2004-5 Electronic Filing of Audit Reports

June 25, 2004

To:    All Local Units of Government; and all CPA firms of Local Units of Government

From:    Suzanne Schafer, Administrator; Local Audit and Finance Division; Bureau of Local Government Services

RE:     Electronic Filing of Audit Reports

Starting with the 2003 fiscal year, the Department of Treasury (Treasury) is requesting that all audits required in accordance with Public Act 2 of 1968 and Public Act 71 of 1919 be submitted in an electronic format.

Michigan Compiled Law 141.427(1) states "The state treasurer shall prescribe minimum auditing procedures and standards and these shall conform as nearly as practicable to generally accepted auditing standards established by the American institute of certified public accountants. (2) A report of the auditing procedures applied in each audit shall be prepared on a form provided for this purpose by the state treasurer. The state treasurer may require that the audit report, or the report of auditing procedures, or both, that are required by this subsection to be filed with the state treasurer be filed in an electronic format prescribed by the state treasurer." (Emphasis added)

All audit reports submitted to Treasury including the Auditing Procedures Report (496), the Management Letter (Comments and Recommendations), and any other document that is to be filed with the audit report should be submitted in a Portable Document Format(PDF) compatible with Adobe Acrobat.

The audit reports must be submitted on a CD-ROM to:

Michigan Department of Treasury
Local Audit and Finance Division
P.O. Box 30728
Lansing, Michigan, 48909-8228

Although MCL 141.427 grants Treasury the authority, we are not mandating that the audit report be filed electronically at this time. However, we strongly recommend this method of filing. Treasury is committed to improving the filing process of the audit reports and related documentation and reducing the cost associated with a paper document. Under development is an electronic filing system that will allow the appropriate documents to be transmitted to Treasury via the Internet. Accepting audit reports on a CD-ROM is the first step in this process. All audits filed will be available for viewing or downloading on Treasury's website at www.Michigan.gov/Treasury.

The audit report and related documentation should be assembled as one document and submitted as one document (file) per CD. The order in which the PDF file should be assembled is as follows:

                1. Auditing Procedures Report (496)
                2. Audit Report/Single Audit Report
                3. Management Letter (Comments and Recommendations)
                4. Other documentation as needed

Other requirements:

                1. Linked text to the table of contents

Audit Reports not filed in compliance with the above requirements may be rejected.

If you have any questions, please call our office at 517-373-3227.