Audit Quality in the Post-SOX Audit Environment: What Your Auditing Students Must Know about the PCAOB Inspection Process

SUMMARY: At the American Accounting Association’s (AAA) Auditing Section Midyear Meeting in January 2007, the Education Committee organized a panel to discuss the educational issues that have surfaced as a result of the PCAOB inspection process. The discussion focused on changes that have occurred in the audit environment, particularly concerning audit documentation and the audit process, as a result of the PCAOB auditing standards and feedback to the firms from the PCAOB inspection process. The goal was to provide a forum for panelists to interact with educators, to develop suggestions to help prepare students for their careers in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley auditing environment. In this paper, we first provide an overview of the PCAOB inspection process and then provide a report on the actual panel discussion, which included a spirited question-and-answer session with the audience. We also incorporate the results of follow-up interviews with the three panelists that occurred in April 2008. Finally, we provi...