US Investors Looking for Clearer, More Detailed Audit Reports

International auditors tend to provide investors with more detailed reporting than their US counterparts, according to a review of now three-year-old rules that aimed to shed more light on the most complex aspects of financial statement reviews.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released its second assessment Wednesday of the adoption of extended annual reports that include critical audit matters, or CAMs. Those disclosures describe the most challenging accounts or disclosures for a company and how auditors addressed them in their work.

Auditors first began discussing how they navigated goodwill impairments and income tax expenses in 2019 ...