2022/2021 BDO Audit Quality Report

Preserving Trust Through Agility and Innovation

Download the Full Report

As we continue to navigate significant change and disruption, audit quality remains a top priority. BDO USA is committed to preserving trust through agility and innovation while providing forward-thinking and timely insight through the delivery of our audits. We invite you to join us on this journey and learn more about our people, processes, innovations and quality management systems that support the seamless execution of client audits in compliance with professional standards while upholding stakeholder trust.

BDO Audit Quality Highlights

Our Audit Practice

Graphic of the Approach to Audit Quality

Graphic of the Average Retention Rates

Graphic of the Technical and Subject Matter Specialist Support

Graphic of the Innovation, Capacity and Audit Execution

Graphic of Monitoring Audit Quality

Graphic of the Client-Facing Staffing Leverage Ratios

“We have taken a hard look at what has been successful, what has been partly successful and, frankly, what has not achieved our desired outcome. Our focused strategy is designed to provide swift and measurable progress toward these audit quality objectives.”


Bill Eisig, National Assurance Managing Partner and Practice Leader, BDO USA, LLP

Audit Quality Centric

Since 2017, we have been reviewing and investing significantly in our firm’s system of quality management, technology to support engagement execution and the technical infrastructure of the firm. Through this process we have identified key priorities that align the Assurance practice structure, resources and activities to deliver the highest level of quality in our audits.

Extending our accountability model and further aligning our Professional Practice group with our Assurance operations.

Ongoing recruitment of experienced professionals with proven success in audit engagement execution.

Deploying additional resources at the engagement level to improve the effectiveness of our audit procedures.

Relentlessly executing on our risk assessment, design of audit procedures and supervision and review.

Alignment of Audit Quality in our Firm Strategy

First and foremost, audit quality is driven by skilled people, doing evaluative, insightful and impactful work. Our Assurance leaders are focused on employing our audit strategy in alignment with BDO’s corporate goals and supported by our core purpose of helping people thrive every day. This includes enhancing our inclusive culture, executing properly sequenced and insight-driven audits and addressing capacity requirements.

“Curiosity and good questions are improved by diversity of backgrounds, thinking and approaches to problems. Inclusion of all voices and different points of view strengthens the way we address challenges that arise in performing effective financial statement audits.”

Phillip Austin, Professional Practice and Audit Leader and Co-Chair for Women’s Inclusion, BDO USA, LLP

Enhancements to Audit Execution

We view our audit process through a client and stakeholder lens, recognizing the need to perform the highest quality, compliant engagements to deliver timely insights. This is further underscored by our adherence to performing the right tasks, by the right people, at the right time. Execution of our audits has been facilitated by a variety of actions:

Assurance Innovation and Technology Integration

To meet the rapid pace of business acceleration where information is essential, BDO is concentrating innovation efforts on ways for our professionals to work smarter

Collaboration & Accountability

Technologies that ensure mutual accountability between BDO and our clients.

Items that Matter Most

Advanced data analytics identify those items of interest that merit the most attention.

Automation & Integration

Support our professionals with bots, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), tools and integrations to enable rapid decision-making.

BDO Advantage: Our Innovative Audit Technology Platform

Our Approach to Risk Assessment

Risk assessment includes a thorough understanding of the client entity that will lead to the identification and assessment of risks of material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, in the financial statements and is fundamental to performing an effective audit under our BDO Audit Approach.

“We have focused on updating our methodology to provide appropriate guidelines for teams to better execute a targeted and effective risk-based audit approach, while continuing to meet regulatory and standard requirements. The framework allows engagement teams to focus their efforts, auditing smarter while maintaining the highest quality.” 

Patricia Bottomly, Audit Methodology and Consultations Leader, BDO USA, LLP

Download the Full Report

The 2022/2021 BDO Audit Quality Report details the commitments our firm is making to achieve the highest audit quality and compliance with auditing standards. The report provides further clarity of purpose and examples of audit quality in action. In this report discover how:

  • Our leadership and governance structure center around quality
  • We align our strategy and fit with the clients we serve
  • Enhancements we’ve made support quality in our audit execution
  • We define and perform our role in ensuring the integrity of capital markets

Get more details and key metrics in the complete 2022/2021 BDO Audit Quality Report.