IPO Center › Financial Reporting and Audit
United States · Reporting
Financial Reporting and Audit
The financial statements, audit standards, and oversight that underpin an IPO and public-company reporting.
A section of the IPO Center. The facts on this page follow the official text of the authorities cited below, each linked for verification.
Key facts
What the official sources actually say
Every statement below maps to a primary source listed at the bottom of this page.
Form S-1 incorporates Regulation S-X
The registration statement requires financial statements meeting Regulation S-X, including Rule 3-05 for acquired businesses and Article 11 pro forma information, with smaller-reporting-company alternatives in Rules 8-04 and 8-05.
Auditors must be qualified and independent
Regulation S-X Rule 2-01 is designed to ensure that auditors are qualified and independent of their audit clients both in fact and in appearance.
PCAOB registration is mandatory
Audit firms that prepare or issue audit reports for U.S. public companies, or play a substantial role in those audits, must be registered with the PCAOB, and AS 3101 governs the auditor's report.
Independence rules are specific
SEC auditor-independence requirements address limits on non-audit services, audit-committee pre-approval, audit-partner rotation, and cooling-off periods.
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