Auditors should familiarize themselves with the Accounting Standards Codification, the new authority for all Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and understand the weight it carries in relation to auditing standards and other guidance.

That’s the advice of Martin Baumann, chief auditor for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. The staff of the PCAOB published a series of staff questions and answers on the Codification to assure auditors are aware of it and know of its authority over U.S. GAAP.

The Codification is the new accounting rulebook for all of GAAP, established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to reorganize the entire library of historical accounting pronouncements from various sources into a single collection organized by topics, subtopics, sections and subsections.

The PCAOB said the Q&A is a reminder that although PCAOB standards may contain descriptions of and references to U.S. GAAP, they don’t trump the Codification or the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission for publicly listed companies where GAAP is concerned. If auditing standards make references to U.S. GAAP that are no longer current, auditors should refer to the Codification for the most current, authoritative guidance, the PCAOB staff says, and the board will revise such descriptions and references in future standards-setting projects.

The PCAOB also advises auditors to take a close look at situations where a company may change its accounting as a result of following the Codification. Although FASB didn’t intend to change the rules when it reorganized them, the board has acknowledged the possibility that the new structure could lead to new interpretations.

That will leave auditors to determine whether a new accounting conclusion constitutes a change in accounting treatment that needs to be disclosed or a mistake that needs to be corrected. The Q&As advise auditors on which accounting rules and auditing standards come into play in making those determinations.