Qualified Opinion
AdvancedA qualified opinion is an audit opinion stating that a company's financial statements are fairly presented except for a specific matter, where the auditor has found a material problem or could not obtain enough evidence, but the issue is not widespread.
Auditors express one of several types of opinion. An unmodified, or clean, opinion means the statements are fairly presented. A qualified opinion means they are fairly presented except for a particular issue, which the auditor explains.
A qualified opinion may arise because a company has applied an accounting rule incorrectly in one area, such as valuing inventory, or because the auditor could not obtain enough evidence on a specific item, for example because records for an overseas subsidiary were destroyed.
For example, an auditor might state that the financial statements are fairly presented, except that the company has not recorded an impairment of a particular investment, which would have reduced profit by a stated amount.
A qualified opinion is a warning sign, but it is less serious than an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion, which apply when problems are pervasive. Investors and lenders take qualified opinions seriously, and some loan agreements treat them as a breach of conditions.
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