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Tuesday, 3 January 2017

The Purposes Of Financial Audit Services

By Joyce McDonald


As a business owner or stakeholder ensuring that your assets are well protected is a serious matter. One way you can make sure that your business property is safe is by conducting regular financial audit services. An audit is an independent, impartial assessment of these financial reports and reporting procedure. These services are undertaken with designs of giving stakeholders such as investors, managers, regulators and directors rational guarantee that monetary reports are complete and accurate.

Some employees especially the top management and senior accountants have tendencies of corrupting the financial reporting system for their selfish motives. These engagements are aimed at highlighting such malpractices and protecting stakeholder interests in the organization. For this reason, the role of auditing a firm is usually assigned to independent certified public accountants. The role of this professional is to determine whether the issued financial statements are formulated following the universally recognized accounting doctrines. Apart from certified accountants, in Houston, TX this task can also be performed by nonprofit organizations and government agencies.

Despite the fact that each appraisal must be specifically designed to meet the particular needs of the firm in question, the approach is usually the same in Houston, TX. Before the examination can start, the practitioner must begin by seeking engagement acceptance. This implies that the accountant has to assess the risks concerned with this procedure. This professional has to inquire about the reliability of management, existing grievances and any other unique conditions. He or she also has to evaluate the staffing required to finish the task and their ability to sustain an independent perspective.

Once this person has decided to accept the project, he or she will have to write an engagement letter detailing the responsibility, costs and timing. The next step involves thorough planning for the task. Auditing standards necessitate that the accountant adequately plans for the audit. This plan entails ascertaining an understanding of this business, documenting entity, performing trend and ratio analysis, internal control procedure and misstatement risk assessment.

Since the main area of interest is the financial reporting system, this auditor must conduct some tests into this department. This expert conducts these tests during field work or his or her stay at the office. This professional randomly selects a good number of financial statements and reviews if the cash flows are rightly done. For surety, this person must also check out the related invoices.

After ascertaining ample information from the disbursements and invoices, this auditor will proceed to check out the accounts. Statement analysis is a very crucial part of engagement. The cash balances that are indicated in the primary analysis and documentation must match those available in the actual accounts. One should also analyze management reactions to inquiries, previous test outcomes and records of audit adjusting entries.

Upon completion, this specialist has to issue an opinion on the reviewed financial statements. That view should indicate whether the reports of this organization are presented under generally accepted accounting principles or not. Additionally, this auditor is expected to draft the necessary statements and the associated notes for management.

After finishing the engagement and forwarding the finding to the concerned authorities, this account is expected to retain proper documentation relating to the audit procedure and get signatures from management indicating the roles they played in the process. This document will prove very imperative in case of a future lawsuit pertaining the reported figures.




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