All PCAOB articles – Page 19
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Blog
PCAOB sanctions Hong Kong firm, U.S. affiliate
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has settled a disciplinary action against a Hong Kong firm and its U.S. affiliate over audit problems involving a U.S.-listed company based in China. Tammy Whitehouse has more.
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Article
New PCAOB audit report raises the question: What exactly is a ‘critical audit matter’?
As the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board revises its standard, boilerplate audit report, providing a more narrow definition of “critical audit matters” should go a long way toward giving investors better insight into some of the more challenging, subjective, and complex aspects of financial statements. Tammy Whitehouse provides an in-depth ...
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Blog
PCAOB tries again for rule to expand audit report
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has issued a new proposal to expand the current pass-fail audit report in a way that would give investors more information about what auditors do and what they learn during the course of their work.
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Blog
SEC approves PCAOB rule on naming engagement partners
The SEC has given final approval to a PCAOB rule requiring audit firms to complete a new filing on Form AP to provide the name of the engagement partner on each audit engagement. Meanwhile, Tammy Whitehouse reports, the PCAOB is attempting once again to expand the audit report.
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Blog
PCAOB ponders possible change in inspection approach
Word from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is that the inspections process could be changing. According to board member Jeanette Franzel, the agency is “exploring the potential for more random selection of audits and audit areas to inspect.” Tammy Whitehouse has more.
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Blog
PCAOB practice alert finds rash of doctored audit files
The PCAOB this week published a staff audit practice alert emphasizing that improperly altering audit documentation in connection with a PCAOB inspection or investigation violates PCAOB rules requiring cooperation with its oversight activities and can result in disciplinary actions with severe consequences. “Evidence identified in connection with certain recent oversight ...
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Blog
PCAOB previews improvements from 2015 inspection cycle
A staff inspection brief issued this month by the PCAOB showed that preliminary counts from inspections performed in 2015 suggest the number of audit deficiencies for the largest firms has fallen, while deficiencies at smaller firms is, overall, high. The PCAOB brief stated that inspectors observed “indications of improved audit ...
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Blog
PCAOB proposes new rules for supervising outside audit work
The PCAOB is changing the rules on how audit firms must manage the outside auditors they hire to help with audit work. The board has proposed for public comment a new standard and amendments to existing standards to direct auditors on how they must evaluate and supervise the work of ...
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Article
Regulators explore what’s wrong with audit supervision
Image: Audit supervision in general and auditing firm staffing levels and management structure in particular are under scrutiny as an old question surfaces: How can audit firms improve the quality of their own systems? “There is this inference that we keep finding engagements where we think the auditing standards aren’t ...
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Blog
PCAOB prepares new rule on outside auditors, reviews EQR standard
The PCAOB has scheduled an open meeting to consider a proposed new requirment around firms relying on others outside the principal firm to assist with audit work. The new proposal would address the lead auditor’s responsibilities with respect to those other auditors from outside the principal audit firm who participate ...
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Blog
PCAOB delivers searing inspection report to BDO USA
BDO USA received a scathing 2014 inspection report from the PCAOB. Among the 23 audits the board selected for inspection, 17, or 74%, had issues, a record high rate among major firms. Of the 17 busted audits, 15 contained problems in both the audit of financial statements and the audit ...
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Blog
PCAOB reports compliance with communications standard
Image: The PCAOB said it is “encouraged” that most firms have complied with Auditing Standard No. 16, a standard governing communication with audit committees, as the board found no failures to comply in 93 percent of the audits reviewed in the 2014 inspection cycle. “The communication between an audit firm ...
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ArticleSEC fines energy company $300K over rubber stamp internal controls
Image: A recent SEC action against a company for maintaining insufficient internal controls signals a new effort from federal authorities to hold companies to higher standards when it comes to internal control material weaknesses and significant deficiencies. “This is a case that doesn’t have a punchline,” says Tom Sporkin, a ...
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Blog
Study links audit staffing to audit quality
Recent academic research from professors at the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University finds where audit engagement workload is high, companies have significantly higher abnormal discretionary accruals, are more likely to restate earnings, and are less likely to get a going concern opinion even when signs of distress are ...
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SEC approves PCAOB budget; Doty promises new proposals soon
Image: With majority support from the SEC—all two of them, that is—the PCAOB has finalized its 2016 budget with a 12-percent increase in fees charged to public companies to support it. Only SEC Chair Mary Jo White and Commissioner Kara Stein supported the PCAOB’s $257.7 million budget for the current ...
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Blog
Audit regulators globally call on big firms for faster improvement
Audit regulators globally say they aren’t satisfied with inspection results the past few years and are working with the six largest global audit networks—Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, BDO, and Grant Thornton—to step up the pace of improvement. The International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators, a global association of audit regulators ...
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Blog
SEC seeks comment on rule requiring naming engagement partners
The SEC is gathering comment on recent PCAOB rules that require audit firms to complete a new filing providing the name of engagement partners on public company audit engagements. PCAOB rules are subject to SEC approval before they can become final, which is why the Commission wants to hear remarks ...
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Blog
Lawyers see varied approaches to related-party rule
Image: Attorneys at law firm Dorsey observing compliance with the new audit standard on related-party transactions say they are seeing some companies being asked to make no changes to their controls and procedures while others face new audit demands to expand their questionnaires to directors and officers. “The required changes ...
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Blog
Where Audits Go Awry, Internal Control Audit is Faulty Too, Analysis Shows
Image: Big 4 firms exhibited problems in 35 percent of all audit engagements inspected in 2014, and a whopping 84 percent of those deficient audits involved problems with internal control over financial reporting, according to an analysis by Dan Goelzer, a former member and acting chair of the PCAOB. The ...
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Blog
CAQ Chooses Path Forward on Identifying Quality Indicators
The Center for Audit Quality, which represents auditors, has issued a new report on its effort to pilot test its approach to defining audit quality indicators and its suggested path forward on how to identify the most effective way to define and then measure audit quality. The CAQ says it ...