Ac’sense is a program designed to assist those charged with governance (including audit committees, boards of directors and financial executives) in keeping up-to-date on the latest corporate governance and financial reporting developments. The program is multi-faceted and consists of complimentary CPE-worthy webinars and self-study courses covering both broad and specific topics of interest; publications; and links to various BDO and external resources.

Within this publication, we provide answers to certain frequently asked questions (FAQs) centering on the WHYs, WHOs, WHATs, WHENs and HOWs of audit committees. More specifically, these FAQs summarize the common functions and responsibilities of audit committees and seek to provide insights and perspective as to how to optimize audit committee effectiveness. We focus on some of the more challenging aspects facing audit committees. To that end, in addition to our commentary, we have included links and references to other relevant BDO practice aids and tools as well as certain valuable external resources.