It is hard to determine the exact date of the first auditing work in Brazil but, about one century ago, the balance sheet of the São Paulo Tramway Light & Power Co., related to the period comprised between June 1899 and December 31 1902, was certified by the Canadian auditors Clarkson & Cross - now Ernst & Young. This paper tries to recover the memory of this period, basically from three perspectives: technical-operational, academic and legal. In operational terms, the first independent auditing company that settled in Brazil was Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, which installed its first office in Rio de Janeiro in 1911, and the second in Recife in 1917. At that time, Brazilian accountants did not even think about this subject One of the first articles to go into the theme, called "Accounting in Great Britain", was published in 1928 in the Revista Paulista de Contabilidade, known as one of the oldest publications on accounting in the country, since 1922. The first book about auditing was published in Brazil in 1957, named "Course in Auditing". What the legal aspect is concerned, the teaching of auditing concepts and techniques in higher education courses in accountancy was formally introduced in Brazil by force of Decree-Law nº 7.988, of December 22nd 1945, which regulated higher education in Economics, Accountancy and Actuarial Science. Desde então, tanto as práticas de auditoria quanto seu ensino acadêmico se consolidaram no país, de forma a atender seu principal objetivo: opinara respeito da adequação das demonstrações contábeis publicadas, no que diz respeito aos seus aspectos mais relevantes. Also, in legal terms, it was only in 1965 that the figure of Independent Auditor was first introduced into a legal text. This was a landmark for the evolution of the profession and accounting practices. Since then, both practice and academic teaching of Auditing have become consolidated in the country, in order to fulfill their main role: opining on the adequacy of the published financial statements with respect to their most relevant aspects.
Auditing; Brazilian Auditing History
