Audit Committees

Audit Committee members are an essential component to the health of our financial reporting ecosystem and capital markets. While our economy is constantly evolving, so is the role of audit committee members. Policymakers, investors, and other leaders across the globe increasingly recognize the vital role of audit committees and their importance to audit quality. In close collaboration with partner organizations, the CAQ is actively engaged in developments that impact audit committees and provides valuable resources, current policy information, and tools to support audit committees with their responsibilities.

Audit Committee Members oversee our evolving profession.

Emerging landscapes like Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting, new technologies, and unprecedented global circumstances require that the role of the auditor also evolve at an accelerated pace. Fortunately, our resources help Audit Committees and Board Members stay up-to-date.

See below a list of resources available to audit committee members to help them stay up-to-date with financial reporting developments, and serve their vital function in the advancement of audit quality.

Audit Committee Insights Newsletter

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Guides & Resources

Scroll through for our guides and resources designed to enhance understanding and execution of audit committee responsibilities.

2021 Audit Committee Transparency Barometer

Published jointly by the Center for Audit Quality and Audit Analytics, the annual Audit Committee Transparency Barometer presents findings from extensive analysis of audit committee disclosures in proxy statements, measuring the robustness of these disclosures among S&P Composite 1500 companies.

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Guide to PCAOB Inspections

Confidence in public company financial reporting is essential to the strength and vitality of U.S. securities markets. Company management, audit committees, and internal and external auditors all play important roles in providing investors with reliable financial reports. These roles are reinforced by regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

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Guide to Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Released in 2013 and updated in 2019, this guide provides the public with an easy-to-digest overview of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR), focusing on key ICFR concepts such as the control environment, control activities, reasonable assurance, and the hierarchy of ICFR deficiencies.

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Profession in Focus | Jan Babiak

Episode 61 of “Profession in Focus” features Jan Babiak, who serves on the boards of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., Bank of Montreal, and Euromoney Institutional Investors. Babiak offers insights on the benefits of enhancing audit committee disclosure, the new auditor’s reporting model, audit committee “scope creep,” and how to think about board diversity.

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Guide to Public Company Accounting

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CAQ Alert 2021-01 on SPACs

Auditor and Audit Committee Considerations Relating to Special Purposes Acquisition Company (SPAC) Initial Public Offerings and Mergers

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Tools for Audit Committees

Scroll through for tools developed to help audit committees further understand their roles and responsibilities.

External Auditor Assessment Tool

Audit committees oversee the integrity of a company’s financial statements and hire, compensate, and oversee the external auditor. Taking the assessment questionnaire included in this tool can be used by audit committees to inform their evaluation of the external auditor, and lead to enhanced oversight by the audit committee.

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Emerging Technologies

Emerging Technologies: An Oversight Tool for Audit Committees provides a framework and questions that audit committees may ask management and auditors to help inform their oversight of financial reporting as emerging technologies take hold.

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Preparing for the New Credit Losses Standard

This tool is designed to help audit committees exercise their oversight responsibilities as companies implement a new credit losses accounting standard that begins to take effect in January 2020. The tool includes an overview of the new standard and offers key questions and resources for audit committee members to consider.

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Preparing for the Leases Accounting Standard

This tool is designed to help audit committees exercise their oversight responsibilities as companies implement a new leases accounting standard that begins to take effect in January 2019. The tool includes an overview of the new standard and offers important questions for audit committee members to consider for successful implementation.

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The Auditor’s Report: Considerations for Audit Committees

In June 2017, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board adopted a new auditing standard that will bring about significant changes to the auditor’s report. We explain these changes to the auditor’s report, including disclosure of auditor tenure, Critical Audit Matters (CAMs), and other new requirements.

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Preparing for the New Revenue Recognition Standard

This tool helps audit committees assess a company’s implementation of the new revenue recognition standard, which took effect for many public companies on January 1, 2018.

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Questions on Non-GAAP Measures

Concerns and questions from regulators and investors have grown around the management’s presentation, outside the audited financial statements, of performance metrics that do not conform to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). This tool helps audit committees probe whether such measures are accurate, appropriate, and useful to investors.

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Cybersecurity Risk Management Oversight

This tool provides key questions board members can use as they discuss cybersecurity risks and disclosures with management and CPA firms, and also compiles cybersecurity-related resources from the CAQ, the American Institute of CPAs, the National Association of Corporate Directors, and others.

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