Submitting A Report To The Legislative Auditor

Questions:

Must a report be submitted by a specific time on the statutory due date to avoid a late report finding?

Reports that are submitted to LLA by 11:59 p.m. on the statutory due date (or on the next business day if the due date falls on a weekend, state holiday, or day that LLA is closed due to other reasons) are not required to include a late report finding.

I am a CPA who has completed an audit report; but the due date of the report is still two months away. May I submit the report to LLA that far ahead of the due date?

LLA will not only accept early submission of reports, but encourages CPAs to submit reports as soon as they are completed.

I am a CPA who has completed an audit report. The report has been reviewed and accepted by the board chairman and the chief financial officer, but the report has not been presented to the board in a public meeting. May I submit an audit report to LLA that has not been accepted by the governing board?

It is advisable for the CPA to present a draft copy of an audit report to the local auditee’s governing board as a courtesy prior to submitting the report to LLA. However, it is not required. It also may not be practical because the board may not have a meeting scheduled between the completion of the audit engagement and the due date of the report. An appointed agency representative, such as the board chairman, chief executive officer, or the chief financial officer should sign off on the audit report before it is submitted to LLA; but it is not necessary that the report be approved by the board prior to submission.
Reports submitted to LLA are subject to revision until they are issued as public documents on the LLA website. Therefore, if the CPA does present an audit report to the local auditee’s governing board before the report is submitted to or issued by LLA, it is recommended that the CPA place a “draft” watermark on each page of the report; and collect any copies of the audit report that were distributed to the board at the end of the meeting. It is also recommended that the CPA inform the local auditee that the report is subject to revision until it is issued by LLA.

I am a new contact person for an approved CPA firm. When will I receive my user name and password to be able to submit reports through the web portal?

You should receive your user name and password within a few days after you are set up as a contact for the CPA firm. If you do not, please call LLA’s Engagement Manager.

How do I retrieve a lost user name and password?

Call LLA’s HelpDesk at (225) 339-3800.

Can the local auditee submit their report through the portal if I give them my user name and password?

LLA asks CPAs to not share their user names and passwords with local auditees. LLA prefers that CPAs submit reports because CPAs are less likely to submit reports that have not been finalized. LLA assumes that any report submitted through the portal is submitted by a CPA, and is complete and ready to be issued when it is submitted. A local auditee that has access to the CPA’s login information may, for example, submit an incomplete or draft report through the portal; and LLA may issue the report as a public document before the error is noted.

I am a CPA. An audit report I have been working on is complete except for the Single Audit report. May I submit the report to LLA without the Single Audit report, and then submit the Single Audit report to LLA when it is complete?

Generally, LLA expects reports to be complete and ready to be issued when they are submitted through the portal, and does not allow submission of a report through the portal that is not complete and does not have all of its required components.

An exception is made if a local auditee's audit report is ready to be submitted to LLA, but because of delays in federal guidance related to the expenditure of federal funds the local auditee has received, the Single Audit will be delayed. If a local auditee wishes to submit their audit report to LLA without the Single Audit report due to a delay in federal guidance, the local auditee or the CPA must notify LLA through the extension request form on LLA's website before the due date of the audit report. A full explanation of the reason for the delay of the Single Audit report must accompany the request, and the request must plainly state that the extension is for the Single Audit report only, not the audit report, the statewide agreed-upon procedures report, the school board/charter school performance measures agreed-upon procedures report, or any other report that is required by Louisiana statute or LLA policy.

Upon receipt of the original audit report and other reports required by Louisiana statute or LLA policy, LLA will review and issue the report package as a public document. If the extension is approved by LLA and the audit report and other required reports except the Single Audit are submitted to LLA by the statutory due date, no late report finding is required to be included in the audit report or the Single Audit report.

When the local auditee's Single Audit report is complete the CPA will submit a revised report package to ereports@lla.la.gov that includes the Single Audit report, the original audit report and any other reports that were originally submitted to LLA, and a letter prepared on the letterhead of either the local auditee or the CPA firm stating that the original report package that was submitted to LLA has been revised to include the Single Audit report. The letter will be issued with the audit report and the Single Audit report, as the first page of the report package.

The auditor should review and follow the guidance in AU-C Section 560.13 (AU-C 560A.11 - A.17) to determine whether it is necessary to dual date the auditor's opinion in the revised report package; and AU-C Sections 560.15 - 18 (AU-C 560A.18 - A.26) regarding notification to the parties to whom the original audit report was distributed.

CPA firms also have the option, with the agreement of the local auditee, of performing the Single Audit with the existing federal guidance and submitting the audit report and the Single Audit report to LLA by the state statutory deadline; with the understanding that the report may need to be revised if the new federal guidance is materially different from the guidance under which the audit was performed.

The audit report is finished, but management has not responded to the findings. Should I submit the report anyway?

LLA expects reports to be complete and ready to be issued when they are submitted through the portal. LLA requires management’s response be included with any finding or management letter comment. Do not submit a report through the portal that is not complete and does not have all of its required components.

Is the management letter submitted with the report or in a separate document?

If a management letter is issued in connection with an audit report, it is expected to be submitted with the audit report, in the same document as the report.

Are there any reports that are not submitted through the portal?

Any report for which an engagement was not approved (such as a university foundation report) is submitted through ereports@lla.la.gov. See also Special Reporting – College and University Foundations, Alumni Associations, and Building Corporations.

Are revised reports submitted through the portal?

A revised report may be submitted through the portal if the originally submitted report has not been issued by LLA. You must first call LLA’s Engagement Manager to determine the status of the report, and so that the report may be put on hold. If a report has been issued by LLA, the revised report must be submitted through ereports@lla.la.gov, with a cover letter explaining the reason for the revision. See also Reissued Reports.

I am in the portal and I don’t see the engagement for the report I am trying to submit. What should I do?

Call LLA’s Engagement Manager. It may be that there is a problem with the engagement approval that needs to be addressed on LLA’s end, or it may be that the engagement agreement was never submitted by the CPA.

What is the purpose of the CPA’s entering financial information into the FIW, information regarding findings, and information such as the type of opinion rendered, into the portal?

The FIW was developed to allow LLA to capture certain information about local auditees for the purpose of identifying those entities that are experiencing financial distress.
The purpose of entering information into the portal regarding findings is to facilitate the reporting of unresolved findings required by Louisiana Revised Statute 24:554 (B). This law allows the Legislative Audit Advisory Council (LAAC) to direct the state treasurer to withhold funds from any local auditee that has failed for three consecutive years, and without appropriate cause, to resolve the findings contained in the local auditee’s annual financial report. See also Unresolved Findings and the Three Strikes Rule.
The other information about reports, such as the type of opinion rendered, is used by LLA staff to identify reports that have certain conditions in them, such as a modified opinion or a going concern condition, that require special handling during report review. Reports that do not have these conditions undergo an expedited report review. This information was formerly reported to LLA on the data collection form submitted with each report. The state data collection form is no longer submitted with the report; the information is now entered into a form on the portal in lieu of the data collection form.

If a local auditee expended federal funds and is required to submit the federal data collection form to the federal government, must the federal data collection form be submitted with the report to LLA?

No. Neither the former state data collection form, nor the current federal data collection form, should be submitted to LLA when a report is submitted through the portal.