What should be the nature and extent of evidentiary matter required in support of the control evaluation?
The proposed guidance explains the nature and extent of evidential matter that management must maintain in order to provide reasonable support to its evaluation of operating effectiveness of controls including how management has flexibility in approaches to documentation. The proposed guidance indicates that such documentation can take many forms, can be presented in a number of ways, and does not need to include all controls within a process that impacts financial reporting. The proposed guidance provides that the evidential matter maintained in support of the assessment would also include the methods and procedures it utilizes to gather and evaluate evidence and the basis for its conclusions about the controls related to individual financial reporting elements. The proposed guidance indicates that in those situations in which management is able to rely on its daily interaction with its controls as a basis for its assessment, management may have limited documentation created specifica
