Audit Firm Resources (overview)
Published: 23 February 2024
3 minute read
As an improvement regulator by promoting continuous improvement in audit firms, we have set up a resource hub for PIE audit firms to get easier access to FRC audit-related publications.
Thematic reviews
To help promote continuous improvement in audit firms, we publish anonymous thematic reviews by comparing and contrasting between firms on a specific area or aspect of the audit or firm-wide procedures to identify good practice and improvement areas.
What Makes a Good… series
We have also published ‘What Makes a Good Audit’ and ‘What Makes a Good Smaller PIE Audit Firm’, setting out our expectations of the key elements that make up a good audit, and of an audit firm that plans to enter the PIE audit market or has a small PIE audit portfolio in performing high-quality audits.
| Name | What Makes a Good Audit |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 15 November 2021 |
| Type | Report |
| Format | PDF, 3.0 MB |
| Name | What Makes a Good Smaller PIE Audit Firm |
| Publication date | 25 May 2023 |
| Type | Report |
| Format | PDF, 3.2 MB |
Culture and conduct
The right culture at audit firms drives the desirable behaviours and mindsets that are necessary for delivering high-quality audits.
We undertake review work to assess and monitor various aspects of audit culture at the firms, including ethical conduct matters, with a specific focus on the behaviours and mindset that correlate to high-quality audit.
| Name | What Makes a Good Environment for Speak-Up and Internal Challenge |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 7 May 2024 |
| Type | Report |
| Notes | A good environment for effective challenge and speaking up is imperative in facilitating audit quality and high standards of ethical conduct within audit firms. Having a good speak-up culture underpins the purpose of serving the public interest and maintaining trust in the profession by supporting wider ethical behaviour, whilst also promoting audit quality. This publication sets out the key elements of a good speak-up workplace culture and highlights considerations and good practice for each of these elements. |
| Format | PDF, 406.9 KB |
| Name | What Makes a Good Environment for Auditor Scepticism and Challenge |
| Publication date | 23 November 2022 |
| Type | Report |
| Notes | The FRC conducted a thematic review setting out the key attributes of a high-quality audit environment that enable professional scepticism and challenge in an audit. This paper includes good practice identified from our supervisory work. |
| Format | PDF, 1.2 MB |
| Name | Review of What Makes a Good Environment for Auditor Scepticism and Challenge by Karthik Ramanna |
| Publication date | 23 November 2022 |
| Notes | A commentary on FRC’s thematic review on auditor scepticism and challenge by Karthik Ramanna, a professor of business and public policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. |
| Format | PDF, 192.6 KB |
| Name | Audit Firm Culture Report |
| Publication date | 21 November 2022 |
| Type | Report |
| Notes | The FRC commissioned independent research agency BritainThinks to conduct research on audit firm culture to support its thematic review on auditor scepticism and challenge. |
| Format | PDF, 860.6 KB |
| Name | Culture Conference - Collection of Perspectives |
| Publication date | 2 December 2021 |
| Type | Report |
| Notes | The FRC held a virtual conference on audit firm culture in June 2021. This Collection of Perspectives collates a number of essays written by academics, audit firms, directors, regulators and culture experts, on the themes discussed at the conference. |
| Format | PDF, 2.3 MB |
Operational resilience
Operational resilience is fundamental to the ability of an audit firm to withstand risks and threats to its viability and, therefore its ability to deliver audits.
We assess and monitor various aspects of firms’ operating models, risk management frameworks, crisis and contingency planning, liquidity and access to credit and adequacy of the firms’ professional indemnity insurance coverage.
| Name | Recovery and Resolution Planning - Guidance and Benchmarking for Audit Firms |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 29 April 2024 |
| Type | Guidance |
| Notes | The FRC has updated its good practice guidance in relation to audit firm recovery and resolution planning. |
| Format | PDF, 141.5 KB |
| Name | FRC Offshore delivery centres - Good practice suggestions |
| Publication date | 1 May 2024 |
| Type | Guidance |
| Notes | The FRC has published some good practice guidance in relation to the use of Offshore Delivery Centres in the delivery of UK audits. |
| Format | PDF, 1.9 MB |
Letters to audit firms
As part of our supervisory activities we write to the Chief Executives and/or Heads of Audit at the Tier 1 audit firms on topical matters. These letters can serve a number of purposes, including:
- To highlight areas of audit quality concern on which we want the firms to take immediate action.
- To ask questions regarding matters or themes that have come to our attention at one or more firms, that we wish to explore with other firms.
- To seek assurances from firms in relation to quickly emerging matters that could present a risk to audit quality, or the resilience of firms and/or the audit market.
- To provide updates on progress made in areas we have raised with firms in the past.
These letters may be of interest to all audit firms, both those that audit public interest entities (PIEs) and non-PIEs, and other stakeholders including other regulators and so we publish the letters on our website.
| Name | Exam cheating (December 2022) |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 21 December 2022 |
| Type | Letter |
| Format | PDF, 175.0 KB |
| Name | Risk of climate change |
| Publication date | 15 December 2022 |
| Type | Letter |
| Format | PDF, 274.3 KB |
| Name | Exams cheating (July 2022) |
| Publication date | 15 July 2022 |
| Type | Letter |
| Format | PDF, 139.2 KB |
| Name | Challenge of Management |
| Publication date | 8 December 2020 |
| Type | Letter |
| Format | PDF, 312.2 KB |
| Name | Going Concern (November 2020) |
| Publication date | 24 November 2020 |
| Type | Letter |
| Format | PDF, 193.9 KB |
| Name | Going Concern (June 2020) |
| Publication date | 2 July 2020 |
| Type | Letter |
| Format | PDF, 186.5 KB |
| Name | Achieving high quality audits |
| Publication date | 18 December 2019 |
| Type | Letter |
| Format | PDF, 180.1 KB |
Scalebox
We have launched the Scalebox to assist firms develop and maintain audit quality as they start out in the PIE audit market and as they grow.