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• The process
• oversight program
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Reviewer
Database
• Forms
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Peer Review Process
• Steps in the process • Due date • Selection of engagements
• Submitting review documents • Final results • Peer Review costs
After your firm has filed an enrollment form with the WICPA or AICPA Peer Review Coordinator:
You receive a letter stating the due date for your initial review.
A background form is sent to you in advance of your review.
You return the background form to the WICPA within 30 days.
AICPA Professional Standards, Definition of an Accounting and Auditing Practice
The Team Captain form is sent to you for proper match of reviewer.
Review commences on date agreed upon by you and your firm's reviewer (at least two months prior to the due date). Any change in date must be submitted to WICPA.
When review is completed, the reviewer submits paperwork to WICPA.
You submit copies of proper forms to the WICPA (i.e., Report, Letter of Comments, Letter of Response if applicable).
Review goes through Administrative Review.
Review goes through Technical Review.
Review goes to Peer Review Report Acceptance Body (RAB).
Acceptance letter stating next review due date is sent to you (if not, letter detailing follow up action is sent to you).
See Peer Review Flow Chart (in Adobe PDF format).
Your firm's peer review should be completed, and all documents submitted to the WICPA, by the due date. Your firm's due date will appear:
In the letter acknowledging your firm's original enrollment in the program.
In the committee acceptance letter related to your firm's last peer review
On page 1 of the Information Required for Scheduling Reviews form
To make sure your peer review is completed on time, you should start the review two to three months before the due date. You should plan ahead so that the review takes place at a convenient time for your firm. For example, if you have a heavy tax practice and your review due date falls between January and April, you should plan to start the review in September or October to make sure it's completed before your busy season begins.
System Review: The Standards require the review team to review a cross-section of your accounting and auditing practice. Although the process of engagement selection is not subject to definitive criteria, the team captain may select engagements representing 5 to 10 percent of your total accounting and auditing hours. However, the actual percentage may be higher depending on your firm's make-up and its practice. The engagements selected for review ordinarily include:
Engagements in which there is a significant public interest, such as publicly held clients, financial and lending institutions, brokers and dealers in securities, employee benefit plans, and governmental audits
Engagements that are large, complex or high-risk or that are the reviewed firm's initial audits of clients
Engagements in specialized industries, such as not-for-profit organizations
Engagement review: A minimum of two engagements must generally be selected. Therefore, a sole owner performing only nondisclosure compilations will usually have two engagements reviewed.
The team captain or reviewer is responsible for submitting the peer review working papers to the WICPA and for issuing the report and, if applicable, the letter of comments (LOC) to you within 30 days of the exit conference date, or completion date for Engagement and Report reviews, or by your firm's peer review due date, whichever is earlier. You are responsible for sending a copy of the report and letter of comments, along with your letter of response (LOR) to the matters discussed in the letter of comments, to the WICPA within 30 days of the date you received the report and letter of comments or by the due date, whichever is earlier. Although reviewers and firms have their own guidelines for document submission, it is your firm's peer review, and therefore you are ultimately responsible for ensuring that all submissions are made on time.
The results of your review are final when the WICPA Peer Review Committee accepts the report and, if applicable, the letter of comments (LOC) and the letter of response (LOR). This step ensures that a panel of your peers agrees with your review team's conclusions. You should not publicize the results of the review or distribute copies of the report until the committee has advised you that they have accepted the report.
System Reviews: The cost of a System Review for an average firm will vary depending on the size and nature of the firm's accounting and auditing practice.
Engagement and Report Reviews: Based upon the information received, the reviewer will select the types of engagements to be submitted for review. The number of engagements to be submitted for an engagement or report review will vary, depending on the size of the firm and the nature of its practice.
Engagement Review: Ordinarily, the engagements selected on the Engagement Review should adhere to the following guidelines:
One engagement should be selected for each of the following areas of service performed by the firm:
a. Review of historical financial statements
b. Compilation of historical financial statements with disclosures
c. Compilations of historical financial statements that omit substantially all disclosures
d. Attestation.One engagement from each partner of the firm responsible for the issuance of reports listed above. However, ordinarily at least two engagements will be selected for review.
One of every type of engagement that a partner performs does not have to be reviewed as long as, taken as a whole, all types of engagements performed by the firm are covered.
In selecting engagements for review, the reviewer will attempt to include clients operating in different industries and engagements involving financial information as well as those involving historical financial statements.
Report Review: Ordinarily, the engagements selected on a report review should adhere to the following guidelines:
One engagement will be selected from each partner of the firm responsible for the issuance of compiled financial statements that omit substantially all disclosures. Ordinarily, at least two enegagements will be selected for review.
The cost of these types of reviews ordinarily will be based on the size of the practice and the number of owners responsible for the issuance of review and compilation reports.
Annual fee: In addition to the review costs that will be incurred every three years, firms also pay an annual administrative fee to the WICPA to cover the costs of running the program, scheduling the review and evaluating the results of the review.
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