Unmodified Vs unqualified opinion:
Unmodified and unqualified opinion makes a lot of people confusing and even some auditors.
Before we explain the difference between these two terms, unmodified and unqualified opinion, we should guide you on which auditing standard that you should go to deal with audit opinion.
Some audit firms use local audit standards that allow and require by the local authority to perform their auditing works while most of the international audit firms use both local and international standards on auditing.
You can check this with your company’s annual audit report. It normally states in the standard of use section.
Assuming that ISA is the standard that we use to perform our financial audit and the standard we use to deal with issuing audit reports or opinions is ISA 700 as well as ISA 705.
Well, to deal with audit opinion based on international standards on auditing, the auditor should go to ISA 700 and ISA 705.
ISA 700 dealing with unmodified audit opinion and ISA 705 is dealing with modified opinion.
Now, that enough for which ISA we should go to deal with when issuing the opinion on financial statements based on audit standard. Now let move to the different between Unmodified Opinion and Unqualified Opinion.
Explaining the difference:
If you go to ISA 700 and searching for term unqualified, you will never found it.
Right?
Let try searching it by yourself, ok?
Do you know why?
Well, because IFAC did not use term unqualified in its standard to call or refer to the opinion express by the auditor to the financial statements that do not have any problem. The clean opinion.
But instead, it uses the term unmodified.
Unmodified is the official term to express such an opinion or to call such an opinion.
But unqualified is the term called by general accountant and auditor when they refer to that kind of opinion. So, there is no difference, it just the term. But the meaning is the same.
In conclusion, unmodified and unqualified opinions refer to the opinion issued by the auditor to the financial statements that they found no material misstatements.
In case auditors found that there is a material misstatement, they will issue a qualified or adverse opinion based on the materiality as well as their effect on the financial statements.
