To help audit firms develop more-focused remedies for their accounting and auditing practices, the AICPA Peer Review team collects data on Matters for Further Consideration (MFCs). An MFC form is used by peer reviewers to electronically capture "matters" detected during a peer review that are the most granular level of information indicating accounting and auditing deficiencies. The AICPA Peer Review team uses the data to identify problem areas in order to provide firms with tools to increase audit quality.
This Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality Center audit engagement tool describes the most frequent matters the Peer Review team has found related to employee benefit plan (EBP) audits and financial statements in peer reviews performed in 2019, and references EBPAQC tools that address several of the issues identified in EBP audits.
The tool includes EBP MFCs related to:
Quality control policies and procedures
Engagement letters
Use of a specialist
Risk assessment
Internal control
Sampling
SOC 1 reports
Testing and documentation
Management representation letters
The auditor's communication with those charged with governance
Financial statements and the auditor's report
Defined benefit plans
ESOP plans
Multiemployer plans
Health & welfare plans
Reviewing the trends summarized in this tool can help raise awareness of and avoid potential problems at EBP audit firms.