Yesterday, the PCAOB announced that it would postpone the effective date of QC 1000 – which the SEC approved last year (not unanimously!) and had been expected to have some impact on public companies.

Reuters had reported that SEC Chair Paul Atkins was pushing for a delay, due to feedback from audit firms. Here’s more detail about the postponement, from the PCAOB’s announcement:

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) announced today that it is postponing for one year, to December 15, 2026, the effective date for QC 1000, A Firm’s System of Quality Control, and other new and amended PCAOB standards, rules, and forms adopted by the Board on May 13, 2024. The Board’s action also postpones the related rescission date of certain rules and standards that are currently in force.

In adopting QC 1000, the Board expressed the view that a 2025 effective date struck an appropriate balance between the benefits to investors of having QC 1000 take effect as soon as practicable and the need to allow sufficient time for registered public accounting firms to design and implement robust QC 1000-compliant quality control systems. Today’s decision by the Board to postpone the effective date takes into account information from various sources that some firms have encountered implementation challenges that, as a practical matter, may be insurmountable within the previously established timeframe. The Board believes that an additional year is sufficient time for firms that have encountered implementation challenges to overcome those challenges.

The Board has not made or proposed any changes to the text of the new and amended standards, rules, or forms from the text adopted by the Board. Nor is there any change to the Board’s previous statement that registered firms are permitted to elect to comply with the requirements of QC 1000 before the effective date (except as to reporting to the PCAOB on the evaluation of the quality control system).

– Liz Dunshee