How do I go from gathering evidence to forming an audit opinion?

You are good at gathering the evidence. It is the last step, turning all of it into an actual opinion, that overwhelms you. That leap from facts to a conclusion feels like a cliff, because gathering is safe and concluding means committing. But the opinion is not a separate magic act. It is what the evidence already points to, once you stop and listen to it. The overwhelm comes from feeling like you have to weigh everything at once and be right. You do not. You have to answer one question: taken together, do the numbers fairly represent reality, or not? Everything you gathered is there to answer that. Sort your evidence into what supports yes and what raises doubt, and the picture usually tips one way more than the fog made it seem. So next time, before you agonize, write the question at the top of the page and put your evidence in those two columns underneath. Look at the weight on each side. The opinion is usually already there, waiting for you to say it out loud. You are not inventing a conclusion. You are naming the one the evidence already made.