Half-Year Reviews Will Get Tougher

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If you have a JSE-listed client, or you prepare the interim numbers that feed into one, take note. The exposure draft for the standard governing half-year audit reviews signals that audit teams may soon start asking tougher questions during interim reviews.

What Just Happened

On 6 May 2026, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) opened a public consultation on proposed revisions to ISRE 2410, the standard that tells the entity’s auditor how to review interim financial information.

This is the first full overhaul since the standard was issued in 2005. Comments are open until 3 September 2026. The exposure draft can be accessed on the IAASB website. ISRE 2410 is the standard your client’s auditor uses every six months when the company publishes interim results. Until now, the standard has contained relatively limited prescriptive guidance in some areas. The new exposure draft addresses that.

Where ISRE 2410 Sits in the Assurance Landscape

Many business accountants deal mostly with compilations and independent reviews under ISRE 2400. ISRE 2410 sits in a different lane.

The key difference: ISRE 2410 is performed by the same auditor who audits the annual financial statements, using the audit-based knowledge of the entity. ISRE 2400 is performed by a practitioner who is not the entity’s auditor.

In practice, ISRE 2410 is what JSE-listed companies, banks, and other public-interest entities use for their half-year results. ISRE 2400 is what private companies often use to satisfy Companies Act independent review obligations.

If your client publishes interim financials, expect ISRE 2410. If your client needs an independent review under the Companies Act PI score rules, expect ISRE 2400. Both are limited assurance engagements. Both rely heavily on enquiry and analytical procedures. But the engagement teams, the depth, and the standards are different.

Why Business Accountants Need to Pay Attention

You may not perform interim reviews yourself. But several things will still land on your desk.

If you help prepare interim financials, the audit team is likely to probe more deeply into:

• going concern assessments,

• fraud risk factors, and

• NOCLAR considerations,

even at half-year. Documentation will need to support those conversations.

If you advise clients with JSE-listed subsidiaries, group interim review work may now formalise how component reviews are scoped. This affects timetable, cost, and information requests on your client.

If you perform ISRE 2400 independent reviews, the direction of travel in ISRE 2410 may influence future thinking on ISRE 2400 over time. Stay close to this debate, because developments in one assurance standard often influence the evolution of others.

What Is Actually Changing

The IAASB has flagged four major areas in the exposure draft.

• A clearer line between an audit and an interim review

  The new wording gives a clearer articulation of what an interim review engagement is and how it differs from a financial statement audit. The familiar “nothing has come to our attention” conclusion is being repositioned with more upfront guidance on the limited nature of the work.

• Tougher requirements on going concern, fraud, and NOCLAR

  These three areas are now flagged as matters of high public interest, with enhanced requirements dealing with:

  • going concern,

  • fraud, and

  • non-compliance with laws and regulations (NOCLAR).

  Expect more explicit procedures, documentation expectations, and discussions with management and those charged with governance.

• Sharper materiality and quality management rules

  The proposal introduces requirements related to:

  • engagement-level quality management,

  • determining materiality for planning and performing the engagement, and

  • clearer guidance on materiality in a half-year review context.

• Group interim reviews and a more informative report

  The draft adds dedicated requirements for group interim review engagements, and users are expected to benefit from improved transparency in the auditor’s interim review report.

  The IAASB has also coordinated the revisions with the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants Code of Ethics to improve alignment between the standards.

Read the exposure draft on the IAASB website. The Explanatory Memorandum is short. The full text takes a couple of hours.

If you advise a listed entity or its subsidiary, raise this with your client’s audit committee chair now. The signal that change is coming is more useful in May than in September.