The IAASB 2026 Handbook: what is in it
What the IAASB's 2026 Handbook contains, which of its standards and amendments take effect in December 2026, and a reading plan for a practice.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Every year the IAASB gathers its pronouncements into a handbook, and every year most practitioners download it, file it and go back to the version of the standards they already know. The 2026 edition deserves more attention than that. It carries several standards and amendments that take effect in December 2026, and between them they touch fraud, going concern, sustainability assurance and the very definitions that decide which rules apply to which clients.
This article maps what is in the handbook, what changes this year, and how a practice can work through it without losing a month.
Five volumes and what each holds
The IAASB's 2026 Handbook of International Quality Management, Auditing, Review, Sustainability and Other Assurance, and Related Services Pronouncements comprises five volumes. The IAASB's page for the 2026 Handbook, dated 30 September 2026, marks it as the current edition and lists the volumes.
The first three are the ones most audit practices will open first:
- Volume 1 contains the International Standards on Quality Management, the International Standards on Auditing and the International Auditing Practice Notes.
- Volume 2 contains the International Standard on Auditing for Audits of Financial Statements of Less Complex Entities, the ISA for LCE.
- Volume 3 contains ISSA 5000, General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements.
The remaining volumes hold the IAASB's other pronouncements; check the page for their contents rather than relying on last year's table of contents.
Standards that take effect in December 2026
The IAASB states that ISA 240 (Revised), ISA 570 (Revised 2024) and ISSA 5000 become effective in December 2026 and are included in the 2026 Handbook.
- ISA 240 (Revised) concerns the auditor's responsibilities relating to fraud. For what the IAASB says it changes, see ISA 240 (Revised) and fraud duties from December 2026.
- ISA 570 (Revised 2024) concerns going concern and the auditor's evaluation of management's assessment.
- ISSA 5000 sets general requirements for sustainability assurance engagements, a different kind of engagement from the audit of financial statements.
For audit firms with December year-end clients, the first two will shape the planning of next year's audits. For firms considering sustainability assurance, the third opens a new line of work with its own standard.
Narrow-scope amendments on definitions and external experts
The IAASB also states that two sets of narrow-scope amendments become effective in December 2026 and are included in the handbook. The first results from the revised definitions of listed entities and public interest entities in the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants' International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. The second arises from the IESBA's project on using the work of an external expert.
These amendments are easy to overlook because they are "narrow". They matter because definitions drive scope. Several requirements apply only to listed entities or public interest entities, so a change in what those terms mean can change which clients attract which requirements. Guidance written with the older wording should be read with that in mind. Firms that regularly rely on valuers, actuaries, engineers or other outside experts should also read the second set of amendments before their next engagement that uses one.
National adoption still decides what applies
A handbook is the IAASB's statement of its standards. Whether, and from when, they bind an audit in a particular country depends on that country's adoption. Before treating an IAASB effective date as binding on your clients, check the position with IRBA in South Africa, the FRC and ICAN in Nigeria, or ICPAK in Kenya, including whether early adoption is permitted. Firms working across those countries should keep a simple table of adoption dates by standard. For the Nigerian and Kenyan picture, see auditing and quality standards in Nigeria and Kenya.
Achekam has no live standards feed
Achekam does not pull a live feed of standards and regulatory changes; its Standards & Regulatory Updates page shows what its knowledge base records. The 2026 Handbook will not appear in a firm's templates by itself; keeping them in line with it is the firm's own task.
Achekam's working-paper template packs, written in its own words and covering audit areas, ISA for LCE, review and related-services engagements, ISAE 3000 and more, are for a firm to adopt and approve, and are marked as unapproved platform content until it does. Treat the handbook as the reference against which those packs, and the firm's own templates, are checked.
A reading plan for the year
Reading the whole handbook is unrealistic. Reading the right parts in the right order is not:
- Now: the IAASB's summary pages for ISA 240 (Revised) and ISA 570 (Revised 2024), and the narrow-scope amendments on listed and public interest entities. Identify which clients are affected and when.
- Before the next planning season: the full text of ISA 240 (Revised) and ISA 570 (Revised 2024), by the methodology partner and the managers who will apply them first.
- Alongside that: a review of the firm's fraud and going concern templates against the revised text.
- If the firm is considering sustainability work: ISSA 5000 in Volume 3, read by the partner who would lead it, with an honest look at skills and quality management.
- For firms with smaller clients: Volume 2, to understand the ISA for LCE and whether it is available locally.
- Throughout: a note of local adoption decisions as they are made.
A handbook that is filed and forgotten changes nothing on the firm's files. One that is read in this order, with templates updated as each part is understood, lets the December 2026 changes arrive as planned work rather than surprises.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
