How to File Form 1 for ICAI Peer Review — Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

Form 1 is the entry point to ICAI Peer Review — it's the Application cum Questionnaire every Practice Unit (PU) must file with the Peer Review Board (PRB). Get it right and the rest of the 20-day cycle flows smoothly. Get it wrong and you're chasing the Secretariat for clarifications or facing rejection.

This guide breaks down each section, flags the questions that trip up most firms, and points to the tooling that auto-fills most of it.

Before you start — what you'll need

Collect these BEFORE opening Form 1:

• Firm's PAN, GST, and FRN
• Date of establishment + all partner admission/retirement dates
• Last 3 financial years' assurance-engagement client list with fees
• Articled-assistant register summary
• CPE-compliance certificates for every partner
• Any FRRB or regulator advisories received
• Pending disciplinary matters (yes/no with details)

If you have multiple branches, gather the same info per branch — Form 1 captures branch-level data separately under Cl. 4(3).

Part A — Profile + Engagement Data

This is the longest section. Five blocks:

A1. Firm identity

Straightforward: firm name, FRN, HO + branch addresses, date of establishment, partner count, paid-CA count, articled-assistant count, staff count (audit + non-audit).

Common mistake: Listing partners who've since retired or shown only current heads. Form 1 expects a historical roster for the review period (typically the last 3 FYs).

A2. Network membership

If your firm is part of a national or international network (e.g., RSM, Mazars, BDO India network), declare it. This affects independence assessment.

A3. CPE compliance

Each partner's last 3 years of structured + unstructured CPE hours. Falling short here is a flag — but is rarely a rejection trigger if you can show the next-cycle remediation plan.

A4. Engagement data by category (A through K)

This is the biggest field of Form 1 and the part most firms fill poorly. ICAI defines 11 categories of engagements (per Cl. 21-22) — anything you audited in the review period must be classified into one of:

Cat	Coverage
A	Bank / Insurance audit
B	NBFC with deposits ≥ ₹100 cr
C	Central/State PSU & Coop with turnover ≥ ₹250 cr or NW ≥ ₹5 cr
D	SEBI Listed entities
E	AMCs / Mutual Funds
F	Ind AS preparers
G	PIE-covered bodies / trusts
H	Public-fund raisers > ₹50 cr
I	Govt-scheme-funded > ₹50 cr
J	NW > ₹100 cr or turnover ≥ ₹250 cr
K	Any other assurance services

Common mistake: Double-counting an entity that fits two categories (e.g., a listed bank fits both A and D). The Manual is clear: classify by the most stringent applicable category and disclose the others as a note.

A5. Concentration disclosure (Cl. 17)

If any client contributes ≥ 15% of your firm's total gross receipts, you must declare it here. This is a hard independence-risk flag. Don't try to disguise it.

Part B — Quality Control System

Part B is split into two:

B(I) — SQC 1 Questionnaire

Six elements, each with multiple Yes/No/N/A items:

1. Leadership Responsibilities — Who's the managing partner? Are QC roles assigned in writing? 2. Ethical Requirements — Independence policy in place? Annual + per-engagement declarations on file? 3. Acceptance and Continuance — Documented client-acceptance procedure? Annual continuance review? 4. Human Resources — Recruitment, training, performance evaluation policies — all written? 5. Engagement Performance — Supervision, partner review, EQCR for listed/large audits, consultation process? 6. Monitoring — Periodic internal monitoring / cold-file review with documented findings?

Tip: Honest "No" answers are MUCH better than dishonest "Yes" answers. The reviewer will catch overstated claims during the on-site visit — and that's where the Qualified Report risk lies. If you genuinely don't have a written ethics policy, write that, and add a remediation timeline in the comments.

B(II) — Specific disclosures

• FRRB observations received (Cl. 14(ii))
• Regulator advisories received (Cl. 14(iii))
• Tendering + cost-sheet methodology
• Pending disciplinary matters

Part C — AQMM v2.0

Mandatory if you audit any listed entity (excluding branch-only audits of banks/insurance companies), since 1 April 2023.

AQMM is a self-evaluation across 3 sections (max scores: 280 + 240 + 80 = 600). Each item is binary — Yes (full points) or No (zero) — no partial grading. The Overall Level (1-4) is the MIN of the three section levels.

The PU fills Part C; the reviewer independently re-scores every item as Annexure III to the Final Report.

Common mistake: Inflating scores. The reviewer's re-score is the official one. If your self-score says Level 3 but the reviewer says Level 2, the Final Report mentions the gap and you lose credibility with the PRB.

The 5 most common Form 1 rejection / clarification reasons

1. Partner roster doesn't match ICAI records — Make sure your declared partners are exactly what shows on the ICAI firm card. 2. Missing concentration disclosure (Cl. 17) — Even if no single client is ≥ 15%, explicitly state that. 3. Engagement category misclassification — Double-counted or misclassified entities trigger Secretariat queries. 4. SQC 1 questionnaire incomplete — Every Yes/No must be answered. Blanks read as "No" by default. 5. AQMM Part C left blank — If you audit any listed entity, Part C is not optional.

Faster path — use the online tool

Filling Form 1 manually on the ICAI portal takes 4-6 hours and is error-prone. Our Form 1 Filing Tool gives you:

• Section-by-section guided filling with auto-validation
• 11-category dropdown for engagement data (no double-counting)
• SQC 1 questionnaire with all 36 items + plain-language hints
• AQMM v2.0 calculator with live section + overall level computation
• One-click PDF export ready for upload to the ICAI portal

You can use it free to start. No installation, no signup needed for the basic version.

After filing

Once Form 1 is submitted, the PRB has 3 working days to send you a panel of 3 reviewers. From the date you intimate your choice, you have only 1 WD to wait while the Board issues the appointment letter — and then the 20-day clock starts.

The Peer Reviewer Tool takes over from there.

Stuck on a specific question? WhatsApp CA Jatin Tagra at +91 99531 40464 — most Form 1 doubts resolve in under 5 minutes.