CPAs must understand AI’s limits, test its outputs, and keep professional skepticism firmly in human hands.
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Audit & assurance
How CPAs are putting AI to work in audits
Four firms share examples of using artificial intelligence to assess risk, prepare data, and flag anomalies in ways that save time and money.
Center for Audit Quality taps Dave Sullivan as CEO
Sullivan currently serves as chair of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council and served as an audit leader during a long career with Deloitte.
AICPA proposes improvements to SOC 2 trust services criteria
Feedback is being accepted through mid-January on proposed updates to the framework used by CPAs to evaluate controls over an organization’s information systems.
PCAOB’s latest data reveals cleaner inspection findings
The board’s review of 2025 public company audit inspections revealed a significant decrease from 2024 in instances where an audit firm failed to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence to support its opinion on a financial statement.
Problem solved: A math example of CPA-led assurance using AI agents
A CPA who recently solved a 40-year-old math problem using AI believes that the “gold rush” to solve similar problems is creating a golden opportunity for CPAs in the assurance space.
AICPA partners on new offering that assures AI systems and agents
The first-of-its-kind assurance certification, developed with the Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company, is in a piloting phase and is expected to fully launch in early 2027.
ASB approves standard on auditors’ responsibilities relating to fraud
The AICPA Auditing Standards Board approved a new fraud standard to enhance and clarify auditor responsibilities in a financial statement audit.
AI and the audit: AICPA publishes practice aid to assist auditors
A new practice aid covers the impact of organizations’ use of artificial intelligence in financial reporting and the impact of audit firms’ use of AI in audit engagements.
PCAOB shares agendas for rulemaking, research
The agenda features projects on negative assurance related to comfort letter engagements, auditor independence, fraud, noncompliance with laws and regulations, and going concern. Also, the SEC is considering whether to add the CPA credential as a pathway to accredited investor qualification.
Liquidation accounting: When a going concern dissolves
Drawing from lessons learned in a real-life dissolution, a former CFO shares what CPAs need to know about applying FASB ASC 205-30.
Going concern: What CPAs in audit and finance should know
Going concern assessments are drawing renewed attention. AICPA standard setters help refresh what you know about this fundamental principle.
PCAOB finalizes simplified quality control amendments
QC 1000, A Firm’s System of Quality Control, will be effective Dec. 15 and could serve as the basis for the PCAOB’s future approach to inspections of public company compliance.
New AICPA guidance on stablecoins, mining revenue, current auditing standards
The AICPA’s updated digital assets practice aid addresses the most recent developments in an evolving area.
SAS 149 is coming: What audit teams need to know
The standard is effective for audits of group financial statements for periods ending on or after Dec. 15, 2026. Find out how it changes group audits and how you can prepare.
PEEC adopts revised definition of ‘attest engagement team’
The change, effective Dec. 15, clarifies for practitioners who is and is not part of an attest engagement team when applying AICPA Code of Professional Conduct independence requirements.
PCAOB seeks feedback on its 5-year strategic plan
The board that oversees audits of public companies proposed six goals in a draft of its 2026–2030 strategic plan.
AICPA updates audit standards related to external confirmations
SAS No. 150, External Confirmations, published Monday following an AICPA Auditing Standards Board vote in May, is designed to address today’s digitally driven environment.
PCAOB consultation process offers new options for firms seeking guidance
Registered public accounting firms are invited to request staff views on the implementation of PCAOB standards, with the option to launch a more formal firm consultation.
Standardization of sustainability reporting improves, but obstacles remain
While an increasing number of large U.S. companies turned to audit firms for assurance of sustainability data in 2024, a gap persists with the rest of the world, an annual report shows.
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