Compliance with AICPA Audit Standard
Schultz & Associates, CPA received a pass rating with their most recent peer review dated November 27, 2018. This rating is effective through March 31, 2021. This is the highest rating a CPA firm came receive during the peer review process.
What is a Peer Review
All firms that have the wording of CPA in their title have at least one CPA on staff are technically Certified Public Accounting Firms. Many of these firms do not participate in the AICPA Peer Review Program. This does not make them a lesser accounting firm. Firms that do not perform financial statement audits are not required to be AICPA members. However, firms that perform audits must be members of the AICPA and are subject to periodic peer reviews.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s is a voluntary membership organization for accountants who are Certified Public Accountants and for accounting firms owned and operated by CPA’s. Firms that wish to provide Audit services must be members of the AICPA. Therefore, if a firm wishes to perform audits, membership is not voluntary.
A CPA firm must engage a unrelated accounting firm every three years. The unrelated accounting firm will perform a independent review of the firms audit practices. The peer review looks at a firms quality controls, firm monitoring procedures, and also the work papers of previous audit engages. Peer review reports are issued after the completion of the review. Firms can received one of three ratings. Ratings include, pass, pass with deficiency(ies) or fail.
Is my CPA Peer Reviewed?
The easiest way to find out if your CPA received a pass rating on that last peer review is to ask. You can ask for a copy of the most recent peer review report. Additionally you can visit the AICPA website and search for the Firm. However, this search can often be particular. For example, entering “Schultz” and “Michigan” tends to bring up our firms results, even though that is not our official name. It can also take the AICPA a couple of months to update their records.