The SEC has approved the PCAOB’s new quality control (QC) standard and related amendments to its standards, rules and forms.  

QC 1000, A Firm’s System of Quality Control, establishes an integrated, risk-based quality control standard that will require all registered public accounting firms to identify specific risks to their practice and design a quality control system that includes appropriate responses to guard against those risks. Registered firms that perform engagements under PCAOB standards will be required to implement and operate the QC system. The new quality control standard focuses on an audit firm’s accountability and continuous improvement of its audit practice and will require an annual evaluation of the firm’s QC system and related reporting to the PCAOB, certified by key firm personnel. In addition, firms that annually issue audit reports for more than 100 issuers will be required to establish an external quality control function (EQCF) composed of one or more persons who can exercise independent judgment related to the firm’s QC system. 

Current PCAOB quality control standards were developed almost 30 years ago by the AICPA before the accounting fraud scandals of the early 2000s that led to the creation of the PCAOB pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. QC 1000 addresses changes in the audit practice environment since that time and leverages what the PCAOB has learned through two decades of experience in its inspections and enforcement programs, including, for example, the increasing participation of other firms and other outside resources in firm engagements, the role of firm networks and the evolving use of technology. 

QC 1000 and the related amendments to other PCAOB standards, rules, and forms will take effect on Dec. 15, 2025.