Mergers and acquisitions, growing documentation requests from external auditors and new accounting standards were among the factors contributing to higher fees.
M&A contributed to higher audit fees for nearly three-fourths of the 80 public companies that reported fee increases for their 2016 audits. For instance, one chief accounting officer at a healthcare provider cited acquisition-related valuation services and purchase accounting reviews as major factors for higher audit fees.
The new revenue standard has had a limited effect on audit fees so far, but 68 percent of respondents expect fees to increase for audits of their 2017 results and in upcoming PCAOB inspections.
Overall, 2,296 registrants (36 percent) reported an audit fee decrease, while 2,120 registrants (33 percent) reported an increase in their audit fees.
Review the report on FEI's website.