This report analyzes twenty years of auditor changes and the impact of those changes on the fees paid by client companies. We have applied a methodology, as described below, to filter thousands of auditor changes and hundreds of thousands of audit fees datapoints to draw direct comparisons between the fees billed to a company before and after changing auditors.
This report contains seven sections that analyze the data in different ways.
Change in Fees Following Auditor Change – By Engaged Firm, a comparison of selected major firms as the winning firm.
Change in Fees Following Auditor Change – By Previous Firm, a comparison of selected major firms as the outgoing firm.
Impact of Auditor Change Reason, a comparison in audit fees between standard auditor dismissals, and changes where the outgoing firm resigned or issued a "going concern" opinion.
Largest 200 Auditor Changes by Combined Fees, a complete listing of the largest auditor changes of the past 20 years by the combined total of the outgoing and incoming firms' billed fees.
Top 200 Largest Increase in Total Fees, a complete listing of the largest auditor changes by rate of increase between outgoing and incoming firms.
Top 200 Largest Decrease in Total Fees, a complete listing of the largest auditor changes by rate of decrease between outgoing and incoming firms.
2023 Edition Additions, a breakout of the 80+ auditor change events added for the the 2023 edition.
All Events, a complete listing of all auditor changes and audit fees analyzed in this report.
Firms specifically covered include (click for summary data on each firm):