Audit & assurance

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.

An auditing interpretation issued by the AICPA Auditing Standards Board provides auditors with guidance on how to comply with AU-C Section 700A as well as the PCAOB’s standards on critical audit matters.

A new Technical Question and Answer issued by the AICPA provides nonauthoritative guidance on implementing the AICPA Auditing Standards Board’s new standard on auditor reporting.

The first auditor’s reports containing the PCAOB’s newly required critical audit matters are available in public company annual reports.