Now that we’re all settling back into the office, the compliance community has any number of serious issues looming in front of us this month. To my thinking, however, few have as much potential to change the compliance function’s day-to-day workings as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s ambitions to reshape how the auditing industry works.
The PCAOB started that long-overdue conversation in June, when it published a concept release that floated various ideas to reform the auditor’s report—you know, that bit of boilerplate at the end of your financial statements that can cost millions in audit fees every year. Then the board followed up with another concept release in August examining possible changes to auditor independence, including the hugely controversial idea of mandatory rotation of a company’s audit firm every few years.
