PricewaterhouseCoopers has released a report on the firm’s efforts to improve audit quality.
The report, “Our focus on audit quality,” highlights the factors that could have an impact on audit quality and where PwC is enhancing its audit approach and technology. This past year, the firm increased the number of what it calls Transparency Data Points that it voluntarily discloses.
“These measures provide information about our audit practice and our investments in and focus on quality,” wrote Mike Gallagher, managing partner of assurance quality at PwC in a recent blog post on LinkedIn. “We began voluntarily reporting TDPs in 2013, and since then have refined and increased the number that we report based on the positive feedback we received from stakeholders. The idea of developing quantitative measures of audit quality has continued to gain traction. What we call TDPs are akin to what the PCAOB and others refer to as firm-level Audit Quality Indicators (AQIs). PwC supports the PCAOB’s efforts to continue discussions, through their concept release and related efforts, regarding the best use of AQIs.”
PwC has also been leveraging data analytics in its audit practice. Bill Brennan, managing partner of assurance transformation at PwC, recently explained to Accounting Today about how the firm is leveraging various technologies to make its audit more efficient (see PwC Transforms Audit Practice with Data Analytics).
Along with the technology, the new report discusses other considerations for audit quality, such as setting the right tone at the top, considerations in undertaking an audit engagement, human capital strategies and recruiting audit professionals.
