I am looking for a template for an Audit Committee Charter. If anyone has one or an actual AC Charter they would share I would appreciate it.

Mary,

When I was writing my Audit Committee charter, I used the guidelines of the Institute of Internal Auditors (theiia.org). I hope that you find this helpful too.

The IIA is an excellent source; in addition here are three other sources that may or may not be helpful:

1. www.auditnet.org (go under Virtual library - there is a section on Audit Charters - with some samples and links that might help).

2. SEC Edgar site. If you have the name of another organization that you want to see their Audit Charter, the Edgar site, is a good place to go to get this, since the audit charter must be filed with the 10K proxy statement.

The site is www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/formpick.htm

You type in the company name, then look for the DEF 14A section of the report, which is the section that you will find the audit charter. Last I looked those that were filed between 1993 and 2002 were out there.

3. Legal Counsel. Lastly once you have a draft together, you will want your legal counsel to look at it.....especially if you have varied audit services that you provide say for a Trust Company or Brokerage Service.

When we developed our audit committee charter, we used suggestions contained in an article in the Journal of Accountancy. You can find a link to the article at:
http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/jan1999/bean.htm

I received a sample right from our regulator. I'd be happy to share - just send me a private e-mail.