Every audit gap, line by line — before your auditor walks in.

CPAB (Canadian Public Accountability Board) is the audit regulator for Canadian public-company audits. It inspects participating audit firms each year and publishes its inspection findings, which shape what auditors look for on the next engagement. If your audit firm is CPAB-registered, your audit will be performed under the rules CPAB inspects against — most prominently Canadian Auditing Standard (CAS) 315 (Revised) on risk assessment and CAS 540 (Revised) on estimates.

Typical fieldwork runs from a few weeks for a small TSX-V reporting issuer up to several months for a TSX-listed multi-entity group. Filing deadlines are absolute: non-venture reporting issuers must file annual audited financials within 90 days of fiscal year-end (NI 51-102), venture issuers within 120 days, and interim financials within 45 / 60 days. Most fee overruns are driven by client unreadiness — missing reconciliations, late confirmations, weak ICFR documentation — not audit complexity.

TSX-V audit fees commonly fall in a $50,000–$350,000 range depending on issuer size, sector, and complexity. Junior exploration issuers at the low end often pay $50k–$120k; mid-cap TSX-V issuers with operating revenue can pay $200k+. Big 4 fees run materially higher than CPAB-registered mid-tier firms for engagements of comparable complexity. Fees in Canada have risen 30–50% over five years, driven by a shrinking pool of CPAB-registered firms and inspection-driven scope expansion.

A complete pre-audit file for a Canadian public-company audit covers roughly 50 mandatory documents across 17 categories: draft financials and notes, trial balance, GL extract, sub-ledger agings, all material reconciliations, IFRS 15 application memos, IFRS 9 ECL model, lease register, impairment models, going-concern forecast, ICFR risk-and-control matrix and walkthrough memos, SOC 1 reports for service organizations, MD&A draft, audit-committee minutes, related-party list, legal letter responses, subsequent-events log, and the prior-year management letter. Auditus.ai indexes every one of these in its Upload checklist with the standard it supports and the audit-fee impact of leaving it missing.

National Instrument 52-109 requires the CEO and CFO of every Canadian reporting issuer to certify their annual and interim filings — including the design and operating effectiveness of disclosure controls and procedures (DC&P) and internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). Venture issuers can use a scaled certification (Form 52-109FV1/FV2) that doesn't require the ICFR design conclusion. Material weaknesses in ICFR must be disclosed and remediated; failure to certify accurately can attract CSA enforcement action.