The Auditor’s Report

1 Introduction

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For some users of financial statements, the auditor's report is the only purpose of an audit and it’s one of the few parts of an annual report containing the financial statements they really look at.

The auditor’s report includes a clear expression of opinion on the financial statements as a whole.

The two important phrases are:

• ‘Opinion’: there is nothing absolute here. Different firms of auditors could quite legitimately come to different opinions.
  

• ‘Financial statements as a whole’. We are not just looking at the statement of financial position in isolation from the statement of profit or loss or the notes. What’s important is the impression given by the financial statements as a whole.
  

The audit opinion has to be based on evidence obtained in the course of the audit. Indeed if you had to sum up the audit process in just a couple of words the phrase would be ‘evidence gathering’. Auditors need to collect evidence that will support their opinion on the financial statements.

We will see later that the auditor’s report is quite long and detailed.

2 Financial statements

The auditor’s report refers to financial statements and you need to know what these are. They consist of the following:

• The statement of financial position (or balance sheet).
  

• The statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income.
  

• The statement of changes in equity.
  

• The cash flow statement.
  

• The notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies.
  

A director’s report and chairman’s statement included in an annual report are not part of the financial statements. However, the auditor may have reporting responsibilities for such "other information".

3 Content of an auditor’s report

3.1 The title and addressees: Independent Auditor’s Report

First of all, it is clearly titled ‘Independent Auditors’ Report.’ That should mean that no one has any doubt about what this document is. It next states to whom the auditor’s report is addressed - and that’s the members (i.e. shareholders) of the company.

3.2 The audit opinion and identification of what’s been audited

The opinion paragraph comes right at the top of the report. This section summarises the financial statements that have been audited (as listed in the previous section).

The illustrative report set out in the ‘Illustrative example’ section of this chapter includes an unmodified audit opinion which states that the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the company's financial position, financial performance and cash flows in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).

As appropriate, depending on the type of opinion given, this paragraph can be named:

• Opinion
  

• Qualified opinion
  

• Adverse opinion
  

• Disclaimer of opinion
  

3.3 The Basis for Opinion

This will refer to compliance with the ISAs (complying with ISAs is key to the basis of opinion) and will refer to the auditor’s responsibilities section of the report. It must include an assertion of the auditor’s independence and that other ethical matters have been complied with.

If the audit opinion has been modified, the explanation would be here too.

As appropriate this paragraph would be called:

• Basis for opinion
  

• Basis for qualified opinion
  

• Basis for adverse opinion
  

• Basis for disclaimer of opinion

3.4 Emphasis of matter paragraph (if one)

This paragraph is used to draw users’ attention to a matter already properly disclosed in the financial statements. For example, a note stating that there had been a fire at the company’s premises after the date of the statement of financial position.

An emphasis of matter paragraph is not a modification of the audit opinion. It must state that the audit opinion is not modified in this respect. If the auditor's report also includes a key audit matters section (see below), the emphasis of matter paragraph may follow that section, depending on their relative importance.

3.5 Material uncertainty related to going concern (if one)

A separate paragraph is now required if there is a material uncertainty related to the going concern of the company. This is covered more fully in the following chapter.

Such a paragraph is not a modification of the audit opinion – provided the uncertainty has been adequately disclosed by the directors in the notes to the financial statements.

3.6 Key audit matters

Key audit matters are those matters that were of most significance during the audit.

There is then a full description of these matters in accordance with ISA 701. This is covered in more detail below.

3.7 Other matter paragraph (if one)

This paragraph is used, if necessary, to communicate a matter that is not required to be presented or disclosed in the financial statements which is relevant to the user's understanding of the audit, the auditor's responsibilities or the auditor's report.

Circumstances in which an other matter paragraph may be necessary:

• Where the auditor reports on two sets of financial statements prepared under different general purpose frameworks (e.g. a national framework and IFRS).
  

• Where the financial statements have been prepared for a specific purpose, to state that the auditor's report is solely for the intended users.
  

• In the rare circumstance where the auditor is unable to withdraw from an engagement even though a management-imposed limitation on the audit may be pervasive.
  

