Qualified audit opinion
The auditor signs off the accounts but with a reservation: on one specific area evidence was unobtainable, or the auditor disagrees with how it was presented.
How to read the number
That a qualification exists matters more than its wording: the auditor found a place where the accounts may be wrong and named it.
When the metric lies
Easily confused with an emphasis-of-matter paragraph, where the auditor disputes nothing and merely points at something the company has already disclosed.
Also known as: audit qualification