| How can you be sure that financial statements | | | | The audit is found to be accurate, complete and |
| within a company are accurate? Audited financial | | | | fairly presented to meet the requirements of the |
| statements, which have been prepared by an | | | | US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting |
| independent Certified Public Accountant (CPA) on | | | | Principles). The audit provides the CPA a |
| behalf of a business or non-profit organization, are | | | | reasonable basis for their opinion that the financial |
| used to provide financial accountability and | | | | statements are free of material misstatements |
| accuracy to a company's stakeholders. The | | | | or false/missing information. |
| documents used by an accountant to prepare | | | | A qualified opinion indicates that the CPA is not in |
| audited financial statements are provided by the | | | | agreement with aspects of the financial |
| company, and include various financial documents | | | | statements and/or methods used to prepare |
| such as accounts receivable/payable documents, | | | | their financial documents. A qualified opinion |
| budgets, expense reports. The CPA examines | | | | indicates that the CPA is not confident that the |
| documents which support figures within the | | | | financial statements are correct or accurate. |
| financial reports, assesses the overall accounting | | | | Occasionally an opinion will not be given within an |
| principles used, and evaluates the overall financial | | | | audited financial statement. This could be due to |
| document presentation. From this information the | | | | the fact that there were insignificant documents |
| CPA creates an audited financial statement. | | | | available to properly prepare the audit, or there |
| Within the audited financial statement, the certified | | | | were issues that need to be addressed before |
| public accountant provides an opinion, either | | | | evaluating the accuracy of the financial |
| qualified or unqualified, about the nature of the | | | | documents. A lack of opinion usually indicates that |
| financial documents. An unqualified opinion in an | | | | a company needs to improve their accounting |
| audited financial statement indicates that the CPA | | | | practices so they can meet the requirements of |
| is in agreement with the methods used by the | | | | the US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting |
| company to prepare their financial documents. | | | | Principles). |