Qualified Opinion
Categories: Regulations
"Qualified," as in: not totally, not completely. As in: "I'm hedging my bets in giving an opinion on the accuracy of this audit; it's only a qualified opinion until further research can be done."
That'd be the tone of the audit chair, who is worried that the company may have some kind of reporting issue. Might be massive, like real fraud: the CFO is absconding with...whatevers. Or it might just be a revenue recognition timing count for a promotional campaign the company ran (a year's worth of subscription for a dollar if you signed up for two more years), and now you're wondering how to best account for this situaiton when 14% of your subscribers died in the interim. (What? It was a life insurance magazine sponsored by a denture cream company.)
So qualified opinions aren't vetted. They're more like, "Ok, I think I like this discount fish burrito, but my opinion is qualified for about 90 minutes until I see what happens...and no, I'm not getting into that small airplane now with no bathroom."
