October 17, 2023
Audit Committees: What’s Keeping Them Up at Night?
The PCAOB recently released its annual report on conversations with audit committee chairs. This FEI Daily blog highlights what that report has to say about the five biggest worries facing audit committee chairs. This excerpt says one of them is shortcomings in communications between auditors and audit committees:
A large number of audit committee chairs interviewed by the PCAOB cited “inconsistent or last-minute communication with auditors” as a growing issue and that the area needed improvement. While those leaders said that the auditor’s overall approach to communication in areas like emerging issues and education should be commended, they added there was room for improvement in audit status updates. “Audit committee chairs felt that early and ongoing communication with their auditors would help minimize the possibility of surprises throughout the audit,” the report states.
Other areas of concern include the impact of the “great resignation” on the accounting profession, the ongoing control challenges of a remote workforce, the need to prevent the determination of “Critical Audit Matters” from becoming a generic compliance exercise, and the accuracy of non-GAAP and other non-financial statement metrics.
– John Jenkins