PCAOB ADOPTS ENGAGEMENT QUALITY REVIEW STANDARD
Washington, D.C. - The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has voted to adopt a new auditing standard on engagement quality review and to issue a concept release on requiring the engagement partner to sign the audit report.
Auditing Standard No. 7, also known as the EQR standard, provides a framework for an engagement quality reviewer to evaluate the significant judgments made and related conclusions reached by an engagement team in forming an overall conclusion about the engagement.
AS No. 7 applies to all audit engagements, and engagements to review interim financial information, conducted pursuant to the standards of the PCAOB. The standard supersedes the PCAOB's quality control standard, "SECPS Requirements of Membership," Section 1000.08(f), 1000.39, Appendix E. The standard, if approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, will become effective for both the EQR of audits and the EQR of interim reviews for fiscal years beginning on or after Dec. 15, 2009.
Separately, the PCAOB is also seeking comment on a concept release to consider the effects of a potential requirement for the engagement partner to sign the audit report. Any such requirement would be in addition to the existing requirement for the audit firm to sign the report.
The PCAOB is seeking comment on the concept release for a 45-day period.
SMBS LIKE SEPARATE STANDARDS
New York - Deloitte surveyed more than 220 financial professionals who work for private companies, and found that 51 percent believe there should be separate accounting standards for public and private companies, with 55 percent of companies with less than $100 million in revenue supportive of separate standards.
Deloitte believes that interest in the separate standards could swell further if the new International Financial Reporting Standards for SMEs received more attention. Forty-three percent of respondents answered "no" or "don't know" when they were asked about their awareness of the IASB project on IFRS for SMEs.
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