Problem: The audit documentation represents the auditor's accumulation of evidence and conclusions reached on an audit engagement. Prior-year audit documentation can provide insight into an audit engagement that will be useful in planning the current
year audit.
a. What are the purposes or primary functions of audit documentation?
b. Who owns the documentation, the auditor or the client?
c. What important planning information might an auditor learn when reviewing the prior-year audit documentation of a client?
d. The auditor often requests the client to prepare a schedule, such as a schedule listing all repair and maintenance expenses over $5,000 for the past year. Assume that the client asks for a copy of the previous year's documentation to serve as a guide and the auditor is reluctant to furnish the documentation to the client.
Question 1. Is it permissible to provide the client copies of the auditor's previous documentation? If so, are there any particular conditions the auditor should examine before furnishing the documentation to the client?
Question 2. What procedures should the auditor use to assure that the client has properly prepared the requested documentation?