PERFORMING AN AUDIT

Auditing is a process in which an independent accountant-auditor examines a firm's accounting records and financial statements and offers an opinion on their accuracy and reliability.

There are different types of audits, for example, financial statements audits, income tax audits, "value for money" audits, environmental audits, administrative audits, financial management audits, etc.

It should be stressed that auditors do not monitor, they offer an opinion, and the audit process and audit procedures are various and complicated. The auditor's opinion is gradually being built up from a mass of detailed work to the final judgment through the planning and testing stages. The auditor normally starts with a study of the business environment the audited company is working in and performs a preliminary analytical review.

Then he should direct his attention to the financial statements. For instance, the auditor needs to know if figures are complete and accurate and reflect what they should reflect, if income and expenses are recorded in the proper periods and if the legal position is reflected adequately.

The auditor should focus on any misstatement whether it is intentional or unintentional. The management is responsible for the reliability of financial information. If the management is not prepared to take the responsibility it may be hard to complete the audit. In such situations the auditor should seek his own evidence by means of independent audit procedures.

The natural finalization of the audit process is the auditor's report, reflecting the auditor's opinion on the financial statements. Unfortunately, audits do not always end up in an approval of the financial statements. Any deviation from the unqualified opinion should be explained in the auditor's report, including the uncertainty or the disagreement that caused the auditor to qualify his opinion. In order to protect the public interests and the profession's integrity an individual must be sufficiently educated and adequately trained before being certified to act as an auditor.

Words:

accounting records – документы учета

misstatement – искажение сведений

preliminary analytical review – предварительный анализ фин.хоз.деят-ти