[Sarah1421]

I don’t know why this subject is causing me grief – Can someone explain piecemeal opinions and how they are different than being engaged to audit a single financial statement or account? Do you call it “piecemeal” only when an audit opinion on the complete set of financials was adverse/disclaimer?? And you want to INCLUDE it with the adverse/disclaimer (which is not allowed)?

From what I gather, piecemeal opinions are no longer okay (I keep seeing websites saying “when they were allowed” or “GAAP no longer allow auditors to provide piecemeal opinions”).

Then, my material says you can express an “unmodified” opinion on a specific element (and then entire FS had an adverse/disclaimer opinion) if 1) the opinion is not published with the complete set of financials, and 2) it’s not a major portion of the complete set of financials (such as a balance sheet).

But, we all know we can audit a single financial statement… or even specified elements, accounts, or items.

I know I’m missing something obvious… It’s just reading like a contradiction.

FAR - 90
AUD - 91
BEC - 86
REG - 87

[Anonymous]

Piecemeal opinions happen when an auditor is engaged to report on a specific element or a single financial statement and essentially, it would be contradictory to issue an unmodified opinion on either one of those if there is an adverse or disclaimer of opinion issued on the complete set of financial statements. You can't say that a specific element or single FS is fair in all material respects, if you're saying there's a major problem with the financial statements as a whole- that's totally contradictory.

There is an exception to this rule however; a piecemeal opinion is acceptable if the two opinions are not issued together AND the single element that is being report does not constitute a major portion of the financial statements. Because a single financial statement does in theory, constitute a major portion of the FS, it is never okay to have a piecemeal opinion on that.

Just think about simply- the whole rule comes down to contradiction. Hope that helps a little!

[Author]

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