3.8 Other information paragraph (if one)

For example, an audit covers the financial statements but does not cover the directors’ report. So what if the directors’ report contains something that conflicts with the financial statements? The audit opinion cannot be modified because it does not cover the director’s report, but perhaps the shareholders need to be alerted to this. This can be done in a paragraph, headed 'Other Information’.

This is not a modification of the audit opinion.

3.9 Management’s responsibilities

The next section is very important and points out that it is management’s responsibility to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards to maintain the system of internal control and to consider the going concern position of the company.

3.10 Auditor’s responsibilities

The auditors’ responsibilities are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes their opinion.

Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Read carefully in the Illustrative Example (later in this chapter) the details of the auditor's responsibilities, which can be located in an appendix to the auditor's report.

3.11 Date, address and signature

Finally, the auditors must sign the report and must give their address and the date at which it is signed. The date of the report is very important because before that date the auditor has an active duty: the audit is not yet over. The auditor should still be investigating whether receivables are being paid and inventory is selling at above cost. After that date the auditor has a passive duty only. This means that the auditor is not ‘on the lookout’ for events affecting the truth and fairness of the financial statements, but if any are brought to his attention he might have to act.

4 ISA 701 Communicating Key Audit Matters in the Independent Auditor's Report

The first thing to note is that the auditor only reports on key audit matters ("KAMs") in respect of listed entities.

The auditor shall determine, from the matters communicated with those charged with governance (TCWG), those matters that required significant auditor attention in performing the audit. In making this determination, the auditor shall take into account the following:

1. Areas of higher assessed risk of material misstatement or significant risks
   

2. Significant auditor judgments relating to areas in the financial statements that involved significant management judgment, including accounting estimates that have been identified as having high estimation uncertainty
   

3. The effect on the audit of significant events or transactions that occurred during the period.
   

The auditor therefore selects only those matters that were of most significance in the audit of the financial statements of the current period and therefore are the key audit matters.

Key audit matters are therefore identified by:

• Starting with all matters communicated with TCWG (including the audit committee).
  

• Determining the matters that required significant auditor attention in performing the audit.
  

• The most significant of these are the “key audit matters”.
  

If the auditor disclaims an opinion on the financial statements (i.e. very rarely), there will be no KAMs section in the auditor's report because the auditor has not obtained the evidence necessary to form an opinion.

5 Illustrative example

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S REPORT To the Shareholders of ABC company

Report on the Audit of the financial statements

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of ABC Company (the Company), which comprise the statement of financial position as at December 31, 20X1, and the statement of comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity and statement of cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies.

In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, (or give a true and fair view of) the financial position of the Company as at December 31, 20X1, and (of) its financial performance and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs).

Basis for Opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (ISAs). Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Audit of the Financial Statements section of our report.

We are independent of the Company in accordance with the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants’ Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (IESBA Code) together with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in [jurisdiction], and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements and the IESBA Code. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Key Audit Matters

Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgment, were of most significance in our audit of the financial statements of the current period. These matters were addressed in the context of our audit of the financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and we do not provide a separate opinion on these matters. [Description of each key audit matter in accordance with ISA 701.]

Responsibilities of Management and Those Charged with Governance for the financial statements

Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with IFRSs and for such internal control as management determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, management is responsible for assessing the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless management either intends to liquidate the Company or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so.

Those charged with governance are responsible for overseeing the Company’s financial reporting process.

Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

As part of an audit in accordance with ISAs, we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit. We also:

• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
  

• Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Company’s internal control.
  

• Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by management.
  

• Conclude on the appropriateness of management’s use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the Company to cease to continue as a going concern.
  

• Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation. We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.
  

We also provide those charged with governance with a statement that we have complied with relevant ethical requirements regarding independence, and to communicate with them all relationships and other matters that may reasonably be thought to bear on our independence, and where applicable, related safeguards. From the matters communicated with those charged with governance, we determine those matters that were of most significance in the audit of the financial statements of the current period and are therefore the key audit matters. We describe these matters in our auditor’s report unless law or regulation precludes public disclosure about the matter or when, in extremely rare circumstances, we determine that a matter should not be communicated in our report because the adverse consequences of doing so would reasonably be expected to outweigh the public interest benefits of such communication.

