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Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Main Facts Regarding Financial Audits

By Rena Hudson


Financial audits, also known as financial statements audits, refers to the verification of statements of legal entities, with the intent to express audit opinions. This opinion is designed to provide assurance, which is reasonable but not absolute, that the statements are presented fairly. That is, given a fair or true view that fits with the financial reporting framework.

These audits serve as objective independent exams of these statements. They improve the value and credibility of statements put together by management. In turn, this increases confidence of users, reduces amount of risk for investors and even lowers the capital cost of statement preparers.

The practice is considered customary by firms of accountants, who are professional experts with this kind of reporting. This sort of audit is an assurance function that is provided through accounting businesses. Many organizations choose to employ or hire internal auditors who are mostly in charge of internal controls for the business. There are also external auditors and these professionals tend to rely less on the work being produced by internal professionals.

Accuracy and transparency of financial disclosures are encouraged through this process. This process reduces the amount of concealment of bad behavior done by large corporations. The standard or benchmark of this is the International Standards on Auditing, also called ISA. This is provided by the IAASB, also called International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. Most jurisdictions follow the ISA or a close variation of it.

The overall purpose of this practice is to give credibility to management. The statements it issues should properly reflect the position and performance of an organization for its stakeholders. In general, the primary stakeholders in a company are also its shareholders. Regulators, employees, customers, banks, tax authorities and suppliers are just some of the parties who have interest in whether the statements are fair.

These do not provide assurance that is complete because they do not include test of all transactions and balances. Instead, they provide a sample. This process is used to reduce the occurrence of misstatements in reports, caused by fraud or simple errors. In general, these provide value by easing the cost of info asymmetry, as well as lowering information risk. Oversight of this kind is also done on government departments in most developed countries.

Numerous methods and processes are used in auditing. As far as collection and accumulation of evidence, professionals may use a wide variety of methods. Auditors typically do checking, casting, inspection, verification, year-end scrutiny, bank reconciliation, posting checking, confirmation, physical exam, re-computation and more.

Financial audits are a type of oversight. Professionals who do this work are given the title of auditors and can be external or internal. This process is done to verify the validity of financial statements. It is not used as a way to gain absolutely assurance of statements, but instead, reasonable assurance that management of an organization has been correct and fair in its filings. The info that is collected is especially important to stakeholders, tax authorities, banks, regulators, customers, suppliers and shareholders. Many methods may be used to gather and assess info for auditing.




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