Peer Review Information

Enrollment Information and Forms
The Peer Review Process
Administrative Fees
Instructions to Firms
Letters of Response
Peer Review Brochure

Pay your annual administrative fee here!

Enrollment Information and Forms | Top

Does your firm need to enroll in a peer review program? If your firm is performing accounting and auditing engagements that fit the definition below, then the firm must enroll.

Accounting and auditing engagements for the purposes of peer review are defined as all engagements covered by Statements on Auditing Standards (SASs); Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARS); Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAEs); and the Government Auditing Standards (the Yellow Book) issued by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO).

If your firm has an owner/partner who is an AICPA member, please fill out the AICPA Peer Review Program Enrollment Form. If your firm does not have any owners/partners who are AICPA members, but the firm has employees who are members of the VSCPA, please fill out the VSCPA Peer Review Program Enrollment Form (PDF).

If your firm does not have any AICPA or VSCPA members and you would like information on the VSCPA Peer Review Program, please click here. (State Board of Accountancy Firms)

The Peer Review Process | Top

Enrollment — After a firm's enrollment form has been received, a due date for the firm's initial review is assigned. Generally, the due date for the firm's first review is set about 18 months after program enrollment.

Scheduling — Approximately 6-9 months before a firm's review due date, the VSCPA will send the firm a scheduling packet that must be completed and returned to the VSCPA in order for the review to be scheduled. It is the firm's responsibility to choose its own reviewer. A list of qualified reviewers will be available on the VSCPA Web site. The review should not commence until the firm has received notification from the VSCPA that the reviewer has been approved to perform the review.

After the review — Once the review has been completed, the firm is responsible for sending in a copy of the review report, any letter of comments (LOC) issued by the reviewer and the firm's letter of response (LOR) to those comments. Firms must submit these materials to the VSCPA within 30 days of the date the reviewer issues the report.

Administrative and technical reviews — These ensure that all the required documents from the reviewer and the firm are received and complete. The technical reviewers determine whether the review has been conducted in accordance with governing standards, and whether the firm has responded to any findings in an appropriate manner.

Committee process — Once all of the review documents have been through the administrative and technical review process they are presented to the Peer Review Committee for consideration of acceptance. After the Committee meets and accepts a review, firms should receive the review acceptance letter from the VSCPA within 10 days. However, some firms may be required to perform certain corrective follow-up actions before the review can be closed. Generally, except in the case where extensions have been granted, a firm's next review due date is set three years later.

All peer review documents and results are confidential. It is the firm's decision whether or not to publicize or release their peer review results. However, firms should remember that the results of a peer review should not be published until after the VSCPA Peer Review Committee has accepted it.

Administrative Fees | Top

Pay your annual administrative fee here!

The VSCPA charges an annual administrative fee to each firm to cover the costs of program administration. These amounts have been designed to be sensitive to firm size. The 2008 fees are as follows for firms with AICPA and/or VSCPA members:

Sole practitioners — $116 per year
Firms with 2-5 professionals — $212 per year
Firms with 6-10 professionals — $308 per year
Firms with 11+ professionals — $404 per year
Inactive firms — $15

Please note: Due to a shift in the VSCPA billing cycle from a calendar year to the VSCPA fiscal year, firms may be charged a prorated fee to cover the period of January to April 2008 in addition to the amounts listed above.

The term "professional" refers to all personnel including leased and per diem employees who devote at least 25 percent of their time to performing audits, reviews, compilations or other attest engagements, or those professionals who have partner/manager level responsibility for the overall supervision or review of such engagements.

This is a separate fee from what a reviewer will charge for his or her services.

Types of Reviews | Top

System Review
This type of review is required for firms that perform audits, other engagements under the SASs, engagements under the Government Auditing Standards (Yellow Book) or examinations of prospective financial statements under the SSAEs.

Click here for a description of a system review.

Engagement Review
This type of review is for firms that are not required to have a system review and are not eligible for a report review. Firms that perform reviews, compilations or other engagements under the SSAEs will have an engagement review.

Click here for a description of an engagement review.

Report Review
This type of review is available to firms that only perform compilations that omit substantially all disclosures. Firms that perform compilations of financial statements where "Selected Information — Substantially all Disclosures Required are Not Included" are not eligible to have this type of review.

Click here for a description of a report review.

Instructions to Firms | Top

The following instructions are from the AICPA Peer Review Program Manual.

• Instructions to firms having a system review.
• Instructions to firms having an engagement review.
• Instructions to firms having a report review.

Letters of Response | Top

A firm is required to write a letter of response if the reviewer issued a letter of comments on a system or engagement review. The following are samples of letter of responses.

• Sample letter of response (LOR) for a system review.
• Sample letter of response (LOR) for an engagement review.

* No letter of response is required for a report review. For more information about the peer review process, please visit the AICPA Web site.