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Official Releases
SAS No. 96 ... SSAE No. 11... Auditing Interpretation
(Supersedes Statement on Auditing Standards No. 41, Working Papers, AICPA, Professional Standards, vol. 1, AU sec. 339, and amends Statement on Auditing Standards No. 47, Audit Risk and Materiality in Conducting an Audit, AICPA, Professional Standards, vol. 1, AU sec. 312; Statement on Auditing Standards No. 56, Analytical Procedures, AICPA, Professional Standards, vol. 1, AU sec. 329; and Statement on Auditing Standards No. 59, The Auditor's Consideration of an Entity's Ability to Continue as a Going Concern, AICPA, Professional Standards, vol. 1, AU sec. 341.)
INTRODUCTION
1. The auditor should prepare and maintain audit documentation, the form and content of which should be designed to meet the circumstances of the particular audit engagement. Audit documentation is the principal record of auditing procedures applied, evidence obtained, and conclusions reached by the auditor in the engagement. The quantity, type, and content of audit documentation are matters of the auditor's professional judgment.
2. Other Statements on Auditing Standards contain specific documentation requirements (see Appendix A). Additionally, specific documentation requirements may be included in other standards (for example, government auditing standards), laws, and regulations applicable to the engagement.
3. Audit documentation serves mainly to:
a. Provide the principal support for the auditor's report, including the representation regarding observance of the standards of fieldwork, which is implicit in the reference in the report to generally accepted auditing standards!
b. Aid the auditor in the conduct and supervision of the audit.
CONTENT OF AUDIT DOCUMENTATION
4. Audit documentation should be sufficient to show that standards of fieldwork have been observed as follows:
a. The work has been adequately planned and supervised.
b. A sufficient understanding of internal control has been obtained to plan the audit and to determine the nature, timing, and extent of tests to be performed.
C. Sufficient competent evidential matter has been obtained through the auditing procedures applied to afford a reasonable basis for an opinion.
5. Examples of audit documentation are audit programs,3 analyses, memoranda, letters of confirmation and representation, abstracts or copies of entity documents, and schedules or commentaries prepared or obtained by the auditor. Audit documentation may be in paper form, electronic form, or other media.
6. Audit documentation should be sufficient to (a)...