“If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen.”
This statement from a government auditor stopped Sam Mansour cold during his career, and it should stop you, too. Say you’ve just completed four hours of meticulous audit work, but your reviewer spends an hour trying to decipher what should take 15 minutes to review. That’s not just frustrating; it’s a documentation failure that could sink an otherwise excellent audit.
In a recent episode of the Audit Smarter podcast, hosts Abdullah Mansour and Sam Mansour, CPA, explain why documentation is a persistent weakness in audit files across firms of all sizes. Despite years of training and countless review comments, auditors continue to treat this critical skill as an afterthought—a box to check after the “real work” is done.
When Great Audits Fail
Auditors spend hours conducting fieldwork, asking all the right questions, pulling perfect samples, and demonstrating exceptional professional skepticism. Yet months later, during a peer review, the work receives a failing grade.
Why? Documentation so unclear reviewers couldn’t understand what they actually did.
“If you don’t document it properly, how is anyone supposed to know what you actually did?” Sam asks. “You could say you audited certain sections. You could say you did these procedures, but if you don’t actually document that in a memo and show the work that you did, it’s really difficult for anyone to follow.”
Documentation is the sole evidence of audit quality, so it’s more than a compliance requirement; it’s “how you tell the story of that audit.”
The Four Essential Questions
Every work paper must answer four questions to tell that story effectively:
- What was tested?
- Why was it tested?
- How was it tested?
- What were the results?
These are the minimum requirements for documentation that can stand on its own. Yet Sam regularly encounters work papers that fail to answer even one of these questions clearly.
Consider Sam’s experience auditing farm accounting, where crop harvesting created unusual transactions. Rather than simply verifying journal entries and moving on, he documented how the industry worked and retained professional literature explaining the accounting treatments. “Instead of just verifying the journal entry and moving on, I actually retained documentation showing why that journal entry was proper,” he explains.
Too often, Sam encounters the opposite: PDF files dropped into audit folders with zero context. “You open up a PDF file and you’re like, well, what is this thing?” Even when a document clearly displays “depreciation schedule,” without annotations explaining which procedures were performed or how it links to other work papers, it’s useless.
The problem also extends to client communications. Sam frequently sees emails from clients copied directly into audit files without any auditor analysis. “A client provides an explanation of something via email. We’ll grab that email and stick it into the audit file. And it’s like, okay, so what is this?”
The Hidden Cost Multiplier
When Sam pulls a team member into his office to discuss documentation, the conversation often starts with simple math.
Work that takes four hours to perform should require only 15-20 minutes to review when properly documented. But poor documentation forces reviewers to spend four times that amount. “You are making me work harder,” Sam emphasizes. “It’s literally taking me four times as long because your documentation is so confusing.”
This time multiplication is even more costly when you consider billing rates. Reviewers often bill at nearly double the rate of preparers. When poor documentation forces a manager to spend an hour instead of 15 minutes on review, the budget impact isn’t just the extra 45 minutes—it’s 45 minutes at a significantly higher rate.
But time and money are only surface-level costs. The deeper damage occurs when overwhelmed reviewers can no longer catch critical issues. “You increase the risk of audit deficiencies during a peer review or inspection,” Sam warns, “because you’re making it so much harder for the reviewers to catch everything.”
The Learning Gap
Perhaps the most insidious cost is the lost learning opportunity. When documentation is vague, reviewers can’t provide specific, actionable guidance.
“If you detailed it out step by step, a reviewer could say, ‘Hey, did you think about this step?’ or ‘Why don’t you consider doing this?”‘ Sam explains. “But when it’s vague, it’s like, I have no idea what you did.”
This feedback vacuum stunts professional development. A team member once told Sam that review comments felt overwhelmingly negative: “There’s never any positive feedback. It’s always negative.” While Sam initially dismissed this as just part of the process, he later recognized that when documentation is consistently poor, the review process becomes purely corrective rather than developmental.
The career implications are severe. “When people in auditing are disorganized and don’t document well, the disorganization comes through in their documentation,” Sam observes. “And if you’re trying to rise up through the ranks, it’s not a good sign.”
Building Documentation Excellence
“Document as you go. Document as you go. Document as you go.”
Sam repeats this mantra three times for emphasis, calling it “one of the biggest pitfalls for myself and for other people.” The memory problem is more severe than most auditors realize. “Your memory is not as great as you think it is,” Sam warns. “You lose bits and pieces as time passes.”
Creating Standalone Work Papers
The solution is to build documentation habits throughout the workday. “Think of every work paper as a standalone work paper,” Sam emphasizes. Each document needs clear annotations explaining what it is, why you included it, and how it connects to other work papers.
For example, when pulling in a depreciation schedule provided by the client, don’t just drop it into the folder. Add annotations explaining its purpose and link it to related testing documentation. This bi-directional linking creates what Sam calls “breadcrumbs” that allow reviewers to follow the audit trail effortlessly.
The Self-Review Strategy
Sam offers a useful tip for learning from feedback: “Open up a Word document, and when you get review comments, copy them into that document.” Label each comment by work paper reference. Before submitting future work in similar areas, consult this personal feedback log.
“Look through the review comments you received last time and see if they apply to this work paper,” Sam suggests. This prevents reviewers from having to give the same feedback repeatedly, which can be a major source of frustration.
With today’s technology, there’s no excuse for poor documentation habits. “You can record and get transcriptions of calls. You can take notes on your phone. You can take notes on your computer,” Sam notes. “There’s no reason other than—I’m going to be honest—laziness.”
Templates and Coaching
Templates are another helpful tool, but Sam cautions against using them blindly. “You can leverage templates to guide you through the process,” he explains. When creating standardized emails, add personal touches: “Hey, how was the trip last year?” before transitioning to standard language.
For managers, the key is coaching rather than just correcting. “Walk them through well-documented files to show them what good documentation looks like,” Sam advises. When someone does exceptional work, “point out the win” during wrap-up meetings. This positive reinforcement creates a culture that celebrates good documentation rather than merely criticizing poor documentation.
Your Path Forward
Documentation determines whether your audit succeeds or fails, and Sam’s framework for excellence is surprisingly straightforward:
- Every work paper must stand alone – readable without hunting through other files
- If reviewers need to ask questions, it’s not done – documentation should answer everything
- Remember the triple benefit – good documentation reduces stress, speeds reviews, and protects the firm
The choice is yours. You can continue treating documentation as an annoying afterthought, forcing reviewers to waste hours deciphering your work while your career stagnates. Or you can implement these strategies, transforming documentation from your greatest weakness into your most powerful professional asset.
Want to dive deeper into these documentation strategies? Listen to the full episode of the Audit Smarter podcast, where Sam and Abdullah share additional techniques and real-world examples to transform your approach to audit documentation. Your future self (and your reviewers) will thank you.