Update of the GAO/CIGIE Financial Audit Manual (FAM)

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) maintain the Financial Audit Manual (FAM), which presents a methodology to perform financial statement audits of federal entities in accordance with professional standards. 

The FAM, last updated in 2008, incorporates:

• the AICPA’s Clarified Auditing Standards
• GAO’s 2011 Yellow Book, and
• OMB’s latest federal financial statement audit guidance.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the current updates to the FAM’s three volumes: (1) Audit Methodology, (2) Audit Tools, and (3) Checklists.
• Recognize the process by which the FAM was updated.
• Recall the standards and guidance changes that impacted the update to the FAM.
• Indicate the key changes to the FAM.