4016 Documentation and actions from team planning meetings
Apr-2015

Documentation requirements

CAS Requirement

The auditor shall include in the audit documentation (CAS 315.38):

(a) The discussion among the engagement team and the significant decisions reached.

OAG Guidance

The procedure ‘Determine audit strategy and plan’ or the procedure ‘General engagement decisions’ are used for documenting each of the team planning meetings. The procedures contain required discussions and other topics that the team may ordinarily discuss at the team planning meetings.

The documentation related to team planning meetings focuses on the audit impact of topics discussed, rather than the discussions themselves. Consider the following documentation examples:

  • During the team planning meeting, it is agreed that there is minimal risk of fraud relating to revenue recognition and, as a result, this is not a significant risk area. This, and the rationale for this decision, is documented in the procedure “Other risk assessment procedures”.

  • During the team planning meeting, valuation of inventory is identified as a significant risk. The Audit Planning Template and Inventory sections of the audit file are updated to reflect the risk.

Note that if the fraud and/or related party discussions are held separately from the team planning meeting, apply the above documentation principles to that discussion.

Actions from the meeting

OAG Guidance

Audit Tip

Allocate actions coming from the team planning meetings to individual team members, who will be responsible for their completion. This includes allocating documentation tasks (e.g., preparation of the audit procedures) to team members. Consider individual and team performance goals in the allocations.