Financial audit checklist
Your auditor sends you a document request list before fieldwork starts and uses each item for a specific test. Send the items in the order your auditor asks for them, and you shorten the audit.
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What is a financial audit checklist
A financial audit checklist is the set of records your auditor asks you to produce before and during fieldwork. Auditors call it the PBC list, short for prepared by client. Your auditor sends the engagement letter first, then the audit PBC list, and starts fieldwork once you have supplied enough of it.
You may get two lists: a short planning list early, then a longer one before fieldwork.
A financial statement audit checklist is the same document under another name. You get one in an external audit, where a CPA firm reports on statements your management prepared. If you are preparing for an internal audit, use our internal audit readiness checklist instead.
What your auditor will ask you for
We group an audit documentation checklist by what your auditor does with it:
Trial balance and general ledger.
Your auditor ties the financial statements back to the ledger, then draws the testing samples from it.
Bank and credit card statements.
Your auditor names the accounts and the periods, and decides which balances to confirm with the bank and which to test another way. Under currently effective AICPA standards, your auditor makes that choice by assessed risk.
Receivables and payables aging.
Who owes you and who you owe at period end, which your auditor tests for existence and for cut-off.
Fixed assets and depreciation schedule.
Additions, disposals and the depreciation run, checked against the policy you say you follow.
Payroll filings and 1099s.
Annual and quarterly federal and state withholding returns, plus the 1099s you issued. Your auditor ties them back to wage and contractor expense.
Agreements.
Articles of incorporation, loans, leases, insurance, mortgages and sales contracts, which your auditor reads for anything you have to disclose in the notes.
Board minutes and tax returns.
Minutes of board and committee meetings, and your most recent tax return. Your auditor reads the minutes for decisions you have to reflect in the statements, and checks the return against the income tax figures in the statements.
Inventory count records.
If inventory is material to your statements, your auditor attends your physical count and tests the final inventory records, under AU-C 501. If attending is impracticable, your auditor uses alternative procedures, and modifies the opinion if those cannot give enough evidence. Your auditor cannot skip the count for cost or inconvenience alone.
Audit document request list
Audit document request list
Trial balance and general ledger
- Trial balance at period end
- General ledger for the year
- Prior year financial statements
Bank and credit cards
- Statements for requested accounts
- Periods your auditor specifies
- Year-end reconciliations
Receivables and payables
- AR aging at period end
- AP aging at period end
- Supporting invoices
Fixed assets
- Depreciation schedule
- Additions and disposals
- Capitalization policy
Payroll and contractors
- Federal and state returns
- Annual and quarterly filings
- 1099s issued
Agreements
- Articles of incorporation
- Loans, leases, insurance
- Sales contracts
Board minutes and tax returns
- Board and committee minutes
- Most recent tax return
Inventory, if material
- Count instructions
- Count sheets
- Final inventory listing
Dimov Audit. A typical list for a private company audit under AICPA standards. For a Single Audit, your auditor asks for more.
Why your auditor writes to your bank and your customers
Your auditor gets some evidence without going through you. They write directly to your bank, a sample of your customers, your lenders and sometimes your attorney, then compare the replies with your records.
The AICPA issued SAS 150 in July 2026, for audits of periods ending on or after December 15, 2028. From then your auditor has to confirm cash held by third parties, unless specific conditions are met. Firms can adopt it earlier, so ask yours whether it has.
Your auditor asks for contact details so they can send each request to the right person. If they get no reply, they use alternative procedures and may ask you for some of that evidence. Auditors treat evidence they obtain directly as more reliable, so they try confirmation first.
What we need before we can quote you
Your auditor can start planning and ask for records before your statements are final.
We quote after reading a balance sheet and an income statement, closed for the year, and set the scope from them. If your books are not closed, we quote the bookkeeping first as separate work, and the audit after it. This is our own practice. You can read the independence conditions behind it on our internal audit readiness page.
Send the statements first. We read them, find your annual gross income and quote from that.
How the list differs by service and standard
The level of assurance.
A CPA does different work for an audit, a review and a compilation. In a review, the CPA uses inquiry and analytical procedures and does not confirm balances or test transactions. Your business audit checklist for a review is therefore shorter than one for a full audit.
The standards that apply.
Your auditor audits a private company under the AICPA auditing standards, known as GAAS. In a Single Audit, your auditor also applies the Uniform Guidance and Yellow Book requirements. For a public company, your auditor applies PCAOB standards instead of GAAS.
A small business audit checklist has the same groups as an enterprise one, with fewer items in each.
Find out which list you will get
Send us the request you received and your last financial statements. We will tell you whether you need an audit, a review or a compilation, and what we will ask you for.
What can delay an audit
Your auditor can find any of these before or during fieldwork, and you lose time on each:
Incomplete bank statements.
Your auditor asks for the missing periods, or turns to other evidence, before closing out the related testing.
A general ledger that does not match the trial balance.
Your team resolves the difference before your auditor relies on either one.
Miscategorized transactions.
Your team or your auditor can catch these before testing or during it. If you correct them during fieldwork, you lose more time than if you correct them at close.
No named contact to answer questions.
Your audit team waits while questions go unanswered, and a named owner with a backup for each cycle shortens that wait.
Related services
Treat the information here as general, not advice for your circumstances. Ask a CPA to look at your facts before you rely on it.
Ask for a scope and a price
Send us your last financial statements, the standard you are being audited to and the date somebody needs the report. We will come back with a scope, a timetable and a fixed fee.
Contact
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Reviewed by George Dimov, CPA. Dimov Audit performs financial statement audits, reviews and compilations for private companies across all 50 states.