Approximately six to nine months prior to a firm's due date, the MNCPA will send out a scheduling form (PDF) that needs to be completed and returned. The firm will also need to complete the reviewing firm information, such as the name of the peer reviewer, and the commencement and exit conference date of the peer review.

The firm needs to make arrangements with the peer reviewer directly. A list of qualified peer reviewers is available.

Upon receipt of the completed form, the MNCPA will enter the information into the electronic peer review system, which will determine if the peer reviewer is qualified to perform the review. If the reviewer is qualified, an acceptance letter is sent to the firm and the peer reviewer authorizing the peer review to take place. A peer review can not be performed without the acceptance letter stating the peer reviewer is qualified.

A System review includes determining whether the firm's system of quality control for its accounting and auditing practice is designed and complied with to provide the firm with reasonable assurance of performing and reporting in conformity with applicable professional standards, including SQCS No. 7, in all material respects. This type of review is for firms that perform engagements under the Statement on Auditing Standards (SASs), the Government Auditing Standards (Yellow Book) or examinations of prospective financial information under the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAEs) or audits of non-SEC issuers performed pursuant to the standards of the PCAOB.

Approximately 14,000 firms nationwide are likely to have a system review over the next three years. The scope of the peer review does not encompass other segments of a CPA practice, such as tax services or management advisory services, except to the extent they are associated with financial statements, such as reviews of tax provisions and accruals contained in financial statements.

In a system review, the reviewer will study and evaluate a CPA firm's quality control policies and procedures that were in effect during the peer review year. This includes interviewing firm personnel and examining administrative files. To evaluate the effectiveness of the system and the degree of compliance with the system, the reviewer will test a reasonable cross-section of the firm's engagements with a focus on high-risk engagements, in addition to significant risk areas where the possibility exists of engagements being performed and/or reported on that are not in accordance with professional standards in all material respects. The majority of the procedures in a System review should be performed at the reviewed firm's office.

This type of review is for firms that are not required to have a system review and only perform services under SSARS or services under the SSAEs not included in the System reviews. The objective of an Engagement review is to evaluate whether engagements submitted for review are performed on in conformity with applicable professional standards in all material respects. An Engagement review consists of reading the financial statements or information submitted by the reviewed firm and the accountant's report thereon, together with certain background information and representations and, except for compilation engagements performed under SSARS, the applicable documentation required by professional standards.

This type of review does not cover the firm's system of quality control, so the reviewer cannot express an opinion on the firm's compliance with its own quality control policies and procedures or compliance with AICPA quality control standards.

Engagement reviews should improve the quality of engagements and should protect the public that uses and relies on those reports without imposing any additional burden on reviewed firms. Nationally, more than 14,000 firms are likely to have an engagement review over the next three years.

The reviewer will send an engagement letter to the firm prior to the commencement of the peer review. He/she will select the types of engagements based on the type of review.

System review selections
The AICPA Peer Review Program Standards require engagements selected for review should provide a reasonable cross section of the reviewed firm's accounting and auditing practice, with greater emphasis on those engagements in the practice with higher assessed levels of peer review risk. Examples of the factors considered when assessing peer review risk at the engagement level include size, industry area, level of service, personnel (including turnover, use of merged-in personnel, or personnel not routinely assigned to accounting and auditing engagement), communications from regulatory, monitoring, or enforcement bodies; extent of non-audit services to audit clients, significant clients' fees to a practice office(s) and a partner(s) and initial engagements. In addition, at least  one of each type of engagement subject to Government Auditing Standards (GAS), Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (FDICIA), or of carrying broker dealers must be selected for review.

Engagement review selections
The review captain or the administering entity ordinarily should select the types of engagements to be submitted for review in accordance with the following guidelines:

The preceding criteria are not mutually exclusive. One of every type of engagement that a partner, or individual if not a partner, responsible for the issuance of the reports listed in item (a) in the previous list performs does not have to be reviewed as long as, for the firm taken as a whole, all types of engagements noted in item (a) in the previous list performed by the firm are covered.