[The following paragraph was effective for audits of financial statements, which may include an audit of internal control over financial reporting, with respect to fiscal years ending on or after November 15, 2004. For other engagements conducted pursuant to the standards of the PCAOB, including reviews of interim financial information, this standard took effect beginning with the first quarter ending after the first financial statement audit covered by this standard. It was amended, effective for audits of fiscal years beginning on or after December 15, 2010. See PCAOB Release No. 2010-004.

 Return to the current version.]

12.      The auditor must document significant findings or issues, actions taken to address them (including additional evidence obtained), and the basis for the conclusions reached in connection with each engagement.  Significant findings or issues are substantive matters that are important to the procedures performed, evidence obtained, or conclusions reached, and include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Significant matters involving the selection, application, and consistency of accounting principles, including related disclosures. Significant matters include, but are not limited to, accounting for complex or unusual transactions, accounting estimates, and uncertainties as well as related management assumptions.
  2. Results of auditing procedures that indicate a need for significant modification of planned auditing procedures, the existence of material misstatements, omissions in the financial statements, the existence of significant deficiencies, or material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting.
  3. Audit adjustments. For purposes of this standard, an audit adjustment is a correction of a misstatement of the financial statements that was or should have been proposed by the auditor, whether or not recorded by management, that could, either individually or when aggregated with other misstatements, have a material effect on the company's financial statements.
  4. Disagreements among members of the engagement team or with others consulted on the engagement about final conclusions reached on significant accounting or auditing matters.
  5. Circumstances that cause significant difficulty in applying auditing procedures.
  6. Significant changes in the assessed level of audit risk for particular audit areas and the auditor's response to those changes.
  7. Any matters that could result in modification of the auditor's report.