The ups and downs in the economy during the novel coronavirus pandemic are causing audit committees at public companies to focus on the disclosures in their financial statements and SEC filings about the current and potential impacts of COVID-19, according to a new report from KPMG.
The report, Challenges Presented by COVID-19, found that companies are reassessing, enhancing or establishing new internal controls due to pandemic-related disruptions to their business operations. Meanwhile internal auditors are adjusting their audit plans and activities.
David currently leads Xero's US Enterprise Accounts team, where he and the team of innovators help to inspire the country's top 300 largest accounting firms along their journeys in modern cloud accounting, with a focus on consulting those firms on where they are today and how they achieve their cloud transformational journeys.
In the first eighteen years of his career, David Emmerman was a co-managing partner in the firm Emmerman, Boyle & Associates, LLC and there showcased his talent for working with small business clients and his team to develop a best in class accounting experience. His passion for technology and extensive involvement with cloud-based solutions led him to a role with Xero as a National Ambassador, where he spent his time leveraging his background to educate some of the largest accounting firms on practice management and cloud adoption topics.
Meredith has almost four decades of industry operations and technology experience spanning all lines of business and the entire insurance value chain. During her 33 years at Liberty Mutual, she was responsible for numerous digital, product, and organizational transformations. Meredith was most recently the industry go-to-market strategist at Ushur, an AI SaaS startup, driving growth and brand awareness across both the P&C and LA&H segments.
As part of the Advisory and Research team at ReSource Pro, Meredith works directly with carrier advisory clients, engages in research efforts, and supports carrier consulting projects.
Forecasting has become more challenging, including developing assumptions for the recoverability of goodwill and nonfinancial assets, as well as the realizability of deferred tax assets, making going-concern determinations and figuring other asset impairments more difficult, according to the report.
Nevertheless, audit committees are adapting to the new environment, as their companies allow more flexibility for remote work. Among the biggest areas of concern cited by the 114 U.S. audit committee members polled by the KPMG Audit Committee Institute are disclosures about the current and potential effects of COVID-19 (79 percent), preparation of forward-looking cash flow estimates (48 percent), and impairment of nonfinancial assets such as goodwill and other intangible assets (43 percent).
Audit committee members indicated that the remote work environment accelerated by COVID-19 has so far had little impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of their interactions with the management team and auditors.
Companies are reassessing their internal controls in response to COVID-19-related disruptions to their business operations. The most commonly cited disruptions included return-to-work plans (73 percent), IT system access and authentication for remote workers (69 percent) and cybersecurity (66 percent).
Audit committee members expect some environmental, social and governance issues to get much more attention from boards as a result of COVID-19 and recent protests against systemic racism. Survey respondents cited employee health, safety and well-being (85 percent), diversity within the company including the boardroom (53 percent) and corporate reputation (39 percent) as areas of greater focus for boards.
The pandemic has also caused many audit committees to reassess the scope of their workload agendas in addition to their risk oversight responsibilities. Most audit committee members who responded to the survey cited oversight responsibilities for a variety of COVID-related risks, including financial risks (83 percent), legal and regulatory compliance (70 percent), cybersecurity (62 percent) and data privacy (42 percent).
