Peer review

Definition

The outside inspection a firm doing attest work has to be enrolled in, on a cycle.

Why It Matters

The word is enrolled, not passed. Florida requires a firm practicing public accounting to be enrolled in a peer review program and excepts compilations and reviews from that duty, and Minnesota conditions the renewal of a firm permit on undergoing a review no more often than once every three years. Neither report is public. Florida makes a review committee's records privileged against discovery, subpoena and even a state accountancy board proceeding, and Minnesota requires the process be run so that neither the board nor any third party can reach the documents. There is nothing here for a buyer to look up: ask the seller for the last report and the date the next one falls due, and read the refusal as the finding. What a change of ownership threatens is the permit itself. Minnesota says a firm knocked out of compliance by a change in owners has to cure it or face suspension or revocation, and both states want the new names filed inside a month.