Ep. 10: 606 SOS -- What happens if... | Ethically Speaking
February 12, 2020
CPAs are a helpful bunch! How can we avoid letting that delightful characteristic put us in the position of auditing our own work when we help our clients in their implementation of the new rev rec standard? In this episode of Ethically Speaking, Toni Lee-Andrews, director of the AICPA Professional Ethics Division, and Bob Dohrer, chief auditor of the AICPA Audit and Attest team, sit down to explore some of the unique challenges auditors may face this year as a result of FASB ASC 606.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- (2:42) Avoiding management responsibilities with the client's FASB ASC 606 implementation team. What are some things the auditor can and can't do?
- (5:20) Clients' looking to the auditor for implementation help. What are the challenges with that?
- (6:30) What if an audit team finds out the client has done nothing to implement the standard?
- (11:20) What are some challenges related to the pervasiveness of rev rec to the financial statements?
- (12:25) How do internal controls factor into the client's implementation of the standard? Can the attest CPA play a role?
- (16:40) What if the client doesn't have good internal controls, puts a number down for revenue, and asks the auditor to audit against that number?
- (20:20) What are some things CPAs can do?
- (21:30) What resources does the AICPA have to help auditors?
Listen to this episode:
Find the resources mentioned in the episode
- Insights, the AICPA blog. Search for “revenue recognition” to find several helpful blog posts.
- Episode 9, Ethically Speaking
- Independence trap: Helping clients with rev rec implementations. Bob Durak. Accounting Today.
- AICPA Center for Plain English Accounting Report: Helping Attest Clients Implement the New Revenue Recognition Standard Complying with the Independence Rules. Join the CPEA for access to this and many other timely resources.
- AICPA guides, roadmaps, briefs, and more.
If you have questions about the substantive content of this episode, please call the ethics hotline at 888.777.7077 (option 2, then option 3) or email ethics@aicpa.org.
If you have comments on this episode or if you’d like to suggest topics for future episodes, please email ethicallyspeaking@aicpa.org.
