New auditing disclosure requirement takes effect June 30

By Michael Cohn, AccountingToday.com

Auditing firms will be required to disclose the names of other firms that participated in an audit, starting Friday.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board issued a reminder Monday that the new requirement will be taking effect on June 30. Auditing firms will be required to disclose the names of other participating firms on Form AP, which firms registered with the PCAOB began filing with the PCAOB earlier this year. The initial requirement was for firms to disclose the name of the engagement partner who served on the audit for the most recent period. This week, the new disclosure requirement will begin to take effect, and for audit reports issued on or after June 30, 2017, firms will also need to disclose on Form AP information about other accounting firms that participated in the audit.

The PCAOB noted the information disclosed on Form AP about the other accounting firms participating in the audit will be made public and included in AuditorSearch, its online public database of engagement partners and audit firms who participated in audits of U.S. public companies.

Resources on the new Form AP—including the PCAOB rule mandating its use, staff guidance, along with the relevant PCAOB contact information—can be found on the Form AP resource page on the PCAOB’s website.