PCAOB Registered Audit Firm Portfolio Status Monitor

Watch named PCAOB-registered public accounting firms (by PCAOB Firm ID) against the official PCAOB firm data file (FirmData.txt), which the PCAOB refreshes overnight. Get one event when a firm on your list moves to Withdrawal Pending, Registration Withdrawn, Registration Revoked or Registration Disapproved, or changes its name.

Quick start: replace the example firmIds with your firms' PCAOB IDs, set sourceMode = live, then save as a Task and schedule it daily or weekly. No API key needed.

Who this is for:

• Broker-dealer finance and compliance teams (SEC Rule 17a-5 annual reports must be audited by a PCAOB-registered firm)
• Investment advisers and fund administrators (custody-rule pooled-fund audits must use a PCAOB-registered and inspected accountant)
• SEC issuers, SPAC sponsors and audit committees whose auditor or component auditors must stay registered
• Lenders, D&O insurers, investors and KYB teams that rely on audited financials from smaller or offshore firms

The recurring job: tell me as soon as the PCAOB file shows that an audit firm we rely on is withdrawing, withdrawn, revoked or renamed, for example after a merger, so the engagement can be replaced before a filing deadline.

Billable events (PPE pcaob-firm-status-event-delivered @ $0.02):

Group	Event	Meaning
status	STATUS_CHANGED	Currently Registered ↔ Withdrawal Pending / Registration Withdrawn / Registration Revoked / Registration Disapproved (adverse=true for the last four)
name	NAME_CHANGED	Firm name changed in the PCAOB file (often a merger or rebrand)
directory	APPEARED / DROPPED	Firm ID appeared in, or disappeared from, the PCAOB file
location (opt-in)	LOCATION_CHANGED	City / state / country changed

Non-billable: RUN_STATUS (FIXTURE_HEALTH, MONITOR_IDLE, CATCHUP_COMPLETE, HEALTH_OK), first-run baselines and duplicates. A quiet watchlist costs only the platform start fee.

This is not a dump of the firm list billed per row. It does not cover Form AP engagement partners or inspection reports.

First run vs later runs

Default sourceMode=fixture is a free health check: one non-billable RUN_STATUS row, not product data.

In live mode, run 1 stores a baseline for each firm (no change events, no product charge). Run 2 onwards emits only the differences against that checkpoint. Keep using the same Task so the checkpoint carries over.

What you get per $0.02 event

Each event is one unique change for a named firm. It includes the firm name, PCAOB status, an adverse flag, before and after values, city and country, the file date (as_of) and the official source URL. You are never charged for RUN_STATUS, baselines, quiet MONITOR_IDLE runs, invalid IDs, duplicates or fixture SAMPLE rows.

Example output (SAMPLE)

SAMPLE: illustrative field shape only, not a real event.

{
  "firm_id": "SAMPLE01",
  "firm_name": "EXAMPLE AUDIT FIRM A LLP (SAMPLE)",
  "event_type": "STATUS_CHANGED",
  "event_subtype": "REGISTRATION_REVOKED",
  "previous_value": "Currently Registered",
  "new_value": "Registration Revoked",
  "adverse": true,
  "as_of": "2026-10-06",
  "billable": false,
  "sample": true,
  "summary": "SAMPLE (fixture demo data with placeholder entities, not a real event)"
}

Input

• firmIds: PCAOB Firm IDs, for example 34 or 00034 (leading zeros optional). Aliases: pcaobFirmIds, firmNumbers.
• sourceMode: fixture (free health check) or live (official PCAOB file)
• signalGroups: any of directory, status, name, location (default: directory + status + name)

Production use

{
  "firmIds": ["00034", "00042", "00185", "00688"],
  "sourceMode": "live",
  "signalGroups": ["directory", "status", "name"]
}

Source and honesty notes

• Official file: https://assets.pcaobus.org/firm-filings/FirmData.txt (linked from pcaobus.org/assets/PCAOBFiles/FirmData.txt). The PCAOB publishes it for Form AP XML preparation and refreshes it overnight. One small download (~0.3 MB) per run.
• Durable key: the 5-digit PCAOB Firm ID. On 2026-10-06 the file held 4,099 firm IDs: about 1,385 Currently Registered, 20 Withdrawal Pending, 2,491 Registration Withdrawn, 145 Registration Revoked and 58 Registration Disapproved.
• Cadence: changes appear when the PCAOB refreshes the file overnight, not in real time. as_of is the file's Last-Modified date.
• Attribution: Source: Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) public firm data file. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by the PCAOB.

Pricing

Event	USD
pcaob-firm-status-event-delivered	$0.02
apify-actor-start	$0.00005

Limitations

• Check the official PCAOB registered-firms page and the firm's PCAOB filings before relying on a status for an engagement or a regulatory filing.
• Withdrawn and revoked firms normally stay in the file with their status. DROPPED fires only if an ID disappears from the file entirely.
• Covers registration status, name and location only. It does not include inspection findings, Form AP engagements or enforcement order text.