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PCAOB Issues Staff Guidance for Firms Filing New Form AP
Practical Law Legal Update w-002-7325 (Approx. 4 pages)
PCAOB Issues Staff Guidance for Firms Filing New Form AP
by Practical Law Corporate & Securities
| Published on 30 Jun 2016 • USA (National/Federal) |
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued staff guidance for firms filing the new Form AP - Auditor Reporting of Certain Audit Participants.
On June 28, 2016, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued staff guidance for firms filing the new Form AP - Auditor Reporting of Certain Audit Participants. The PCAOB adopted new rules and amendments to its auditing standards in December 2015 that require registered accounting firms to file new Form AP for each completed issuer audit, disclosing:
- The name of the engagement partner who led the audit for the most recent period.
- The names, locations and extent of participation (as a percentage of the total audit hours) of other public accounting firms that took part in the audit if their work exceeded 5% of total audit hours.
- The number and aggregate extent of participation of all other accounting firms that took part in the audit whose individual participation was less than 5% of the total audit hours.
Firms must begin filing Form AP for public company audit reports issued on or after:
- January 31, 2017, for engagement partner names.
- June 30, 2017, for other audit firms that participated in the audit.
For more on the new rules and amendments, see Legal Update, PCAOB Adopts Rules Requiring Disclosure of Engagement Partner Name and Other Audit Participants in New Form.
The new staff guidance provides information on completing Form AP and covers other provisions of the recently enacted rules, including:
- Mechanics of filing Form AP.
- When and how to amend a Form AP.
- Disclosing the engagement partner and other participating audit firms.
- Calculating total audit hours.
- Voluntary disclosures in the audit report.
- An illustrative example of completing sections of Form AP and voluntary disclosure for the audit report.
In addition, the PCAOB has launched a web page on Form AP for investors, auditors, and others interested in the information. The new web page provides additional resources for audit firms preparing to comply with the new rules, such as general instructions for the form and a sample form that can be downloaded for reference.
Firms may submit an individual Form AP using a web form or may submit multiple forms in batches using XML. The page includes the technical instructions and related schema for firms electing to submit their forms using XML.
In a press release on the new guidance, the PCAOB stated that its staff intends to hold conference calls later this year for firms that have questions about the use of technology in submitting Form AP. The press release also stated that firms will have an opportunity to conduct test runs of submitting Form AP using the web form and XML.
According to the press release, beginning in early 2017, investors and others will be able to conduct searches of the Form AP database from the PCAOB website. Users will be able to search the database by engagement partner name, audit firm, and/or public company name.