragraph tells you what the standard requires; it does not tell you whether your contract is a lease, whether your revenue is recognised over time or at a point in time, or whether a debt will be collected. Those are judgements made on facts, and the standard is the frame you make them in.

This handbook tries to keep the two apart on every page: the fact, then the judgement, then the reference that constrains the judgement.