Auditing & Assurance Services 6th Edition by Timothy Louwers

Exercise 69

Internet Exercise: Reports on Financial Statements (Public Companies). One of the great resources for auditors is the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR) system database at www.sec.gov. Public companies file SEC-required documents electronically. The SEC makes this information available on its web page.
Required:
The following are the largest five companies in the United States, based on the Fortune 500, along with their ticker symbols. After accessing the EDGAR database, download copies of auditors' reports from the Form 10-K filings and complete the following table (ExxonMobil has been done as an example). ( Hint: Search the 10-K filing by using the key word "independent," as in Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm.) Use the following responses in completing the table.
Opinion: Unmodified, Qualified, Adverse, Disclaimer
Additional Paragraphs/Issues: Identify by Type
Internal Control Report: Combined or Separate
Auditor: Identify Name of Firm

Report-Writing Cases
Cases 12.61 through 12.67 require you to draft auditors' reports. The Electronic Workpapers (available on the textbook website listed on the back cover of the text) has a Word file (file name AUDIT) containing the standard (unmodified) report, which can be used as the starting place for a nonstandard report requirement. You can read this file in many word-processing programs to make your report-writing task easier and more professional. Unless instructed otherwise, assume the following in drafting your reports: (1) your firm Anderson, Olds, Watershed (AOW) conducted the audit examination of the identified client, (2) the fiscal year-end is December 31, 2014, (3) the date of the auditors' report is February 10, 2015, and (4) the client is not publicly traded and, therefore, not subject to the auditing and reporting requirements of AS 5.