For smaller companies and their auditors still getting up to speed for their first-ever internal control audit in 2009, the Center for Audit Quality is providing some last-minute help.

The CAQ created a Web-based resource for auditors to gather into one place the guidance auditors need to study or reference to be ready for the first audit of internal control over financial reporting under Sarbanes-Oxley. The CAQ’s “Resources for Integrated Audits of Non-Accelerated Filers" links to guidance from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, and the CAQ.

Separately, the CAQ also is offering a three-part Webcast series beginning in late May on Auditing Standard No. 5. That’s the PCAOB rule that governs the audit of internal control over financial reporting, which takes effect for the first time for smaller companies for fiscal years ending after Dec. 15, 2009.

The Webcast series is intended to cover the fundamentals of an integrated audit, where the audit of internal control is married to the audit of financial statements, especially following a top-down, risk-based approach in planning and testing controls.

Smaller companies have won a number of implementation delays since the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley, but SEC Chair Mary Shapiro has said she’s eager to see the internal control reporting and auditing requirements become fully effective for those companies. Companies have already been required for two years to provide a management assessment of internal control over financial reporting, but the audit is the final piece of the internal control requirements soon taking effect.

Cindy Fornelli, CAQ executive director, said in a prepared statement the Webcast series and the Web resource “reflect the CAQ’s efforts to support our mission to promote and enhance audit quality in public companies.”