2023 Employee Benefit Plans: Audit and Accounting Guide

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Your roadmap to EBP audit success

Whether you're a new or seasoned EBP auditor, you want your name to be on work you can be proud of.

This guide is your ideal roadmap to a quality audit, giving you:

• Authoritative guidance
• Practical tips
• Illustrative examples

These elements will help you at each stage of the audit.

Remain in line with rules and regulations

This guide applies to the financial statements and audits of employee benefit plans that are subject to the financial reporting requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), including:

• Defined contribution retirement plans
• Defined benefit pension plans
• Health and welfare benefit plans

Further, this guide contains example auditing procedures and information regarding statutory rules and regulations applicable to employee benefit plans and illustrations of plan financial statements and auditors' reports.

The Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration strongly encourages the use of this guide in meeting the requirements contained in ERISA Section 103 that a plan have an audit conducted in accordance with GAAS.

Stay up to date on the latest standards

In updating this guide, recent standards and guidance were considered, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 142, Audit Evidence
• SAS No. 143, Accounting Estimates and Related Disclosures
• SAS No. 144, Amendments to AU-C Sections 501, 540, and 620 Related to the Use of Specialists and the Use of Pricing Information Obtained From External Information Sources
• SAS No. 145, Understanding the Entity and Its Environment and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement
• SAS No. 147, Inquiries of the Predecessor Auditor Regarding Fraud and Noncompliance with Laws and Regulations
• The Secure 2.0 Act of 2022

Key Topics

• SAS No. 136, as amended and codified in AU-C Section 703
• Single employer, multiple employer, and multiemployer employee benefit plans subject to ERISA (ERISA plans)
• Performance requirements for an audit of ERISA plan financial statements
• Select recent developments in standards affecting EBP auditing and accounting
• FASB Accounting Standards Codification® (ASC) requirements
• Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)
• Generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS)