The AICPA has provided more details about the upcoming transition for the CPA exam which is scheduled for January 2024. The new blueprint provides details on the types of skills expected of newly licensed CPAs as well as the design of the exam. Comments are due September 30th.
The second quarter of 2022 is behind us and it was a very busy one for standard setters. The AICPA issued its suite of standards related to quality control. They also issued a SAS related to NOCLAR, which corresponds to changes recently made to the ethics requirements. GASB issued 3 final standards in Q3 and FASB issued 1 final standard.
The AICPA’s Professional Ethics Executive Committee (PEEC) has proposed some new independence rules related to compliance audits. The AICPA is aware that much of the new COVID-19 related funding is causing many entities who have no been subject to audit requirements or single audit requirements historically to now be subject to them. They add 2 definitions and revise the definition of financial statement attest client to help identify which independence rules apply to these engagements. Comments are due September 1, 2022.
The AICPA issued a TQA in May addressing reporting and dating issues related to Other Information (OI) received after the date of the auditor’s report. SAS 137 added some additional performance and reporting requirements. The TQA clarifies some common questions the AICPA was receiving with regard to these changes.
OMB has issued its 2022 Compliance Supplement. While originally promised in April of 2022, OMB issued it on May 12 which is much better than the previous years that were issued in August. The Compliance Supplement includes new ARPA programs that were not addressed in the 2021 Supplement so this can be very helpful to auditors wrapping up some outstanding 2021 audits. The Supplement should be used for 6/30/22 year ends and beyond.
The PCAOB has issued a staff spotlight looking at some auditor considerations when using a service provider in the confirmation process. It encourages auditors to evaluate whether they have maintained control over the confirmation and to what extent they can rely on third party controls. This is nonauthoritative guidance to help improve audit quality.
