My understanding is that "material" is a technical term in accounting. A "material" effect is one that will have a noticable impact on the business.
Example: $100 missing from a single petty cash account would have almost no impact on a multi-site business and wouldn't be reported as "material" losses. $100 missing from every petty cash account would be different and probably would be reported as a "material" deficiency because it means there is an issue with controls.
disclaimer: My experience with accounting is a single accounting class and having run a budget for a business with $60k monthly for a few months before I left.
Example: $100 missing from a single petty cash account would have almost no impact on a multi-site business and wouldn't be reported as "material" losses. $100 missing from every petty cash account would be different and probably would be reported as a "material" deficiency because it means there is an issue with controls.
disclaimer: My experience with accounting is a single accounting class and having run a budget for a business with $60k monthly for a few months before I left.