Enhance, evolve, and elevate
2025 Audit transaparency report
Twelve months ago, we set out our ambition to strengthen trust in reported information amid persistent economic, climate-related and geopolitical uncertainty.
Today, we can point to real momentum: our audit teams have continued to provide high quality assurance that helps markets function and gives investors and society trust and confidence in the numbers and narratives that matter.
Building on last year’s foundations – our human-led, tech-powered strategy and the Next Generation Audit programme – we have deepened our focus on quality, independence and consistency across both financial and non-financial reporting.
Over the past year, we have sharpened our approach around three imperatives: enable, evolve, elevate. These principles have guided our decisions, investments and day-to-day behaviours.
Richard Day - Audit Transparency Report 2025
Enable
We continued to integrate advanced technologies into every stage of the audit, combining the judgement of experienced professionals with modern, secure platforms. Our Next Generation Audit programme has matured further, using datadriven procedures and emerging technologies – particularly Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI – to enhance risk assessment, testing and documentation, while reinforcing independence and professional scepticism. We also increased our targeted training that helps teams apply new tools responsibly and effectively so that innovation translates into better outcomes for clients and capital markets.
Evolve
Quality is not static. We refined methodologies and work programmes to keep pace with evolving standards and stakeholder expectations, embedding feedback loops, quality reviews and root cause analysis, to identify issues early and drive consistent execution. We’ve also evolved how we work alongside our Service Delivery Centre (SDC), which is not a traditional offshore ‘back office’, but an integrated part of engagement teams – joining stand‑ups and core team meetings and being interactive and visible to clients. This not only leads to a high-quality audit, it creates capacity for our engagement teams to concentrate on complex tasks and areas of judgement.
Elevate
High quality audits are delivered by talented, diverse teams who feel they belong. We invested in attracting, developing and retaining people with a broad mix of skills and perspectives, and we sustained our commitment to an inclusive culture. To open more pathways into the profession, we continued our collaboration with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ), encouraging new entrants and supporting the skills the market needs for the future. Elevating the profession in this way strengthens audit quality today and builds the workforce for tomorrow.
We will keep building on this momentum.
The environment will continue to diversify – standards will develop, technology will advance and stakeholder expectations will change. Our response remains the same: enable our people and clients with leading tools and training; evolve our methods and technology as risks and regulations shift; and elevate audit quality and the trust our work brings to markets and society. The result is an audit that is more insightful, consistent and resilient – one that helps organisations make better decisions and gives stakeholders confidence in what they rely on most.
Our 2025 Audit Transparency Report
Rich Day
Assurance Leader, PwC New Zealand
PwC is a multidisciplinary firm, however this report is focused on our audit and assurance practice in New Zealand.
In this report, we include:
- Our audit quality balanced scorecard for the year to 30 June 2025
- Commentary from our Audit Advisory Board
- An overview of our approach to promoting the attractiveness of the audit profession, including the developing role of technology and how assurance is evolving to encompass a broader range of responsibilities
In the Appendix we cover a range of information, including:
- Our policies, systems and processes for quality management
- How we monitor our work
- Information on how our firm is governed
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the PwC New Zealand assurance team for their ongoing hard work and commitment over the past year. We continue to evolve as a team, bringing in new talent and expertise to strengthen our capabilities and ensure the workloads of our people are sustainable.
We are grateful for the support and guidance of our Audit Advisory Board, which has undergone a couple of changes this year. Warren Allen stepped down as chair and has been replaced by Alison Posa, and we welcomed Craig Fisher to the board. Thank you to all members of the Board – past and present – for your valuable contribution.
It is shaping up to be another interesting 12 months ahead, with plenty of opportunities on the horizon. In the meantime, we trust that you, our clients and stakeholders, will find this report valuable, and we look forward to working with you on continuing to achieve the highest standards in audit quality.
A note from our CEO
Andrew Holmes
CEO and Senior Partner, PwC New Zealand
Our mission at PwC to unite expertise and technology so our clients can outthink, outpace and outperform is built on solid foundations such as our audit practice. Nowhere is this more evident than in this, our latest audit transparency report.
Here you will find details on how we operate, where we are progressing and how we can continue to improve. This openness is vital to maintaining our clients’ trust, and by extension the trust of the wider business community.
I’m proud of the dedication of our audit teams and the mahi they contribute every day to support resilient, trusted capital markets.
We also rely on independent voices to maintain our audit quality, and I’d like to join the team in thanking our Audit Advisory Board, who continue to challenge us constructively and help sharpen our approach.
As I have previously noted, my career began in audit, and much of it has focused on assurance. This perspective has reinforced for me a simple truth: high quality audits are essential for a well-functioning economy. Stakeholders deserve transparency, objectivity and effectiveness – not as slogans, but as lived practice. I hope this update helps you see the progress we’ve made this year and the ambition we carry into the next.
Statement on the firm's system of quality management
During the year, we completed our evaluation of the firm’s System of Quality Management (SoQM) under International Standard on Quality Management 1 (ISQM 1) and Professional and Ethical Standard 3 Quality Management for Firms that Perform Audits or Reviews of Financial Statements, or Other Assurance or Related Services Engagements (PES 3).
On behalf of PwC New Zealand, Andrew Holmes as CEO, has evaluated whether our firm’s SoQM provides us with reasonable assurance that:
- The firm and its personnel fulfil their responsibilities in accordance with professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements, and conduct engagements in accordance with such standards and requirements.
- Engagement reports issued by the firm or engagement leaders are appropriate in the circumstances.
Although our SoQM operates continually and is updated to respond to new or changing risks as they arise, our SoQM year ended on 31 March 2025. Based on the relevant information of the firm’s SoQM, we believe our SoQM provides us with reasonable assurance that the quality objectives of ISQM 1/PES 3 have been achieved as at 31 March 2025.
This conclusion has been formed on 16 June 2025 by our CEO and reaffirmed as of 31 October 2025, prior to issuing this report.
What is audit quality?
At PwC, 'audit quality' means that we consistently
- Comply with ethical and auditing standards
- Exercise professional scepticism
- Use our experience and expertise to identify and resolve issues in a timely manner
- Respond to changes in the audit profession
- Upskill our people on how to use new technology and tools
- Focus on the wellbeing of our people and invest in their development
- Apply a deep and broad understanding of our clients’ businesses and the financial environment in which they operate
What does our audit quality balanced scorecard tell you?
Our audit quality balanced scorecard for the year ended 30 June 2025 reveals a number of insights about audit at PwC New Zealand.
This year’s results from our PwC network internal inspections had no non-compliant audit files and two compliant with improvements required audit files. This is in line with our objective of having zero non-compliant and minimal compliant with improvements required audit files.
Our risk and quality (R&Q) and technical accounting specialists continue to play a pivotal role in supporting audit quality. Audit teams can draw on these specialist teams’ deep expertise when navigating complex technical issues or higher‑risk areas.
This collaborative approach ensures our audits remain robust and responsive in a challenging macro‑economic environment. The focus on quality by the leaders in our audit practice continues to be acknowledged by our audit teams as illustrated in our Global People Survey and Leadership in Quality and Ethics survey results.
Our work on helping our auditors understand the meaning and purpose of their work continues with evidence that our people understand the importance of their role.
Our average staff retention rate has remained relatively stable and in line with historic levels. As expected of us, we continue to invest significant time into our independence and ethics training for all client facing staff and partners across the whole firm.
The significant training programme for our assurance people included a focus on sustainability and the responsible use of AI technologies to support the expanding role of the auditor.
For the year ended June 2025 Audit quality balanced scorecard
- Our drive for quality
- Consultations
- Our audit reporting
- Our tone at the top
- Our audit business
- Our people
- Our investment in training
Our drive for quality
As part oof the PwC network, we are subject to globally coordinated quality inspections.
PwC is focused on having zero non-compliant and minimal compliant with improvements required engagements. Our PwC New Zealand audit file sample sizes are small and the results of one file inspection greatly impacts the overall percentage. The number of files reviewed annually range from approximately 10 to 15.
Consultations
Our Risk and Quality (R&Q) and technical accounting specialists play a pivotal role in supporting audit quality.
(1) Formal consultations cover assurance opinions and reports, complex engagement issues, high-risk or unusual reporting matters, and reviews of financial statements and technical accounting treatments. This is a new metric in our audit quality balanced scorecard for the year ended 30 June 2025.
(2) These are new metrics in our audit quality balanced scorecard for the year ended 30 June 2025 and prior year comparatives are not disclosed.
Our audit reporting
We are committed to delivering high quality audits and being transparent with the relevant stakeholders. The goal is decision-useful, transparent reporting that shows where we focused our work and why.
Our tone at the top
We survey our people to collect feedback on the behaviours that support audit quality demonstrated by our leaders.
(1) The survey seeks to measure the audit engagement leader and engagement quality control reviewer’s leadership in quality and commitment to ethics throughout the audit engagement.
(2) Our leaders continue to set an appropriate tone at the top focused on the importance of audit quality.
(3) This global PwC survey is undertaken annually to measure employee engagement.
(4) We continue to have high levels of participation from our staff and partners.
(5) The engagement score is an average from a number of specific questions focused on how a person is engaged with/connected to an organisation. PwC New Zealand is 79% (FY24: 79%).
(6) Our leaders continue to set a positive tone from the top.
(7) Understanding changes from all perspectives is important to ensure we continue to deliver quality services.
(8) We are focused on helping our team understand the importance of audit and why what they do matters.
Our audit business
Our audit business is a significant part of our firm and New Zealand’s capital markets. We safeguard independence and structure teams so experienced managers and partners invest the right amount of time and are supported by specialists where needed.
(1) Investors often focus on the ratio of audit fees to non-assurance fees when considering the independence of an auditor. A lower percentage shows the auditor has done little other work aside from assurance services. The ratio of non-assurance fees to audit fees is consistent with what we are seeing across the market.
(2) Indicator of the relative size of the audit practice compared to the rest of the firm. Our audit practice remains a critical component of the firm.
(3) Comparative information has been restated to include sustainability reporting specialists within the specialists and experts category to be consistent with the current period.
Our people
The experience and expertise of our people is critical to delivering quality audits. We are also committed to helping build the next generation of auditors.
(1) Supporting audits in the areas of technology, valuation, complex accounting matters and specialist actuarial support.
(2) Our average staff retention rate has remained relatively stable and in line with historic levels.
Our investment in training
We invest in our people to ensure they have the skills to continue performing quality audits, leverage digital tools and support the expanding role of the auditor.
Included within the average structured training hours achieved by audit partners and staff is training on the use of AI and Generative AI, enabling them to focus on higher-value tasks and access information quickly and efficiently while being responsible and accountable. This includes training on using ChatGPT (our enterprise-level Generative AI solution) on assurance engagements.
(1) PwC New Zealand audit staff and partners undertake more than the minimum number of structured CPD hours required for members of CA ANZ or CPA Australia. Beyond the base required levels, training can fluctuate depending on the timing of the release of accounting and auditing standards.
Some of our independence and ethics training is run annually whilst other training is biannual.
The purpose of the knowledge checks and e-learns is to help keep auditing and accounting knowledge up to date. They include topical, targeted audit and accounting questions for our people to answer.
While there has been a decrease in the number of individual knowledge checks during the year there has been an increase in the number of questions per knowledge check.
Audit Advisory Board Report 2025
As we start the second term of the Audit Advisory Board, it is gratifying to witness the outcome of the significant investment that PwC has made in audit quality. Building trust is the core of PwC’s purpose – an ambition firmly underpinned by audit quality, inspiring the trust of clients and financial markets.
Audit quality today is the outcome not only of robust quality systems and processes, but also the culture of PwC’s audit and assurance team – a foundation carefully built over time. It has been encouraging to see the care and attention devoted by PwC’s audit and assurance practice to developing audit and assurance professionals, ensuring their career paths are inspiring and relevant, whilst managing work/life balance. People engagement scores remain strong at 80%, and leadership in quality behaviour metrics have shown continued improvement, rising from 9.3 to 9.4 out of 10. The audit and assurance team continues to attract top talent, with 60 new graduates joining in 2025.
PwC should take considerable pride in the outcomes of the range of monitoring results. Reviews conducted by the regulatory bodies (primarily the Financial Markets Authority), the Office of the Auditor General, the PwC network inspections, and independence checks all reflecting an ongoing commitment to audit quality. A key strength of the PwC audit and assurance team lies in its ability to embed learnings from these reviews, supported by rigorous root cause analysis that ensures the sustainability of quality outcomes.
A hallmark of PwC New Zealand’s audit and assurance practice is its specialist support teams, offering deep expertise in areas such as valuations, complex accounting, and risk and quality.
Alison PosaAppointed Chair effective July 2025The audit and assurance landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by technological advancements and the emerging opportunities and risks associated with AI. PwC is making significant investments to evolve the audit process both locally and globally.
Globally, the New Zealand team are playing a prominent role in both piloting initiatives and providing feedback. Locally, risk-assessed use cases are being developed and implemented with care. The audit and assurance team has embraced the journey of audit transformation with a measured approach, ensuring that every technological advancement is complemented by human oversight. This balanced approach is essential to maintaining quality and safeguarding both clients and the firm.
A key driver of audit quality is bringing the right resources and thinking to the review at the right time. A hallmark of PwC New Zealand’s audit and assurance practice is its specialist support teams, offering deep expertise in areas such as valuations, complex accounting, and risk and quality.
We continue to see high levels of engagement with these specialist support teams. We also expect that the ongoing integration of technology will accelerate the focus on what matters as well as facilitate the continued integration of Service Delivery Centres. This will give team members more time to focus on areas of judgement and bring insights that have a greater impact on clients.
The Audit Advisory Board remains committed to supporting and constructively challenging PwC’s team. Areas of focus for 2026 will be the quality implications of ongoing technology integration, which is not just confined to the use of AI, and on the manner in which the team nurtures a professional workforce equipped with the insights and learning pathways needed to advance audit quality into the future.
External inspections and investigations
PwC New Zealand is subject to regular inspections by regulatory and professional bodies.
FMA regulator inspection
The firm is reviewed annually and was included in the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) 2025 inspection cycle. The FMA inspected three engagement files and completed a review of the quality control systems and processes in place – our SoQM for compliance with the adoption of ISQM 1/PES 3 as part of a thematic review of all relevant firms. The findings from the 2025 FMA inspection of PwC and other firms will be included in the FMA’s annual Audit Quality Monitoring Report to be issued in November 2025.
OAG inspections
The firm is also subject to reviews by the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) for engagements that are completed on its behalf. During the year ended 30 June 2025, the OAG, and the FMA, performed a joint review of one engagement file for one audit partner, who is an OAG Appointed Auditor. Of particular interest to the OAG is improving the quality of Statement of Service Performance audits.
New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA) inspections
The firm is periodically reviewed by NZICA. The most recent review was in October 2023. This review was broader than just audit files and also covered aspects of the firm and services provided outside of audit. The review considers both a selection of engagement files and aspects of our SoQM.
NZICA investigations
At any time, there may be matters in progress which are dealt with on a confidential basis. If this happens, we ensure that we perform a detailed root-cause analysis and, based on the findings, make changes to our systems, processes and controls as needed as part of our efforts to continuously enhance audit quality.
Embracing technology and expertise
A year after we set out our refreshed vision for a tech‑enabled audit, the results are tangible.
Our plan to standardise, simplify, centralise and automate continues to evolve, and we are reaping the benefits that this enhanced capability brings.
We continue to invest in our Next Generation Audit (NGA) programme, which embraces advances in AI technology, including agentic AI capability. Powered by large language models, AI agents can understand a question or prompt written by a user in natural language, devise a plan to answer that question or prompt, and write new plug-ins (packets of code) if needed to complete the task. These agents work together in the background to orchestrate and execute complex tasks, all while engaging with our audit teams for input, professional judgement and review throughout the audit process.
NGA supports assurance with financial statements and non‑financial information, including sustainability disclosures, which are aligned to meet regulatory and stakeholder expectations.
With our advanced AI capability taking care of time-consuming tasks such as gathering and analysing data, auditors have more time to focus on providing clients with high-quality strategic insights that is specific to their unique set of opportunities and challenges.
The considerable investment in AI tools and capability has seen our audit team complete over 900 hours in AI training in the past financial year, and we will continue to upskill our people in this transformative technology.
It is important to note that full responsibility remains with our teams and engagement leaders to verify and ensure the quality and accuracy of any AI-assisted work. These reviews will always involve appropriately qualified and senior people who bring their technical expertise, insight and judgement to our work.
Meanwhile, we are evolving the way we collaborate across teams. Our Service Delivery Centre (SDC) colleagues, for example, work in unison with our engagement teams. This approach isn’t about cost, it’s about driving efficiency and quality. By orchestrating tasks between on‑shore teams and the SDC, we’re creating meaningful capacity so engagement teams can concentrate on tasks requiring complex judgement and purposeful stakeholder conversations.
We’ve also deepened the utilisation of embedded specialists. Our audit teams have access to specialists throughout the audit process. These include the Centre for Innovation and Technology on controls and system reliance, technical accounting specialists and actuaries on complex accounting matters, Market Value Direct on data and modelling, valuation experts on fair value and impairment, and tax specialists for complex tax positions. This cross‑disciplinary model tightens scoping, accelerates issue resolution and raises the quality of evidence and insights.
Alongside the tech, we’re investing in our people by extending our professional development programmes and offering more mentoring and coaching opportunities. In the year ahead, we’ll continue to scale capabilities through deepening use of AI technology and refining the auditor experience, expanding on our human‑led and tech-empowered approach to deliver a high quality, trustworthy service to our clients.
Expanding the role of the auditor
As the reporting landscape evolves and stakeholders demand more, assurance continues to expand well beyond the financial statements.
Boards, investors, lenders and customers increasingly seek independent comfort over the non‑financial information they use to allocate capital and manage risk. Much of this demand is voluntary – well ahead of regulatory minimums – and it is fundamentally reshaping what auditors do.
Companies are engaging us to provide limited or reasonable assurance over greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and wider sustainability metrics. Many clients are going beyond the required limited assurance over scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions to also include scope 3 GHG emissions including financed emissions, and other metrics linked to sustainability such as sustainable funding targets. These engagements require both subject‑matter expertise and the application of the same discipline we bring to audits in assuring new data, systems and methodologies.
Beyond sustainability, risk‑targeted assurance is growing. Management and boards are requesting focused, often internal, assurance over areas that matter most: data and AI governance, cyber and privacy controls, calculations of regulatory capital, supply‑chain integrity and programme delivery. Externally, service organisation control reports (e.g. SAE 3150) remain pivotal for customers and regulators assessing outsourced and cloud‑based services. This portfolio of engagements enables stakeholders – internal and external – to make quicker, better‑informed decisions with confidence.
For our people, this expansion creates meaningful opportunities. Multidisciplinary teams – accountants, IT specialists, climate and other industry experts – work together under common assurance standards, supported by advanced analytics and automation that allow testing at scale. We continue to build new capabilities in sustainability reporting, data governance, AI and emerging technology while continuing to exercise core auditor attributes: independence, professional scepticism and clear, evidence‑based reporting.
As assurance evolves, quality remains non‑negotiable; our investments in methodology, technology and upskilling help us deliver consistently. Most importantly, the expanding role of the auditor makes our purpose tangible: growing trust in society where it is needed most. We achieve this by building on the foundations of critical thinking, professional scepticism, independence and objectivity.
Promoting the attractiveness of the audit profession
Audit needs are growing, and with that comes the necessity to find new ways to attract talented people with the right skills and attitude to excel in dynamic environments.
We continue to raise the profile of the profession and over the past twelve months, we have accelerated targeted actions to focus on what creates the most impact. The way we respond to this task has matured – guided by feedback from students, educators and our people.
We continue to provide ways to enable broader, skills-based entry routes that welcome experienced professionals and graduates from nontraditional fields, so the profession better reflects the communities it serves, through expanded pathways programmes with CA ANZ and CPA Australia. In parallel, we are deepening our joint outreach across secondary and tertiary education, bringing practical, mythbusting resources to classrooms and conversations with students, academics and teachers.
With the wellbeing of our audit teams top of mind we refined team structures, resourcing and scheduling to smooth peak periods and protect recovery time; while strengthening our review practices so quality remains uncompromised for clients and stakeholders.
We are seeing the results of this approach, with the amount of overtime in the past financial year being cut by almost a third (28%). Taken together, these initiatives are boosting our efforts to create a workplace where people can grow, be themselves and do their best work.
The next year will be about scale and measurement. We’ll expand alternative pathways, broaden our presence on campuses and in schools, and track outcomes that matter, such as building capability and creating more career pathways, while ensuring audit quality is sustained. The profession still faces headwinds, but by widening who can join, equipping them with the right tools, and protecting sustainable ways of working, we’re making audit a career that is both purposeful and attractive – now and for the long term.
PwC is #AuditorProud
Auditor Proud is a global day recognising auditors and their role. At PwC we recognise the important work our audit teams do over a week long period.
Audit Transparency Report 2025
Delivering on our commitment to audit quality. Download a copy of our complete report.
Appendix
In this document we outline our policies, systems and processes for ensuring audit quality and independence as well as how we monitor our work and ensure our people have the support they need to excel in their work.
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