Audit Workpapers: How to Document and Review Field Work

Learn the audit risk in documentation and review of field work and how to use different tests in your research.

We have all heard "If it isn't documented, it didn't happen". As auditors, we know documentation is important, but we also have deadlines and realization goals to meet. How much documentation is needed? Staff may become focused on saving a lot of files and doing a lot of work, but do they create audit documentation? Auditing standards have been codified to include SAS 122, SAS 123 and SAS 128 and more amendments have been approved in SAS 134 and SAS 137. Frequently, peer reviewers site the lack of linkage between audit risks and tests performed. According to the Journal of Accountancy article in July 2020, in audit failures, over 80% were caused by the auditor's failure to gather sufficient audit evidence. This topic will help tie all of these problems together. Proper audit documentation provides the documentation required under auditing standards and creates the linkage between audit risks and the tests performed. Proper audit documentation and the proper review of that documentation ensures that sufficient audit evidence has been obtained to support the auditor's decisions and opinion. The material will also explain the importance of audit risk in the documentation and review of workpapers.