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Audit

  • PCAOB Looks for Middle Ground in New Plan to Name Audit Partner

    By:
    Chris Gaetano
    |
    Aug 7, 2015
    The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is trying a new tack in its years-long effort to make available the names of audit engagement partners, as well as information about other accounting firms that participate in the audits of public companies: It wants to create a special form solely for those disclosures that firms would file with the regulator within a month after they file audit reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
  • DOL Moves to Take EBP Audit Standards Setting from AICPA

    By:
    Chris Gaetano and Colleen Lutolf
    |
    Jul 28, 2015

    The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is calling for federal legislation that would allow the U.S. Secretary of Labor to establish standards for employee benefit plan (EBP) audits, as well as require additional education for the CPAs who perform them. The call comes after a recent agency study found that 39 percent of EBP audits contained major deficiencies. The study, issued in May, examined 400 of the 81,162 EBP audits filed by approximately 7,300 firms in 2011. Audits were categorized by the size of a firm’s employee benefit plan audit practice, which the DOL pointed out was not necessarily reflective of the size of the firm overall.

  • PCAOB Approves More User-Friendly System for Auditing Standards

    By:
    Chris Gaetano
    |
    May 22, 2015

    The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is moving forward with its plan to  reorganize and codify its existing auditing standards into a format that it hopes will be easier to navigate. The board first proposed the changes—which do not alter the standards themselves or impose new requirements on auditors—in a 2013 exposure draft. It approved the reorganization during an open meeting on March 31.

  • Should You Be Auditing Employee Benefit Plans?

    By:
    Adam S. Lilling, CPA, CFA
    |
    Apr 28, 2015

    Accountants who specialize in tax and general accounting services are often asked by their clients to perform audits of employee benefit plans (EBP), such as 401(k) and health and welfare plans. But if you don’t routinely conduct EBP audits, you may not be aware of their unique characteristics, such as testing demographic data, hardship withdrawals and remitting employee contributions on a timely basis.

  • Newsmaker: Meet Colorado State Auditor Dianne E. Ray

    By:
    CHRIS GAETANO
    |
    Aug 18, 2014
    On July 7, New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law a bill that allows marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes by patients with serious health conditions. The legislation creates new opportunities but, at the same time, new risks for businesses connected to the industry. Colorado State Auditor Dianne E. Ray a CPA, knows this all too well—last year, she completed the first ever performance audit of her state’s medical marijuana regulatory structure and got a close-up look at this burgeoning sector. 
  • FAE Speaker Offers Up-Close Look at PCAOB Process for Investigating Firms

    By:
    CHRIS GAETANO
    |
    Jun 12, 2014
    What happens when the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) decides to look a bit closer at an audit firm’s activities? According to C. Ian Anderson, the PCAOB’s New York Regional Associate Director of Enforcement and Investigations, firms can expect a multilayered process, with a focus squarely on “whether the auditor acted diligently and with a reasonable degree of competence.” 
  • Society Presses NYC to Make Real Estate Program Form GAAP, GAAS Compliant

    By:
    CHRIS GAETANO
    |
    Apr 29, 2014
    In a comment letter published on March 11, the NYSSCPA urged New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to modify a form for its J-51 real estate program that is currently out of sync with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS)—leaving CPAs who are asked to certify the paperwork in an awkward position.