Documentation is always a significant component to an audit, but it’s been especially important for employee benefit plan auditors to maintain documentation of each process in specific detail during times of a rapidly changing economic landscape.
In a recent interview with the Journal of Accountancy, Anne Morris, employee benefit plan practice leader, provides tips for comprehensive documentation.
Morris expects that most, if not all, employee benefit plans will have memo changes for 2020 from a documentation perspective. Auditors will have to remember how the new Statement on Auditing Standards No. 136, Forming an Opinion and Reporting on Financial Statements of Employee Benefit Plan Subject to ERISA, plays into that. This standard goes into effect for 2021 calendar year-end financial statements and provides new performance requirements for auditors and changes the form and content of the auditor’s report.
Morris will share further insight at the AICPA & CIMA Employee Benefit Plans Online Conference in May 2021.
