I am a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) conducting the Agreed-Upon Procedures report. I am unable to follow a procedure as specified. What should I do?

If the CPA is unable to perform a procedure or any part thereof, this is considered an exception and should be noted in the results section of the schedule. If the CPA must deviate from the procedure as specified, they should explain in the results section why the procedure could not be followed as specified, what they performed instead, and what the findings were. The CPA should also follow any standards set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for reporting exceptions for attest services.

For example, if the licensee does not have a certain document available that is specified in the procedure/schedule, the CPA should indicate in the results section that the document was not available and explain why. The CPA should then trace the information to some other supporting documentation and explain in the results section of the schedule the document that was used, what was performed, and the findings. If no supporting documentation is available, the CPA should indicate in the results section that no supporting documentation was available.