The audit profession’s chief inspector has provided auditors with a year-end checklist, giving companies some fair warning about what they can expect auditors to be focused on in their upcoming audit cycles.
The most common deficiencies found in 2014 inspections still relate to audits of internal control, said Helen Munter, director of the Division of Registration and Inspections for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, at a recent national accounting conference on regulatory issues. Those internal control problems include assessing and responding to risks of material misstatements, audits of fair value measurements and estimates, and testing of data and reports, she said. “It is critical for the auditor to understand an issuer’s operations, including how transactions flow and the controls in place to detect a risk of material misstatement,” she said.
