PCAOB Dialogues

Chairman James R. Doty sat down with Don Nicolaisen, former SEC chief accountant and a public company audit committee chair and board member, to talk about his experiences as a one-time auditor and now board member. Mr. Nicolaisen recalls his days as a junior accountant when he raised an audit issue with a company’s audit committee. He also talks about the use of big data technology and the potential for a digital audit in the future. The recording took place at the PCAOB International Institute on Audit Regulation last year.

On May 11, 2016, the PCAOB held an Open Board Meeting on a proposal to change the auditor’s reporting model. This is a recording of the meeting. The meeting starts with a presentation by PCAOB staff describing the proposal (1:00). Then Board members make their statements (19:00). Finally, Board members ask questions, and PCAOB staff answer (49:00). Listeners should not rely on the podcast as a substitute for consulting the proposed rule. For more information on the proposed changes to the auditor’s report, listeners can access the proposed rule on the PCAOB website at https://pcaobus.org/Rulemaking/Pages/Docket034.aspx. Parties interested in commenting on the proposed changes to the auditor’s report should submit a comment to [email protected].

Why do we need audit quality indicators? Should they be scorecards on auditors? How can these indicators be useful to audit committee members, audit firms, and investors? In the first PCAOB Dialogues episode, these questions and more are addressed by Greg Jonas, leader of the PCAOB AQI project, and Mike Cook, audit committee chair. Greg Jonas answers questions from the history and purpose of the project to specific examples of potential indicators. With Mike Cook’s experience in piloting audit quality indicators from his seat on an audit committee, he provides insight into how audit committees can hone in on indicators that may help them do their jobs. As Sam Ross, the moderator of episode, says at the end, please don’t rely on this podcast as a substitute to reading the release. All participants speak for themselves and do not represent the PCAOB as a whole, or the Board or staff.