A question some ponder is whether all audit reports will include a discussion of critical audit matters, or CAMs. The answer is “yes” if you consider the 11 audit reports issued by the Big 4 on and after August 1 for large accelerated filers with June 30, 2019 year ends to be a representative sample.  All included one or more CAMs.

For those keeping track, today I came across two more audit reports with CAMs which you can find here and here. In this blog, I linked to nine audit reports with CAMs.

It doesn’t have to be that way though. There are a number of audit reports from smaller accounting firms on smaller issuers which indicate no CAMs were identified. Some may think this will change when the Big 4 start issuing reports on those beneath the large accelerated filer tier. That may be the case, but large accelerated filers by their nature seem to have complex accounting, which may not be true for smaller issuers and a finding of no CAMs may be appropriate.