Following Through on the Audit Committee Agenda for 2019: Financial Reporting

The overarching financial reporting challenge that public companies have been dealing with recently is adapting to changed accounting rules — revenue recognition, lease accounting, Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) and insurance contracts — and efforts by the Public Company Audit Oversight Board (PCAOB) to ensure that external auditors are being diligent in verifying compliance.

This article looks back at the implementation of revenue recognition, assesses how things are going with the adoption of the new lease accounting standard, and looks forward toward preparations for engagement with external auditors on the identification of ‘‘critical audit matters.’’