The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) will host a series of five in-person forums this year on auditing in the small business environment and on auditing broker-dealers, CPA Practice Advisor reported.

“Smaller firms play an important role in our work to protect investors,” PCAOB Chair Erica Williams said in a statement. “These forums allow the PCAOB to share valuable resources and information with small firms to help them improve audit quality, while giving us a chance to hear from them directly about their unique needs and challenges.”

The forums will offer opportunities for firms to interact directly with representatives from the PCAOB as well as other regulators in an educational setting. Each of the five PCAOB board members will host a forum in a different city across the country. Williams will kick off the series in Chicago on May 22. Board member George R. Botic will host a forum in Los Angeles this summer, followed by fall 2024 forums to be hosted by members Kara M. Stein (Denver), Christina Ho (Miami), and Anthony C. Thompson (Jersey City, N.J.).

The forums in Chicago and Jersey City will be livestreamed, and recordings of all five forums will be made available on the PCAOB’s website for those unable to attend in person. 

In addition to remarks from PCAOB members, the agenda will include presentations by PCAOB staff from the Office of the Chief Auditor, the Division of Registration and Inspections, and the Division of Enforcement and Investigations; illustrative examples related to revenue, critical audit mattersand fraud/journal entries, among other topics; and presentations by staff of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).