All PCAOB articles – Page 24
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Blog
PCAOB Disciplines Grant Thornton Auditor in Japan
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has disciplined a Grant Thornton auditor in Japan for failing to address numerous red flags that revenue could be overstated in the 2010 audit of Baldwin-Japan Ltd.
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Blog
PCAOB’s Chief Inspector Provides Checklist for Year-End Audits
Dec. 16—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 ...
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Blog
Audits Failures Linked to Execution, Not Process Problems
Image: Dec. 10—Audits fail not so often because the audit firm’s process was flawed, but because individual auditors or engagement teams fail to adhere to firm methodologies, according to Jay Hanson, a member of the PCAOB. At a national accounting conference on regulatory issues, Hanson said he sees much more ...
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Blog
SEC, PCAOB Deliver Fresh Warnings on Auditor Independence
Dec. 9—Public companies have been handed a not-so-subtle reminder to pay closer attention to auditor independence. At the annual AICPA conference this week, the SEC announced it had sanctioned eight audit firms with fines totaling $140,000 for violating auditor independence rules because they prepared financial statements of brokerage firms whose ...
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Blog
PCAOB Finds No Big Improvement in 2014 Inspections
Image: The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will soon offer a peek at 2014 inspection findings, but you won’t see much improvement, said Chairman James Doty. The board has delivered consistently tough marks to the major audit firms in recent years, calling for better audit work on such items as ...
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Blog
IT Experts Offer Updated Guidance on IT Controls
Image: Companies struggling with information technology controls may gain tips from ISACA’s new guidance on scoping and assessment ideas for IT-related aspects of the COSO framework. “This latest guide will help professionals align with these changes in the industry,” said Ken Vander Wal, former ISACA president.
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Blog
CAQ Reminds Auditors of Hot-Button Audit Issues
Image: A new Center for Audit Quality alert highlights issues that auditors will need to pay special attention to in the year-end review, such as revenue recognition, related-party transactions, and more. “This alert summarizes potential areas of risk and can be a useful resource for our auditing firm members as ...
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Blog
BDO USA, Crowe Horwath Get Varied PCAOB Inspection Results
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board published inspection findings for two major firms, giving them much different marks for their 2013 audit work. At BDO USA, inspectors found deficiencies in 15 of 23 audit files, a 55 percent increase in problems from 2012. At Crowe Horwath inspectors checked only 13 ...
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ArticleAre Auditors Making Unnecessary Demands on Internal Control Documentation?
As many companies finish work on a new framework for internal controls, a small number of them are starting to question their external auditors’ documentation requirements and are considering pushing back. Lillian Barlett, vice president of risk management and internal audit at SunOpta, for example, says the documentation requests are ...
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Article
Hidden Complexity in the New Rules for Revenue Recognition
Financial reporting and auditing experts are warning companies of surprises they may encounter as they continue to work their way through 700 pages of new accounting rules on how to recognize revenue in their financial statements beginning in 2017. The accounting standard update requires several new disclosures, for example. “There ...
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Blog
Ideas for Guidance on Auditing Estimates Draw Mixed Reviews
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is getting mixed feedback on its initial ideas for revising guidance on auditing fair-value measurements and accounting estimates. The PCAOB has received nearly 40 letters on the staff's consultation paper on the topic, some suggesting a revision of existing rules, while others suggest a ...
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Blog
PCAOB Queues Up Fraud Talk; Latest Report Offers Tips to Resist Fraud
Audit regulators are assembling their closest advisors this week to take a closer look at the latest thinking around what motivates auditors and what tools and skills they bring to the effort to detect financial reporting fraud.
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Blog
Study Says CFOs Still Control Audit Fees at Many Companies
Image: Title: MauldinNew academic research suggests the CFO, not the audit committee, still often negotiates the audit fee, despite Sarbanes-Oxley Act provisions meant to put audit committees in the driver’s seat. “At many companies it is still primarily the CFO who calls the shots,” says Elaine Mauldin, professor at the ...
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Article
All Eyes on Internal Controls as Year-End Close Approaches
Image: Title: DurbinAs companies begin preparing for the year-end close, audit experts are warning them to take these final months of the year to check documentation. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is pressuring audit firms to scrutinize internal controls and other areas, and that scrutiny is likely to trickle ...
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Blog
McGladrey Sees Improvement in 2013 Inspection Report
Oct. 24—While KPMG was dinged by the PCAOB, McGladrey saw some improvement. The PCAOB studied 13 audits at McGladrey and found fault with four of them during its 2013 inspections of the firm. That deficiency rate of 31 percent is a step up from failure rates of 44 percent in ...
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Blog
KPMG Draws Ire in 2013 Report; New Carping Over Old Quality Issues
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board says KPMG failed to arrive at an adequately supported audit opinion in 46 percent of the audits the agency inspected in 2013, and it failed to satisfy quality control issues raised in earlier inspections. The PCAOB flagged 23 of the 50 audits that inspectors ...
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Blog
SEC Plans Early 2015 Concept Release on Audit Committee Upgrades
Image: Title: WhiteThe SEC expects to issue a concept release in early 2015 exploring possible avenues for elevating the work of public company audit committees, according to SEC Chair Mary Jo White. In recent remarks, White said the staff will address issues around the relationship between the audit committee and ...
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Article
Here We Go Again: Regulators Looking Anew at Audit Firm Consulting
Image: Title: TurnerRegulators are taking a fresh look at whether the quality of public company audits is threatened when audit firms also focus on selling consulting services. Revenue from audit services has remained flat, while revenue from consulting services is rising again. “They’re driven by the fact that management is ...