Auditors serving smaller businesses know that those clients often need help navigating the highly technical and overwhelming body of accounting standards. They also know that…
ICYMI | How Many Engagement Inspections Is Too Many?
Streamlining the Scope of Quality Control Inspections
The inspection process is a critical part of any audit firm's accounting and auditing quality control (QC) system. The lack of precise guidance in the…
‘Net Realizable Value’ Is the New ‘Market’
The Effects of ASU 2015-11 and Other Inventory Valuation Issues
This month's column highlights the principal effects of FASB's Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2015-11, Simplifying the Measurement of Inventory. While the standard's primary impact has been…
As noted by the PCAOB in its Release 2017-001: “there are situations in which an auditor may be required by law or regulation, or voluntarily…
The June 2017 installment of this column covered “Reporting on Restatement Adjustments after an Auditor Change” (http://bit.ly/2pQMClB). This installment expands on that theme, providing guidance…
Although still in the proposal stage, there has been substantial movement by both FASB and the SEC on major issues discussed by this author in…
ICYMI | Unsolved Problems in Auditing: A Half Century Retrospective and an Update
2016 Max Block Award Winner: Outstanding Article in the Area of In Focus/Feature
Auditing has been an ever-changing discipline since its birth over 100 years ago, but how much have the challenges auditors face really evolved over the…
The Audit Report Returns to Its Roots
An Historical Perspective on Critical Audit Matters
The evolution of the standard audit report has been slow and cautious over the past century. Most recently, in 2011, the AICPA's Auditing Standards Board…
Auditors are required to communicate to audit committees or others charged with governance “significant control deficiencies,” including “material weaknesses” [as these terms are defined in…
Has the DOL Pushed the ASB Too Far?
Push Back—Now!
In April 2017, the AICPA's Auditing Standards Board (ASB) issued an Exposure Draft Proposed Statement on Auditing Standards (the ED) entitled “Forming an Opinion and…
The modern marvel of Facebook and other social networking sites has been consuming the leisure time of many Americans for quite a while now, and…
Editor's Note: The following guidance applies to non–publicly held entities. Guidance for SEC issuers under PCAOB standards may differ. Agreed-upon procedures engagements are a special type…
Editor's note: The following is a supplement to the author's “Depreciable Asset Lives: The Forgotten Estimate in GAAP,” published in the September 2016 CPA Journal.…
AUD | Has the SEC Awakened a Sleeping Giant?
The Familiarity Threat to Auditor Independence
For over 50 years, observers have questioned whether auditors who provide consulting or other nonattest services to their clients can be independent, and regulators continue…