The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released new search filters on its website that allow people to look for reports along six new criteria, alongside existing ones, on its
Previously, visitors to the PCAOB website could only search inspection reports by four filters: firm name, country/geography, year when a report was published (i.e., approved by the board), and whether a report includes public quality control criticisms.
The new filters allow users to search for reports based on:
- Inspection type: Users can filter according to whether a firm inspection report falls into the "annual" or "triennial" inspection frequency category for the inspection year;
- Total issuer audit clients: Users can now get a better and more immediate sense of the size of triennially inspected audit firms by sorting inspection reports according to the number of audit clients that firms had, as determined at the outset of the inspection;
- Part I.A deficiency rate: Users can now sort inspection reports according to the percentage of audits with Part I.A deficiencies. Part I.A of inspection reports discusses deficiencies, if any, that were of such significance that PCAOB staff believed the audit firm, at the time it issued its audit report(s), had not obtained sufficient appropriate audit evidence to support its opinion on the public company's financial statements and/or internal control over financial reporting;
- Specific global network: Users can now refine search results so they include only firms that belong to a specific global audit firm network;
- Inspection year: Users can now filter inspection reports according to the year that the PCAOB's inspectors completed the inspection, not just the year when the report was published; and
- Audits reviewed: Users can search inspection reports by number of issuer audits that the PCAOB reviewed as part of its inspection.
Further, users can now also download the entire data set into three formats — CSV, XML and JSON — to ease third-party integrations.
"PCAOB inspection reports provide investors, audit committees and potential clients with important information they can use to make informed decisions," said PCAOB chair Erica Y. Williams in a statement. "By making that information easier to find and compare, these new tools will empower users to hold firms accountable for producing high-quality audits."
