Consider the role the SEC plays in providing oversight and protection to public companies and the public, respectively. To that end, the SEC has levelled criticism against the accounting profession for not giving significant consideration to the qualitative aspects of materiality.
Please respond to all of the following prompts in one combined main response:
Topic: The Role of the SEC
What do you think the SEC means by this? What factors might make a quantitatively small misstatement qualitatively material?
How would you, as an auditor, develop procedures to build in a qualitative aspect of review and an anticipation of risk?
What background information about a company might be useful to the auditor when planning the audit to account for both quantitative and qualitative issues? Why?