What Should be on the Audit Committee’s 2024 Agenda?

At the beginning of each year, accounting and consulting firms present their views on the issues on which audit committees should focus in connection with the end of the prior year and during the coming 12 months.  Below is a list (with hyperlinks to the documents) of five of these 2023 year-end/2024 agenda papers.

• Deloitte Center for Board Effectiveness, On the audit committee’s agenda: Looking ahead: The audit committee agenda in 2024.

• EY Center for Board Matters, What audit committees should prioritize in 2024. 

• KPMG Board Leadership Center, On the 2024 audit committee agenda. 

• Protiviti, Setting the 2024 Audit Committee Agenda. 

• PwC Governance Insights Center, Approaching the 2023 year-end financial reporting season.

These papers approach the topic of how audit committees should set their agendas at different levels of generality, and each firm has its own perspective on where audit committees should direct their time and attention.  Not surprisingly, however, there are many common themes.  Some frequentl2024 audit committee agenda topics (along with references to reports that discuss them) include:

• ESG reporting, including existing and proposed mandatory climate change disclosure requirements (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, Protiviti, PwC). 

• Risk and disclosure implications of the use of artificial intelligence (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, Protiviti, PwC). 

• Cybersecurity and compliance with SEC cybersecurity disclosure requirements (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, Protiviti). 

• Audit committee effectiveness (Deloitte, KPMG, Protiviti, PwC). 

• Impact of the PCAOB’s proposal to enhance the auditor’s responsibility to detect company noncompliance with laws and regulations (NOCLAR) (Deloitte, EY, KPMG). 

• Adequacy of company financial reporting and internal audit talent (Deloitte, KPMG, Protiviti). 

• SEC emphasis on disclosure controls and procedures (Deloitte, KPMG). 

• Assuring that internal audit focuses on key risks (KPMG, Protiviti). 

• Proxy statement disclosure regarding the work of the audit committee (PWC). 

For last year’s audit committee agenda suggestions, see What Should be on the Audit Committee’s 2023 Agenda?, January 2023 Update.

A high-level review of these papers could be helpful to an audit committee as a check that it is not overlooking topics that should be on its agenda.  Also, most of these papers include suggested questions that the audit committee could pursue with management to better understand the various suggested topics.  Those questions could provide a good starting point for discussion.