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This section explains
The engagement leader shall ensure complete and final audit file documentation (paper and electronic) is assembled and finalized within 60 calendar days after the date of the assurance engagement report (financial audit and special examinations) or within 60 days of the date of tabling (performance audits). [Nov-2011]
The “finalization date” for final assembly of audit documentation is 60 calendar days after the date of an assurance engagement report. However, given the potential for large time gaps between the date of issuance of a special examination report and tabling of the special examination report in an Auditor General report, special examinations are subject to two final assembly periods. The first final assembly period is 60 calendar days after the date of the special examination report. A second final assembly period may be used, when needed, to capture documentation associated with tabling the special examination report. Performance audit final assembly of audit documentation shall occur within 60 calendar days after the date of tabling.
Each 60-calendar-day period is a “final assembly period.” The final assembly of an audit file is completed within the final assembly period and before the finalization date. Before finalizing the audit file, teams should review it for completeness and remove or delete items that are not part of final audit documentation.
Teams provide evidence of completion of audit file assembly by wrapping up and finalizing the audit file. The “finalization date” is evidenced, for the purposes of complying with the above policy, by the archive date for electronic files in the audit working paper software and by the date stamp when paper files are received by Information and Records Management. Finalizing the file is important to enable the Office to retain a final record of the procedures performed, evidence obtained, and conclusions reached. Finalizing ensures that only the final audit file, with all coaching notes resolved and deleted, is used by a subsequent audit or as future reference.
While a second final assembly period may apply in the case of a special examination, engagement teams shall consider and administer the first final assembly period as instructed above. Where a second final assembly period is needed to document tabling activities, the engagement leader shall authorize the reopening of the file finalized in the first final assembly period.
The Guidance on Managing Audit Records provides guidance on how teams should complete and finalize documentation.
OAG Audit 1192 Confidentiality, safe custody, integrity, accessibility, and retrievability of engagement documentation provides guidance concerning removing passwords or encryption before saving files in PROxI or in the audit working paper software.
The final assembly period for performance audits and special examinations recognize the unique aspects and activities of their reporting process that are documented in the audit file up to and after the date of tabling.
Audit files in the audit working paper software should not be held open beyond the finalization date for any items that, although important, are not directly related to the issuance of an assurance engagement report, a special examination report, or a chapter. For example, teams do not request a final assembly period extension to keep an audit file open for a final management letter or to include minutes of a parliamentary hearing held subsequent to tabling.
If matters such as the review of an entity’s annual report or Internet disclosure are still outstanding at the 60-calendar-day finalization deadline, teams should close their audit file and reopen it when reviewing the annual report or internet disclosure.
In the unusual circumstance where teams require a final assembly period extension to document matters that have no impact on the assurance engagement report, they need to obtain and document approval of the extension from the engagement leader.
CAS 230.A22 and CSAE 3001.A204 discusses examples of administrative changes. In addition to the examples provided in CAS 230 and CSAE 3001, the following illustrative examples would also be administrative changes:
Adding original confirmations previously received by fax or email
Deleting coaching notes
Organizing the external hardcopy paper file to include audit evidence obtained before the date of the auditor’s report/assurance report
Transferring correspondence items containing audit evidence obtained before the date of the auditor’s report/assurance report, into the audit file.
Removing or replacing broken links in the audit file.
Adding electronic documents produced outside of the audit working paper software that include evidence obtained before the auditor’s report date/assurance report
Creating a link to documents or deleting them if they are not part of the final audit documentation.
Resolving replication conflicts in the audit working paper software.
When we obtained audit evidence before the date of the auditor’s report/assurance report but document this audit evidence after the date of the auditor’s report/assurance report, or we make substantive changes to documentation that existed at the date of the auditor’s report/assurance report, we record clearly in each procedure modified:
What information was added or changed;
When the evidence was obtained;
The reason for adding or changing the information;
On what date the information was added or changed;
When the conclusions in respect of the new information were approved by the team manager and/or engagement leader; and
For financial audits, we also update the procedure “Engagement leader and team manager – Completion sign-off” in order to document confirmation that all documentation has been finalized and clearly shows when the evidence was obtained, when the conclusions in respect of it were approved, and all modifications to audit documentation completed after the date of the auditor’s report include details of the specific reason for making such changes. This procedure would need to be marked as reviewed by the team manager and engagement leader again, as appropriate.
Although not required to record the above information for other administrative changes made after the report date, we may still elect to indicate what the changes were as a way of documenting that a more significant change has not been made to the audit file.