Committed to Quality
Stairs
Our approach to delivering quality services across all our operations and network.
Focus on quality…
The quality of the work we do is a top priority for PwC and quite rightly a baseline expectation from all our stakeholders. But what do we mean by quality? Historically, it meant compliance and meeting the standards set before us. However, that's a given. It’s much more than just complying with policies and regulations. With stakeholder expectations continuing to rise and evolve, a relentless focus on quality has never been more important. At PwC, we strive to consistently meet the expectations of our stakeholders and comply with all applicable standards and policies.
We are building a culture across a network of 284,000 people - including 5,400 in South Africa - that emphasises that quality is the responsibility of everyone at PwC. This begins with tone at the top and creating an environment of quality and high performance. Over the last year, we have been focused on fostering the right tone at the top, while at the same time seeking to drive a quality mindset that extends beyond compliance.
... right across all our businesses
Each member firm is required to have in place a system of quality management (SoQM); to annually complete a quality management system performance assessment; and to communicate the results of these assessments to network leadership. These results are then discussed in detail with the leadership of each member firm and if they are not at the level expected, a remediation plan is agreed with local leadership taking personal responsibility for its successful implementation. During FY20, we continued to make driving quality improvement a key priority with specific actions agreed, for example improving the consistency of usage of quality indicators.
It is very important that we are transparent about both the efforts that we are making to enhance quality, and also the results and the impact that these efforts are having.
We welcome the increased public focus on audit quality, and the dialogue about how auditors, preparers and investors can work collaboratively to increase the confidence in financial reporting. We have actively contributed to this debate with audit committees, boards and regulators worldwide and we continue to publish our overall network internal inspection results for audit engagements. We are eager to keep engaging with others to share, listen and learn – while continuing to invest in enhancing the quality of every audit we undertake.
The quality of our work across the full range of our services, including Tax and Advisory, is equally important and it has been a key focus for us, both in terms of how best to test, measure and enhance quality, but also prioritising the levels of investment we need to make to achieve expected levels of quality.
At PwC, our Tax & Legal Services are underpinned by our PwC purpose and values and a focus on the principles contained within our PwC Global Tax Code of Conduct. As of 30 June 2020, Tax Policy Panels had been established in 32 territories (2019: 31), including Africa. A Tax Policy Panel comprises senior partners and subject matter experts who determine whether a potential tax project or advice position fits with our brand values and our commitments in the Global Tax Code of Conduct.
Ensuring we deliver the outcomes demanded by clients in a way that gives them the right experience is an important consideration for our Advisory teams. We are proactive in thinking about new challenges to the quality of our delivery; for example as we increasingly use and deploy world-class technologies and automations, a key focus has been on identifying, managing and mitigating the risk associated with technology-enabled transformation. We regularly perform ‘in flight’ reviews of the most significant projects to check on progress against objectives and successful and timely delivery so that we may make any necessary changes and adjustments. Our Advisory business has also increased focus on driving quality through standardisation, using consistent methodologies and delivery models across the network.
"The quality of our work is at the heart of our organisation and we invest significant and increasing resources in its continuous enhancement across all of our business units."
Specific focus on audit quality
Delivering quality audits is core to our purpose, and all of our member firms across the world are committed to providing high quality audits. When our work falls below the standards that we expect and that are set by the regulators, we should rightly be criticised. We take any instance of a sub-standard audit very seriously and we work hard to analyse the root cause of the issue, learn the lessons and take the opportunity to enhance the quality of future audits. We also reflect quality in the evaluation, reward and accountability of the relevant Assurance partners and leadership teams.
To help us put this strategy into effect, the PwC network has established clear objectives around audit quality and provides support to help us meet these objectives. Our engagement teams can only deliver quality audit services if they have access to the necessary capabilities – both in terms of people and technology. That’s why our quality objectives focus on having the right capabilities – both at a member firm level and across our network – and on using these capabilities to meet our own standards and the professional requirements. These capabilities can only be developed under the right leadership and quality culture, promoting the right values and behaviours.
Please see our 2020 Transparency Report to read more about our audit quality efforts.
“Delivering quality audits is core to our purpose and in the uncertain and turbulent times of the COVID-19 pandemic has become more important than ever.”
Our response to COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on our clients and our people, as well as global and local economies and broader society.
At PwC, in addition to safeguarding the health, safety and well-being of our people, we have remained focused on working together as a network, with our clients and other stakeholders to continue to deliver audit quality.
From the early stages of the pandemic we put a team in place to monitor developments globally and to highlight areas of critical importance to support execution of quality. For example, we developed specific guidance on the impact of COVID-19 covering critical aspects of audit quality including regulatory and standard setting updates, audit reporting, methodology, accounting and learning and education - giving our teams the means to consider the unique circumstances in play and to respond accordingly.
Our technology infrastructure and tools have been in place for a number of years and enabled our people to continue to carry out their work despite the significant change in our physical work environment.
Explore our Integrated Report 2020
Follow us
