Becoming a Team Captain or Reviewer

Performing peer reviews provides members with a way to “give back to the profession.” To become a team captain on a system review or a review captain on an engagement review, an individual must -

Be a member of the AICPA in good standing, (that is, AICPA membership in active, non-suspended status) licensed to practice as a CPA.
Be currently active in public practice at a supervisory level in the accounting or auditing function of a firm enrolled in the program, as a partner¹ of the firm, or as a manager or person with equivalent supervisory responsibilities. To be considered currently active in the accounting or auditing function, a reviewer should be presently involved in the accounting or auditing practice of a firm supervising one or more of the firm’s accounting or auditing engagements or carrying out a quality control function on the firm’s accounting or auditing engagements. To be a System Review team captain, a reviewer must be a partner. To be a review captain on an Engagement Review, it is not necessary to be a partner.
Be associated with a firm (or all firms if associated with more than one firm) that has received a report with the peer review rating of pass² for its most recent System or Engagement Review that was accepted timely, ordinarily within the last three years and six months³.
Possess current knowledge of professional standards applicable to the kind of practice to be reviewed, including quality control and peer review standards. This includes recent experience in and knowledge about current rules and regulations appropriate to the level of service applicable to the industries of the engagements that the individual will be reviewing.
Have at least five years of recent experience in the practice of public accounting in the accounting or auditing function⁴.
Have provided the administering entity with information that accurately reflects the qualification of the reviewer including recent industry experience, which is updated on a timely basis.
Have completed peer review training that meets the requirements established by the AICPA Peer Review Board.

Additional requirements that individuals must meet to perform peer reviews of firms required to be administered by the National Peer Review Committee (National PRC).

A reviewer ordinarily must currently be with a firm whose most recent review was administered by the National PRC or the Center for Public Accounting Firms’ Peer Review Program. Note: this is not a requirement for a peer reviewer on a review of a firm that elects (but is not required) to have their peer review administered by the National PRC.

For additional information, please refer to AICPA Standards for Performing and Reporting on Peer Reviews and other related guidance.

If you are interested in becoming a peer reviewer or have any questions about peer review, please send an email to BecomeAReviewer@aicpa.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

¹ If the peer reviewer's firm's most recent peer review was an Engagement or Report then the peer reviewer is not eligible to be a System Review Team Captain.

² A peer review report with a rating of pass was previously referred to as an unmodified report (with or without a letter of comments). If a firm's most recent peer review rating was a pass with deficiencies or fail, the firm's members are not eligible to perform peer reviews.

³ If a firm's most recent review was a report review, then the firm's members are not eligible to perform peer reviews.

⁴ For this purpose, recent means having experience within the last five years in the industries and related levels of service for which engagements are reviewed. However, a reviewer should be cautious of those high-risk engagements or industries in which new standards have been issued. For example, in those cases in which new industry standards or practices have occurred in the most recent year, it may be necessary to have current practice experience in that industry in order to have recent experience.