Lucy Huang has just finished her first audit assignment. She is now assisting her audit manager, Tom Lucas, wrap-up the engagement. He has asked Lucy to make a list of all open review notes, to-do items and audit procedures, and note for each whether the matter requires more attention, has been resolved (but not yet noted on file), or is no longer relevant because of other events.

Tom has also asked Lucy to go through the files and remove all unnecessary documentation, drafts and review notes. Lucy is very nervous about this task because she believes her inexperience will mean that she will not be able to distinguish ‘unnecessary’ from ‘necessary’. She has heard that in a famous case in the United States an audit firm was prosecuted because it shredded files that should have been kept.

Required

(a) What additional attention would open matters require?

(b) Explain why documents on a client’s audit files would be ‘unnecessary’. Give examples.