The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board posted new downloadable datasets related to PCAOB inspection reports.
The datasets contain multiple years of information related to PCAOB inspections findings. This information was previously only available in the individual PDF versions of firm inspection reports.
“PCAOB inspection reports have always been a data-rich resource for investors and others,” PCAOB chair Erica Williams said in a statement. “With the release of these downloadable datasets, we are continuing our efforts to drive audit quality by increasing transparency.”
The two new datasets contain information from Part I.A and Part I.B of inspection reports for use in different applications, platforms or systems. The year-by-year information goes back to 2018 for annually inspected firms and 2019 for triennially-inspected firms and will be updated on a quarterly basis in the future.
Part I.A of the inspection reports discusses deficiencies where the PCAOB deemed a firm had not obtained appropriate audit evidence to support its opinion. The Part I.A dataset provides the entire description of each deficiency as well as relevant attributes.
Part I.B of the inspection reports discusses instances of noncompliance with PCAOB standards or rules that do not relate directly to the sufficiency or appropriateness of the evidence, such as critical audit matters and Form AP. The Part I.B dataset provides the entire description of each deficiency and the auditing standard related to the deficiency.
The PCAOB also enhanced the downloadable dataset that is focused on firm-level information for over 4,000 published inspection reports, first released in July 2023.
