Audit & assurance

The AICPA Auditing Standards Board issued new guidance that is intended to align the AU-C 800 series with the board’s new standard on auditor reporting.

The AICPA’s Accounting and Review Services Committee issued a new Statement on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARS) that further converges the standards for reviews of financial statements in AICPA Professional Standards with international standards for such engagements.

The AICPA Auditing Standards Board has issued guidance for practitioners performing verification or performance examination engagements pursuant to the Global Investment Performance Standards.

An SEC proposal is designed to amend rules that indicate auditor independence breaches in situations when no substantial threat to independence exists.

The PCAOB’s inspections of audit firms in 2020 will continue to focus on areas that have been challenging for firms in recent years, George Botic, CPA, the PCAOB’s director of Registration and Inspections.

Sections of the ASB’s codification would be amended under a proposal to conform with recently issued standards on auditor reporting and the auditor’s responsibilities relating to other information included in annual reports.

Auditors of the largest public companies have included critical audit matters in their reports for the first time. Here are some of the SEC’s observations based on those reports.

The AICPA Auditing Standards Board has amended its concept of materiality to match the definition used by the U.S. judicial system and other US standard setters.

The barriers preventing CPAs from performing engagements providing certain agreed-upon procedures were removed when the AICPA Auditing Standards Board issued a standard providing more flexibility to practitioners.