The key financial statements and the auditor‘s report

　　A company's annual report must contain three key financial statements —— the Balance Sheet （BS）， the Income Statement （IS）， and the Statement of Changes in Financial Positions （SCFP）。 An unqualified audit opinion from the auditor will not be possible if any of the three statements is absent. In an unqualified audit report， the auditor certifies that the audited financial statements are prepared in accordance with of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles （GAAP） and are able to fairly present the company's financial position at the end of the financial year and its performance as well as the changes in financial positions for the financial year. An unqualified audit report is also known as a “clean” report.

　　The BS is the statement that presents the company's financial position at the year-end. The company's performance and changes in financial positions for the year are respectively presented by the IS and the SCFP.

　　For a financial year， the company has a BS at the start， another at the end. They are like two pictures of the company， one taken at the start of the year， the other at the end of the year. How the company changed from the first picture to the second picture is captured by the IS and SCFP of the year.

　　According to the opinion expressed by the auditor， there are essentially three types of audit reports， the unqualified or clean report mentioned above， the qualified report， and the disclaimer. When an auditor cannot certify the fair-presentation quality of the financial statements， he will issue a qualified opinion or a disclaimer depending on the seriousness of the matter. If in his opinion the financial statements are so misleading that they are not able to fairly present the company's year-end financial position， the performance and financial position changes for the year， he should issue a disclaimer.

　　If he has problem with some （but material） part（s） of the financial statements， a qualified opinion is in order. A qualified opinion does not necessarily imply that the accounting figure in question is false. As long as the auditor is not satisfied with the fair-presentation quality of any material financial， he should qualify his audit opinion with respect to that financial. For example， if the audit work on a subsidiary of the company， due to war， natural disaster， or some other reasons， cannot be carried out to the satisfaction of the auditor， the auditor may have to qualify his opinion on the consolidated financial statements.

　　主要財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)表及審計(jì)意見書

　　每一個(gè)公司的年度報(bào)告都包括了三個(gè)財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)表，它們是資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表、損益表及財(cái)務(wù)狀況變動(dòng)表，三表任缺其一，審計(jì)師就不可能簽發(fā)無保留審計(jì)意見書。在無保留審計(jì)意見書里，審計(jì)師確證公司的財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)表系依據(jù)一般公認(rèn)會(huì)計(jì)原則編制，可以公正表達(dá)公司在該財(cái)務(wù)年年底的財(cái)務(wù)狀況、該財(cái)務(wù)年度的經(jīng)營成果及財(cái)務(wù)狀況的變動(dòng)情形。無保留審計(jì)意見書也稱“潔凈意見書”。

　　表達(dá)公司財(cái)務(wù)年年底財(cái)務(wù)狀況的報(bào)表就是資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表。公司在財(cái)務(wù)年度里的經(jīng)營成果和財(cái)務(wù)狀況變動(dòng)的情況則分別由損益表及財(cái)務(wù)狀況變動(dòng)表來表達(dá)。必須特別強(qiáng)調(diào)的是，所謂的報(bào)表除了表內(nèi)的數(shù)字外，也包括表后的附注說明。我們將在接連下來的幾期分別介紹這三個(gè)報(bào)表。

　　公司在財(cái)務(wù)年度之初有個(gè)資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表，在財(cái)務(wù)年度之末有另一個(gè)資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表，就好像在年初及年尾各拍了一張照片。至于公司究竟如何從年初的樣子變成年末的樣子，就概括在該年度的損益表及財(cái)務(wù)狀況變動(dòng)表里了。

　　審計(jì)意見的種類除了前述的“無保留意見”外，還有“保留意見”及“反面意見”。當(dāng)審計(jì)師無法確證公司的財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)表具有公正表達(dá)性時(shí)，他將視其嚴(yán)重程度，簽發(fā)保留意見或反面意見。如果他認(rèn)為受審的財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)表具有重大的誤導(dǎo)性，根本無法公正表達(dá)公司的財(cái)務(wù)狀況、經(jīng)營成果及財(cái)務(wù)狀況變動(dòng)，他應(yīng)該簽發(fā)反面意見書。

　　保留意見適用于審計(jì)師無法確證報(bào)表中少數(shù)，但重要項(xiàng)目的公正表達(dá)性。保留意見并不一定意味著公司的這些會(huì)計(jì)數(shù)字有假，只要審計(jì)師無法滿意這些數(shù)字的公正表達(dá)，他就應(yīng)該對(duì)這些項(xiàng)目保留意見。例如，公司在某國之子公司，由于戰(zhàn)爭或天災(zāi)，查賬工作無法正常進(jìn)行，以致于審計(jì)師無從判斷該子公司報(bào)表的可信度。包括了此子公司報(bào)表的合并報(bào)表的公正表達(dá)性自然也受到影響，審計(jì)師會(huì)就此困難，對(duì)此部分的財(cái)務(wù)數(shù)字保留其意見。