Working papers: what we keep and what the client receives
Advisory work produces two piles of paper, even when both piles are electronic. One is the report and its appendices, written for the client. The other is our working file: sampling sheets, queries, and notes of conversations that helped us decide what to test.
The client always receives the report, the agreed appendices, and any schedule we promised in the engagement letter. That usually includes the exception list, the lineage diagram if lineage was in scope, and a description of the sample.
We keep the working file for the period stated in the letter, then destroy it according to our retention schedule. We do not hand over raw interview notes as a matter of course. Those notes may include comments from staff who were helping us in good faith and who are not the addressee of the report.
If a regulator, an external auditor, or a successor reviewer needs to see more, we discuss that with the client first. We will not send our file to a third party because someone forwarded an email. The engagement letter names the addressee and the permitted use.
Clients who want copies of re-performance spreadsheets should say so at scoping. We can include them as appendices. Asking after the closing meeting means we may already have stripped source identifiers from our archive copies.