Choosing a Peer Reviewer   What is the value of peer review to my firm? When your firm participates in the AICPA Peer Review Program, you will derive a number of benefits including: • Strengthened quality control • Improved processes • Better understanding of recent professional pronouncement and an awareness of those under consideration • Demonstrable evidence of your firm’s quality • Reduction in recurring issues • Awareness of deficiencies needing correction • Indication of your firm’s commitment to quality • Learning best practices from your reviewer’s experience working with other firms • Benchmark information to compare your firm against similar firms What criteria should I use when selecting our firm’s peer reviewer? When selecting your firm’s peer reviewer, you will want to consider the level of audit experience and expertise of the peer reviewer or review team members based on their: • Years of auditing • Number and type of audit engagements they’ve managed • The industries they’ve audited • The types of audits they’ve conducted • Working knowledge of compilations, reviews and SSARS engagements You also want to evaluate your peer reviewer based on their cultural fit with you and your firm.  You want to be able to like and trust your reviewer and believe that you can build a long-term relationship with the team.  With those criteria in mind, why would I choose Rotz & Stonesifer, PC, to conduct my firm’s peer review? • Our peer review captain has more than 35 years of experience providing audit, review, and compilation services to national, statewide, regional, and local non-profit organizations, governmental entities, closely held corporations and partnerships.  Examples of clients have included non-profit religious, health education and support organizations, libraries, fire associations, municipalities, pensions, agricultural organizations, financial institutions, contractors, manufacturers, wholesale and industrial distributors, retail merchants, professional firms, and trucking companies • Our audit staff includes professionals who have significant audit experience with non-profit entities, governmental entities, and who have expertise with A-133 Single Audits • We are a member of the AICPA Audit Quality Centers for governmental and employee benefit plan audits • We recently received a top peer review rating of “pass” and, in prior years, have received unqualified (clean opinion) reports on all our peer reviews • Founded in 1986, our Firm has grown to 4 partners, 22 professionals and a staff of 37 Why should we pay your standard rate for these services?  Given the depth of expertise required to conduct an efficient, productive, and quality-enhancing peer review, we do not discount our rates for our peer reviewers.  We understand the market shortage for talented auditors, and we provide our best auditors to deliver peer review services to your firm. What types of peer review services are offered by Rotz & Stonesifer, PC? There are three types of peer reviews: system reviews, engagement reviews, and report reviews.  Firms may also request us to inspect their quality control operations. • System Reviews… A system review is a study and appraisal of the quality control system in your firm’s performance of accounting and auditing work. The quality control system represents the policies and procedures that your firm has designed and is expected to follow.  Our objective as your peer reviewer is to determine whether your system is designed to ensure compliance with professional standards and whether your firm is following the system appropriately.  Firms subject to system reviews are those that perform engagements under Statements on Auditing Standards (SASs), Government Auditing Standards (Yellow Book), or examinations of prospective financial statements under the Statements for Attestation Engagements (SSAEs). • Engagement Reviews… In an engagement review, we evaluate a firm’s financial statements and documentation (or the accountant's report on the accounting, review, and attestation engagements the firm submits for review) for conformity with AICPA professional standards.  Unlike in a system review, the peer reviewer does not express an opinion on the firm's compliance with its own quality control policies and procedures or compliance with AICPA quality control standards. An engagement review is for firms that are not required to have a system review and that are not eligible to have a report review.  Firms that perform only compilations and reviews under Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARS) and/or services under the SSAEs not included in the system reviews may also elect to have engagement reviews. • Report Reviews…  A report review enables the reviewed firm to enhance the overall quality of its compilation engagements that omit substantially all disclosures.  A report review does not provide the peer reviewer with a basis for expressing an opinion on the firm's system of quality control for its accounting and auditing practice.  Instead, a report review enables the reviewer to provide comments and make recommendations as to whether the submitted financial statements and related accountant's reports appear to conform with the requirements of professional standards. Firms that perform only compilation engagements under SSARS where the firm has compiled financial statements that omit substantially all disclosures are subject to report reviews.  Firms required to have a report review may also elect to have a system or engagement review. •    Inspections… Firms may also request our assistance in identifying problems with their systems of quality control.   Peer_Review.PDF AICPA Peer Review Certificate of Recognition