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PCAOB's Priorities for 2024 Include Increased, Broader Inspections

By:
S.J. Steinhardt
Published Date:
Dec 21, 2023

GettyImages-614840826 Audit

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) released a staff report, "Spotlight: Staff Priorities for 2024 Inspections and Interactions With Audit Committees," that outlines its priorities for 2024. Among them are plans to review more audit engagements, expand inspection procedures, increase focus on a firm’s culture of integrity, perform quality inspections, and improve the timeliness of inspection reports.

The staff report also said that the PCAOB would continue its emphasis on selecting audits of companies engaging in merger-and-acquisition activities or business combinations: continue its emphasis on selecting audits of broker-dealers that file compliance reports and others that provide customers with various investment opportunities, such as introducing brokers; and continue to select nontraditional audit areas to inspect.

In addition, staff will place continuing emphasis on selecting audits of public companies in industries and sectors with specialized accounting and/or that may be negatively impacted by uncertainties and volatility in the economic and geopolitical environment. Three sectors—financials, information technology, and others that apply industry-specific or sector-specific accounting—will be particularly prioritized in 2024.

“Our inspection priorities Spotlight provides firms with important insights to help them plan and perform high-quality audits investors deserve,” said PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams in a statement. “We encourage firms and audit committees to make use of this important tool to help improve audit quality.”

To learn more about issued and proposed guidance from the PCAOB, attend the Foundation for Accounting Education’s Auditing Standards Update with Renee Rampulla Webcast REPLAY on Dec. 28.

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