Public Company Audit
Your financial statements are the record on which shareholders, analysts, regulators, and your own board rely. The audit is what gives that record its credibility. A restatement, a material weakness, or a missed filing deadline reaches well beyond the finance function to the cost of capital and the confidence of the people who govern your company. The work must be right and defensible.
Meanwhile, standards continue to evolve, scrutiny of judgments has intensified, and audit fees face the same review as every other G&A line. For a growing number of companies, the timing is not even their own: firm exits and consolidation have sent registrants searching for a new independent registered public accounting firm on someone else’s schedule.
BPM’s PCAOB-registered SEC audit practice is led by partners who stay close to the work, with fees built around the scope your company requires.
Where Are You in the Audit Relationship?
The right time to engage an independent registered public accounting firm usually tracks to a stage in your company’s reporting life, or to an event outside your control.
CONNECT WITH AN AUDIT PROFESSIONAL
Ahead of an IPO, direct listing, or de-SPAC transaction, you need SEC-compliant audited financials, SOX controls documentation, and technical accounting positions built to withstand scrutiny before the registration statement is filed. Your auditor will also be expected to deliver comfort letters and consents on the underwriters’ timeline.
The work shifts to a recurring cycle of Forms 10-Q and 10-K, and building out internal controls ahead of auditor attestation on a fixed calendar. You need a team structured for that cadence, with the SEC reporting experience to keep every cycle on schedule.
Once a company becomes an accelerated or large accelerated filer and no longer qualifies as an emerging growth company, Section 404(b) requires auditor attestation on internal control over financial reporting. This is often when a company learns whether its audit firm can support an integrated audit.
Acquisitions, new financings, new revenue arrangements, and new accounting standards add complexity that a generic audit scope was not built to absorb. This is when companies typically reassess whether their engagement team has the knowledge, experience and capacity to keep pace.
When an audit firm leaves the SEC practice, merges, or resigns, the audit committee must appoint a successor, file a Form 8-K, and keep the filing calendar intact, often with little notice. A successor that can onboard quickly and is committed to public company work matters most here.
A board policy of periodically tendering the audit, or simply good governance, can prompt a competing proposal at any time. A market test does not require dissatisfaction, only a documented basis for confidence in the current arrangement.
How BPM Meets You There
BPM’s SEC practice is registered with the PCAOB and audits public companies across technology, life sciences, manufacturing, consumer business, financial services, and additional regulated sectors. Our practice is structured so partners stay directly involved in the judgments that matter most on each engagement.
Many of our SEC partners have spent decades serving registrants, with several bringing more than 25 years to capital markets transactions, SOX readiness and remediation, and complex revenue and lease accounting. Our SEC audit practice is subject to regular PCAOB inspections.
What differs is who shows up. The partner and senior members of the engagement team are the ones in your conference room and reviewing the judgments that carry the most exposure. When independence rules require lead partner rotation, we bring the incoming partner in early to preserve continuity through the transition.
Fees follow the same principle. We build the plan around your risk profile, control environment, and reporting calendar, and discuss fees openly at the outset, with any changes tied to changes in scope. The result is an audit priced to the work and staffed appropriately to complete it efficiently, which can mean fewer hours required from your finance team.
What Working with Us Looks Like
- A partner-led team focused on transparency and a “no surprises” approach throughout the audit
- A preliminary request list early, so your team can provide feedback and assemble support before fieldwork
- Candid, timely communication with your audit committee, including required communications and direct access to the engagement partner throughout the year
- Early discussion of the accounting judgments that draw the most scrutiny
- Clear timelines tied to your filing deadlines
- Proposals built to support a documented auditor selection process
Our Public Company Audit Services
- Financial statement audits to support required interim and annual (10-Q and 10-K) filings
- Integrated audits, including attestation on internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b)
- Audits supporting IPOs and registration statements, including Forms S-1, S-3, and S-4
- Comfort letters and consents
- Audits of employee benefit plans filed on Form 11-K
- Successor auditor transitions following a firm exit, merger, or resignation
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Looking for a team who understands where you’re headed and how to help you get there? Whether you’re building something new, managing growth or preserving success, let’s talk.