How to Prepare for Your Upcoming AICPA Peer Review

Author: Salvatore Collemi

What does it take to have a properly designed and effective quality control system that leads your CPA firm to receive a pass with no findings on your next peer review report? Find out how to prepare yourself for your next peer review and what you can do to create a strong quality control environment for your assurance practice. Offering practical guidance, this CPE course will assist you in the process for selecting the appropriate peer reviewer and to determine the right review year-end.

Recent changes to enhance the peer review process by incorporating best practices of effective peer reviewers into the Peer Review standards, interpretations, and related guidance are also covered in this course. This course summarizes these changes and help firms prepare for an upcoming peer review. These changes are also intended to reinforce the need for adequate planning and preparation for a peer review by both firms and peer reviewers to allow sufficient time for proper identification of systemic causes and appropriate remediation, when necessary.

Publication Date: August 2022

Designed For
CPA firm practitioners who are subject to the AICPA Peer Review who perform compilation, review, and/or auditing of financial statements of small and midsize private entities.

Topics Covered

• Overview
• AICPA Peer Review Enrollment Requirements
• Types of Peer Reviews
• Enrollment Information
• Peer Reviewer Selection
• Preparing For Your Review
• Having Your Review
• Peer Review Committee Consideration
• Implementation Plans & Corrective Actions
• Firms Who Audit Broker-Dealer and SOC Engagements
• Resources and Tools

Learning Objectives

• Identify practical and insightful perspectives on how a CPA firm will prepare for its upcoming AICPA Peer Review
• Identify the approximate number of firms enrolled in the NPR Program
• Recognize which type of peer review focuses on a firm's system of quality control
• Identify which information the Standards require to be disclosed about a firm's peer review
• Recognize which report is designed to meet the needs of users who want assurance on the controls at a service organization related to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, or privacy but do not need the detail included in a different type of SOC report

Level
Intermediate

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Auditing (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
Experience in either leading a CPA firm’s accounting & auditing practice or practitioners who have previously conducted monitoring procedures.

Advance Preparation
None