Here's someting auditors might not like: more work!
In an interview with the Journal of Accountancy, Deloitte & Touche CEO and jargon generator Joe Ucuzoglu suggested that stuff like press releases, presentations, non-GAAP metrics, anything that companies throw in front of investors to gawk at, really, could be fair game for auditors:
“Those metrics are becoming a bigger and bigger percentage of the mix of information that investors are relying upon,” Ucuzoglu said in a telephone interview. “So there is potentially an appetite for auditors to become involved in such a way that we can provide assurance that those numbers that are being relied upon by the markets and are moving stock prices have been, in fact, subject to some form of audit testing.”
On the one hand, it's strange that auditors would seek out more things to audit because LIABILITY frigthens them to death, but, since Joe U. has made it known that he has big plans for the auditing world, he sounds determined to raise the profile of auditors again:
“It’s going to be critically important for the profession to remain at the heart of attesting to the information that’s most important to the markets, and we must have an openness to gravitating our services into those areas,” Ucuzoglu said.
So, who out there wants to audit more things? What if the machines help?
[JofA]