The engagement partner on the audit resulting in this independent auditor’s report is [name].

[Signature in the name of the audit firm, the personal name of the auditor, or both, as appropriate for the particular jurisdiction]

[Auditor Address]

[Date]

6 What is meant by ‘true and fair’?

'True and fair' is a widely used descriptor of financial reporting (e.g. in UK company legislation since 1948). As near as probably matters, the word ‘true’ means that the information is factually correct and not materially misstated (see next section).

‘Fair’ is a more difficult concept. You can have information which is accurate but which is nevertheless presented in a way which is unfair, and which perhaps conceals or does not reflect the commercial substance of transactions. For example, it would not be fair to present a bank loan as a non-current liability if, in fact, it is repayable in the next 12 months (i.e. a current liability). This would distort the financial position presented because the bank loan would not be included in assessing the company's liquidity as shown, for example, by the current ratio.

The IAASB prefers the equivalent phrase 'present fairly, in all material respects'.

7 Materiality

Again, we emphasise the point that an audit gives only a reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement.

• A matter is material if its omission or misstatement could reasonably influence the decisions that primary users make on the basis of financial statements.
  

• It is affected by the size and nature of the misstatement.
  

The auditor’s judgment flows all the way through the audit process, from planning and deciding the amount of work that should be done, to deciding what action should be taken should errors be found in the accounts.

We are looking for material misstatements, and a material misstatement is defined through its effect on decisions made by a user of the report. For example, if a misstatement would cause an investor to keep those shares rather than selling those shares, there has been a real effect on that investor and the misstatement would be material.

If misstatements are so small that they don’t really spark any reaction in the members, then they are rather superficial. That’s not to say that auditors don’t want to get things right, but errors only really matter when they trigger incorrect action.

Materiality has to be decided for the financial statements as a whole and it is the audit partner’s judgements about whether or not a misstatement is material.

8 Guidance on materiality

It’s all very well saying that a matter is material if it would reasonably influence decisions of a user of the auditor’s report, but that gives very little guidance to the audit team (or to you when you are doing a question).

Therefore, some rules of thumb have been developed. These are only guidelines, but if something is wrong to the extent of:

• 0.5% to 1% of revenue,
  

• 1% to 2% of total assets or
  

• 5% to 10% of profit
  

then you should assume that the matter is material. These percentages should take into account the auditor’s knowledge of which items users will focus on, the nature of the entity (life cycle/environment), its ownership, structure and financing and the volatility of the benchmark.

Additionally, a lesser amount should be set for materiality when designing and carrying out audit procedures to reduce the risk that misstatements in aggregate exceed financial statement materiality. This is known as performance materiality: the materiality that is important in the performance of the audit work.

Errors which are less than the suggested guidelines could still be regarded as being material. An error which turns a small loss into a small profit could cause unfounded optimism in some situations, perhaps a feeling that the company has turned a corner. So, although in absolute terms, the size of an error is relatively small, the way in which the accounts are then interpreted could lead to unreasonable decisions being made. Therefore, you can talk about both quantitative and qualitative materiality.

Finally, there are some amounts in the financial statements where no errors are tolerable. For example, there is often a statutory duty to disclose directors’ remuneration and that has to be stated with absolute accuracy.

All misstatements identified should be communicated to management who should be asked to correct them or to explain why not. The auditors must assess the materiality of uncorrected misstatements and obtain written representations from management that they believe uncorrected misstatements to be not material (see Chapter 28).

If management refuses to correct an error that the auditor thinks is material then the auditor will issue a modified (qualified "except for") audit opinion.

9 Other reporting responsibilities

An auditor’s report will explicitly include an audit opinion on the financial statements. In some jurisdictions, the auditor may have additional responsibilities to report on matters such as the adequacy of accounting books and records. These may be included in the auditor's report under a suitably headed section (e.g. "Report on Other Legal and Regulatory Requirements").