PCAOB to Host Roundtable on the Auditor’s Reporting Model

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board announced today that it will host a public roundtable on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011, to discuss its concept release on possible changes to the auditor's reporting model.

"The Board's consideration of the audit reporting model is intended to identify meaningful opportunities to enhance the relevance of auditors' communications with investors," said James R. Doty, PCAOB Chairman. "I look forward to a robust discussion at the roundtable meeting of various possibilities raised in the Board's concept release or by commenters."

The objective of the roundtable is to obtain insight from investors and other financial statement users, preparers of financial statements, audit committee members and auditors on the alternatives presented in the concept release for changing the auditor's report. Additionally, the roundtable will provide participants with the opportunity to present other alternatives not discussed in the concept release.

The concept release, issued on June 21, 2011, presents several alternatives for changing the auditor's reporting model and seeks comment on these or other alternatives that could provide investors with more transparency into the audit process and more insight into the company's financial statements or information outside the financial statements. The comment period closes on Sept. 30, 2011. The alternatives described in the concept release for changing the auditor's report include:

• An auditor's discussion and analysis;
• Required and expanded use of emphasis paragraphs;
• Auditor assurance on other information outside the financial statements; and,
• Clarification of language in the standard auditor's report.

"Any expansion of the auditor's communication about the audit, the company's financial statements, and information outside the financial statements would be intended to provide valuable information for decision making to investors and anyone else who uses those financial statements," said Martin F. Baumann, Chief Auditor and Director of Professional Standards.

The meeting will be held at 1201 15th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. It will be open to the public, and also available via Webcast on the PCAOB website. The list of attendees and other details will be available closer to the meeting date. Links to the discussion paper for the event, "PCAOB Roundtable – Auditor's Reporting Model," and the concept release are under "Related Information."