Yesterday, the SEC approved, by a vote of three to two, a new PCAOB quality control standard, QC 1000, A Firm’s System of Quality Control, and related amendments to its standards, rules and forms. According to the press...more
Yesterday, the SEC held an open meeting to consider a number of PCAOB proposals addressing the “general responsibilities of an auditor conducting an audit as well as technology-assisted analysis and contributory liability...more
In this statement, SEC Chief Accountant Paul Munter discusses the importance of setting the tone at the top. According to Munter, “academic research has ‘long stressed the crucial role that tone at the top, set by...more
On Friday, SEC Enforcement charged audit firm BF Borgers CPA PC and its owner, Benjamin F. Borgers, with “massive fraud” involving “deliberate and systemic failures” to comply with PCAOB standards in auditing and reviewing...more
SEC Chief Accountant Paul Munter has posted a new Statement. What’s on his mind? Apparently, he is disturbed that, in recent inspections of audits, the PCAOB has reported a “troubling” increase in deficiency rates—meaning...more
Ideagen AuditAnalytics has just released its 2024 Report on Critical Audit Matters, a 3-Year Review, covering the years 2020 to 2022. Under the auditing standard for the auditor’s report (AS 3101), adopted in 2017, CAMs are...more
The PCAOB has posted a 2023 audit committee resource that identifies a number of questions that audit committees may want “to consider amongst themselves or in discussions with their independent auditors, particularly given...more
In this Statement, The Importance of a Comprehensive Risk Assessment by Auditors and Management, SEC Chief Accountant Paul Munter cautions auditors and company managements against conducting risk assessments that focus too...more
In this new statement, SEC Chief Accountant Paul Munter—no longer “acting” Chief, he got the job—discusses some of the issues arising out of the increased use by lead auditors of other accounting firms and individual...more
In this article, accounting firm Deloitte observes that boards and managements often experience “denial” when the topic of fraud risk arises—no one wants to feel that the trust they place in their own employees is actually...more
Paul Munter, the SEC’s Acting Chief Accountant, seems to think so. In this Statement, Munter expresses his concern that, in conducting audits, auditors are not adequately making use of the “fraud lens”—a focus on the...more
For well over a decade, the PCAOB has been unable to fulfill its SOX mandate to inspect audit firms in “Non-Cooperating Jurisdictions,” or “NCJs,” including China. To address this issue, in December 2020, the Holding Foreign...more
At the end of last week, the SEC approved the PCAOB’s updated standards for audits that involve multiple auditing firms. SEC Chair Gary Gensler said that the amended standards “will strengthen the requirements for lead...more
Auditor independence—or rather the potential absence of same—is apparently still a cause of significant agita at the SEC’s Office of Chief Accountant. In October last year, Acting Chief Accountant Paul Munter issued a...more
It’s been weeks since the SEC last took SPACs to task! According to Bloomberg, the SEC is now requiring many SPACs to “Big R” restate their financial statements because they tripped over the classification of certain shares...more
As you probably recall, SOX 404 requires public reporting companies to disclose the effectiveness of their internal control over financial reporting. SOX 404(a) public companies to provide an assessment of ICFR by management;...more
11/1/2021
/ Accelerated Filers ,
Attestation Requirements ,
Auditors ,
Emerging Growth Companies ,
ICFR ,
Internal Controls ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Sarbanes-Oxley ,
Section 404 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Smaller Reporting Companies
This week, Acting Chief Accountant Paul Munter issued a statement regarding the importance of auditor independence—a concept that is “foundational to the credibility of the financial statements.” The responsibility to...more
On Friday, the SEC announced that it had “removed” William D. Duhnke III from the PCAOB and designated Duane M. DesParte to serve as Acting Chair, effective Friday. Duhnke has been serving as Chair since January 2018. The SEC...more
In December 2019, as part of its strategy of enhancing transparency and accessibility through proactive stakeholder engagement, the PCAOB launched an effort to engage with audit committees, conducting conversations with...more
In this new Bulletin, consultant Protiviti identifies key issues for the 2021 audit committee agenda and—no surprise—at least half reflect the impact of COVID-19. The agenda includes four topics related to enterprise,...more
In October 2017, the SEC approved the PCAOB’s proposed new auditing standard for the auditor’s report, which requires auditors to include a discussion of “critical audit matters,” know colloquially as “CAMs.” CAMs are...more
On Friday, the SEC announced adoption of final amendments to the auditor independence rules, largely as proposed at the end of 2019. The changes to the rules make adjustments to address certain recurring fact patterns that...more
For over a decade, the PCAOB has been unable to fulfill its SOX mandate to inspect audit firms in “Non-Cooperating Jurisdictions,” or “NCJs,” including China. To address this issue, in May, the Senate passed the Holding...more
Is EBITDAC a thing? Yes, according to the FT. This article describes the use of a new non-GAAP metric: “earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation—and coronavirus.” Applying the new metric, a few companies...more
In December, the PCAOB posted a report on the results of its 2019 conversations with almost 400 audit committee chairs, focused on audit committee perspectives on audit quality assessment and improvement, auditor...more