PCAOB on Verge of Reorganizing Audit Standards

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has scheduled a meeting for next Tuesday where it will vote on adopting a reorganization of auditing standards.

The open meeting is scheduled for 9:30 AM on March 31 at the PCAOB’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

PCAOB auditing standards currently consist of two types of authoritative auditing standards: (i) standards originally issued by the Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of CPAs and adopted by the board on an interim, transitional basis in April 2003 and (ii) standards issued by the board. The reorganization is supposed to present both types of standards together in a logical order that generally follows the flow of how one conducts an audit. The reorganization also is intended to help users navigate the standards more easily.

The meeting is open to the public and will take place in the board's meeting room at 1666 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. A webcast via a link on the PCAOB's Web site will be made available the day of the meeting. The meeting also will be available via podcast later in the day.

The PCAOB issued a proposal for the reorganization of the standards back in 2013 to provide a potential framework for reorganizing existing interim and PCAOB-issued auditing standards into a topical structure with a single integrated numbering system. The proposed reorganization aimed to present the standards in a logical order that generally follows the flow of the audit process. Among the proposed changes, all PCAOB auditing standards would be grouped into the following categories: general auditing standards, audit procedures, auditor reporting, matters relating to filings under federal securities laws, and other matters associated with audits.

Last year, the PCAOB asked for further comments on the proposal and detailed the proposed line-by-line amendments to PCAOB auditing standards and the rules needed to implement the proposed reorganization.