Annual Update for Accountants and Auditors: 2020

Chapter 9PCAOB Update

Learning objectives

• Identify required components of the new standard auditor’s report contained in PCAOB Accounting Standard AS 3101, The Auditor’s Report on an Audit of Financial Statements When the Auditor Expresses an Unqualified Opinion, and related amendments to PCAOB Standards.¹
• Determine the key responsibilities for evaluating accounting estimates included in the recently approved amendment, related to PCAOB AS 2501, Auditing Accounting Estimates, Including Fair Value Measurements, and amendments to PCAOB Auditing Standards.
• Identify new requirements when using specialists in an audit contained in the recently approved PCAOB amendment, PCAOB AS 1210, Using the Work of a Specialist.
• Recognize the key responsibilities required in audits in which other auditors are involved if proposed amendments to existing standards and a new auditing standard are issued.

Although the primary focus of this course is to provide an overview of current auditing and other attest standards applicable to engagements involving nonissuers, this chapter highlights recent activities at the PCAOB, because they inform the broader audit profession. In fact, the AICPA’s Auditing Standards Board considered some of these new standards as it developed recently issued Statements on Auditing Standards. Practitioners are encouraged to monitor the PCAOB website at www.pcaob.org for current developments.

Recently issued PCAOB auditing standards

In the past few years, the PCAOB has ...