Content area
Full text
In Brief
Technology has transformed the way that businesses operate. The auditing profession is no exception. The SEC's recently released statistics for fiscal year 2016 showed that it filed 868 enforcement actions exposing financial reporting-related misconduct by companies and their executives, registrants, and gatekeepers. This is a single-year high, and many have attributed the results to the SEC's increasing use of data analytics. In addition, a recent Pew Research study released by the AICPA showed that CPAs are among the highest regarded business professionals, but auditors fare much poorer in the public's mind. Many have remarked upon the "expectations gap" between what the public expects from auditors and what they are engaged to perform. The continuing incidence of audit failures means that the spotlight remains on the profession. In light of this disconnect, as well as the increasing pervasiveness of technology, the time is ripe to examine the state of the auditing profession. Has the 85-year experiment of auditing public companies been a success? Has the profession met the expectations of the user community? How will technology transform the practice of auditing? What skills will future auditors need, and how will tomorrow's auditors be trained, selected, and prepared for the profession?
* * *
Last October, The CPA Journal held a roundtable discussion on the past, present, and future of the auditing profession at the NYSSCPA's offices. Present for the discussion were Scott Marcello, vice chair of Audit for KPMG; Thomas Ray, Distinguished Lecturer of auditing at Baruch College and former chief auditor and director of professional standards at the PCAOB; Doug Carmichael, Claire and Eli Mason Professor of accountancy at Baruch College, former vice president in auditing at the AICPA, and former chief auditor of the PCAOB; Jim Peterson, former senior counsel and partner at Arthur Andersen and author of Count Down: The Past, Present and Uncertain Future of the Big Four Accounting Firms; Sridhar Ramamoorti, associate professor of accounting at Kennesaw State University and member of the Standing Advisory Group of the PCAOB; Salvatore Collemi, managing member and founder of Collemi Consulting and Advisory Services LLC and director at-large of the NYSSCPA; and Bruce Nearon, former national director of IT audit at CohnReznick. The following article is an edited and abridged summary of...