One of the procedures that you have been assigned to perform on the audit of Reengage Corporation is sending bank confirmations. Your audit firm has a policy of sending confirmations to all financial institutions where a banking relationship exists, although the policy acknowledges that various instances may not require sending confirmations (for example, accounts with no activity for the period under audit, petty cash accounts at branch locations). You note several accounts in which the cash balances are relatively small. You believe that sending confirmations will not be necessary to the financial institutions where Reengage Corporation has an account with a small balance.
a. What type of evidence is obtained through bank confirmations?
b. Use the framework for professional decision making from Chapter 4 to determine the appropriate steps to take in deciding on to which financial institutions a confirmation should be sent. Recall that the framework is as follows: