What Not to Say During an Audit?
If you stay calm, prepared and professional during an audit, you avoid widening its scope or raising concerns. Follow these five rules on what not to say during an audit:
Avoid Guessing or Speculating
If you’re unsure about an answer, admit it rather than guess. If you give inaccurate information, even unintentionally, your auditor sees a red flag. Tell your auditor you will verify the information and answer accurately later, for example: “I’ll need to check our records to confirm that detail.”
Don’t Offer Unsolicited Information
Answer only what your auditor asks. If you volunteer additional or unrelated information, you can open up new areas of scrutiny without meaning to. For instance, if your auditor asks about a specific transaction, avoid discussing unrelated processes or past issues unless they are directly relevant. Keep your responses focused and concise.
Refrain from Making Negative Comments
If you speak negatively about colleagues, processes or your organization during an audit, you create an unfavorable impression. Even if you’re frustrated, keep a positive and cooperative tone. Your auditor is there to assess compliance and accuracy and will not mediate internal disagreements.
Avoid Emotional Reactions
Audits can feel intrusive. Stay calm and composed, and avoid defensive or emotional statements like “Why are you questioning that?” or “We’ve never had a problem before.” Your auditor may read them as unprofessional, or as a reason to look harder.
Don’t Promise What You Can’t Deliver
Do not commit to what you may not fulfill, such as documents or data by an unrealistic deadline. If unsure, say you will meet the request and ask for a reasonable timeline, so you deliver accurate and complete information.
How to talk to your auditor
Answer honestly and succinctly, and do not guess, speculate or volunteer information unrelated to the request.
Keep a professional demeanor throughout the audit.
Follow these rules and your auditor finishes the audit process with fewer open questions, or ask us what to prepare.
What happens if you cannot answer or produce a record
Under AU-C 705, your auditor decides the opinion by the evidence it could obtain:
If the possible effects of the missing evidence are material but not pervasive, your auditor gives a qualified opinion, worded “except for the possible effects of.”
If they could be material and pervasive, your auditor disclaims an opinion.
If your management imposed the limitation and the effects could be material and pervasive, your auditor withdraws from the audit where that is practicable and permitted, and disclaims if it is not.
So when you cannot answer, say when you will. Your auditor can wait for a record; it cannot give a clean opinion without one.
How to prepare for an audit before fieldwork starts
- Step 01
Agree the scope and the calendar.
Ask your auditor which period, entities and locations it will cover, and when your team needs to be available.
- Step 02
Close your books first.
Give your auditor a trial balance that matches your general ledger, so your team answers questions from a stable starting point and tracks any adjustments your auditor proposes.
- Step 03
Gather the support as you go.
Pull bank statements, reconciliations, invoices, contracts and payroll reports into one place before your auditor sends the request list.
- Step 04
Name one audit coordinator.
Track the requests and the responses through that person, and give your auditor the people it needs and all information relevant to the audit.
What your auditor asks for, and what your team answers
Your auditor sends a document request list at the start and asks follow-up questions through fieldwork. You can prepare for audit interview questions in four areas:
Records.
Your trial balance, general ledger, bank statements and reconciliations for the period under audit.
Transactions.
The invoices, contracts and approvals behind the items your auditor samples.
Process.
How you take a transaction from request to approval to payment, and who signs off at each point.
Changes.
What changed since last year, such as a new system, a new revenue stream, a change in accounting policy or a new grant or loan. Tell your auditor about these at planning, before fieldwork, so it can plan the testing.
Keep your audit preparation checklist organized around the records, transactions, processes and changes your auditor asks about.
The management representation letter you sign at the end
Your auditor asks your management for written representations near the end of the audit, under AU-C section 580. Your management addresses that representation letter to your auditor and dates it as of the auditor's report, and your auditor keeps it as audit evidence.
Read it before you sign it, because your team’s statements during fieldwork are written into it.
What public companies must not say to their auditor
If your company is an SEC issuer or a registered investment company, the SEC holds your directors and officers to Rule 13b2-2. They must not make materially false or misleading statements to your auditor, or omit a material fact. The SEC also bars them, and anyone acting under their direction, from coercing, manipulating, misleading or fraudulently influencing the auditor, including pressing it not to raise a matter with the audit committee. The test is whether the person knew or should have known the action could make the statements materially misleading.
Audit readiness before your next audit
Tell us what your funder, lender or board asked for and when they need it. We will tell you what to have ready and scope the work before you commit.
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Send us your year end, your reporting deadline and what your funder or lender asked for. We will tell you what your team should have ready and quote the work before you commit.
Audit services
Treat the information as general, and ask a CPA about your own audit before you act on it.
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Reviewed by George Dimov, CPA. Dimov Audit performs financial statement audits and other attestation work for companies and nonprofits across all 50 states. Profile