AICPA Board Approves Peer Review Standards Update

The AICPA Peer Review Board (PRB) voted Monday to approve a standards update designed to better align peer review standards with new quality management (QM) standards and to clarify and improve existing technical guidance.

Peer Review Standards Update (PRSU) no. 2, Review of a firm’s quality management system and omnibus technical improvementsit is expected to be published later this month.

Omnibus technical improvements in PRSU no. 2 are effective for peer reviews beginning on or after December 1. The revisions related to QM from PRSU no. 2 are effective for peer reviews with years ending on or after December 31, 2025.

Firms have until December 15, 2025 to establish a QM system in accordance with AICPA standards.

The amendments issued in PRSU no. 2 include:

• Peer review terminology and form revisions as needed to comply with new QM standards.
• The requirements and related applications and other explanatory material paragraphs have been adapted, where appropriate, to address the risk-based considerations arising from the requirements of the QM standards.
• Technical changes designed to meet current program needs by clarifying or expanding existing requirements and application and other explanatory materials have been made to continue the PRB’s effort to maintain standards that are easy to read, understand, and apply.
• Minor bug fixes.

A exposure project from PRSU no. 2 it was approved for release last November. The final update took into account stakeholder feedback.

During PRB’s open session on Monday, the board also determined that a retiring partner is allowed to continue serving as a peer review team member for a period of 36 months.

— To comment on this article or suggest an idea for another article, contact Bryan Strickland at [email protected].