PCAOB Makes Downloadable Inspections Data Available

The PCAOB has announced the availability of two online datasets of information from Part I.A and Part I.B of its inspection reports.  These datasets, which the Board will update quarterly, contain information from inspection reports beginning in 2018 for annually inspected firms and in 2019 for triennially inspected firms.  They are available in three formats (CSV, XML, and JSON).  The datasets can be accessed and downloaded from the Firm Inspections Report page of the Board’s website.

Part I.A of an inspection report discusses audit deficiencies of such significance that, in the PCAOB staff’s view, the audit firm did not obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to support its opinion on either the financial statements or internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). The Part I.A dataset provides the name of the inspected firm, the inspection year, and the full text of every Part I.A deficiency.  The Part I.A dataset also contains classification information concerning each deficiency, including:

• Issuer reference key tying the deficiency to the issuer as referenced in the inspection report (e.g., Issuer A).

• Whether the firm was the principal auditor or only played a role in the audit in which the deficiency occurred.

• Whether the deficiency affected the financial statement audit, the ICFR audit, or both.

• Whether the deficiency occurred in an audit with multiple deficiencies, a single deficiency, or with an incorrect opinion on the financial statements and/or ICFR.

• The audit area in which the deficiency arose (e.g., revenue).

• The auditing standard (including the paragraph of the standard) underlying the deficiency.

Part I.B of an inspection report discusses instances of noncompliance with PCAOB standards or rules that do not relate directly to the sufficiency or appropriateness of evidence the audit firm obtained to support its opinion.  The Part I.B dataset provides the name of the inspected firm, the inspection year, the full text of each Part I.B deficiency, and the auditing standard or rule underlying the deficiency.

The new datasets will facilitate comparison and analysis of inspection results.  For example, the Part I.A dataset could be downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet, which a researcher could then use to analyze a firm’s audit deficiencies over time, to compare firm results, or to study the frequency with which particular auditing standards were the basis for inspection findings.  This type of analysis could be useful for audit committees that are comparing audit firms.