Guidance on Root Cause Analysis

root cause analysis

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has published fresh guidance on how to perform a root cause analysis, for anyone out there who wants to understand the root of your problems.  The guidance, published Tuesday, is geared toward audit firms rather than corporate businesses, so not all the advice in its nine pages will be…

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PCAOB Alert on Company-Produced Evidence

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The PCAOB has published fresh advice for audit firms about how to evaluate data and reports provided by their client companies. Internal audit teams might want to take note, since such PCAOB “advice” has a habit of soon becoming new demands placed upon you by your auditor. The report, blandly titled “Inspection Observations Related to…

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PCAOB Cheating Crackdown Continues

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U.S. accounting regulators today fined KPMG’s Dutch affiliate $25 million for rampant employee cheating on the firm’s training exams, and then topped that eye-popping enforcement action with two more smaller fines against Deloitte’s Indonesia and Philippines affiliates for similar offenses.  The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board dropped this news bomb on Wednesday morning, and it’s…

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NOCLAR Audit Proposal Keeps Going

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The Public Company Accounting Oversight board is seeking more input on its controversial proposal for audit firms to look more aggressively for compliance violations at client companies, amid continuing fierce debate over the benefits and potential costs of the idea.  The PCAOB announced Monday that it will hold a roundtable on March 6 to solicit…

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PCAOB Talks 2024 Audit Issues

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The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board plans to inspect more corporate audits in 2024, casting an especially watchful eye at audits of financial and IT companies, as well as businesses that engaged in mergers and acquisitions in 2023. So says an alert the PCAOB published earlier this week, previewing the agency’s priorities for 2024 audit…

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Another Take on Auditors and Compliance Violations

audit

Occasionally strange things happen. So when an auditor friend of mine called me to say he believes this proposal for auditors to look for compliance violations is actually easier than most people suspect, I started taking notes — because an auditor defending this idea is a rare thing indeed. The proposal, from the Public Company…

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PCAOB Compliance Proposal Draws Heat

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Comment letters have begun to arrive for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s proposal to have auditors look for compliance and legal violations at their client companies. So far the idea has plenty of critics — although plenty of that criticism is stuff compliance officers will like to hear. The PCAOB’s proposal is to require…

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PCAOB Blasts Audit Firm Deficiencies

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The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is taking audit firms to task this week, issuing a special report about the most recent round of PCAOB inspections that found an “unsettling trend” of ever-more deficient audits — results that the PCAOB chair blasted as “absolutely unacceptable.”  “These findings are absolutely unacceptable, and audit firms must make…

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More on Auditors and Compliance Violations

audit

Today let’s return to that proposal to have audit firms look more aggressively for compliance and legal violations at their client companies. One of  my spies in the audit world recently provided me a glimpse into his firm’s preliminary discussions about this idea — and their concerns are well worth compliance and internal audit professionals’…

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PCAOB and Compliance Violations, Part II

pcaob

Today I want to revisit last week’s proposal from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board that audit firms should look more aggressively for compliance and legal violations at their client companies. There are compelling arguments about why this might be a bad idea, which compliance and internal audit professionals need to consider closely. To understand…

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