Introduction
This report is going to explain the role of an auditor and their importance in the work force and what attracts me to the job and why I am interested in PwC and what I hope to gain from the scheme.
What is Audit/Auditor?
The Business Dictionary defines audit as “A systematic examination and verification of a firm’s books of account, transaction records, other relevant documents, and physical inspection of inventory by qualified accountants”.
Auditors can be split into two different divisions, internal auditors and external auditors. They are to follow the Code of Ethics and the International Standards. The nature of the role is contained within the International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF).
The Charted institute of internal auditors states that the role of an internal auditor is to provide independent assurance that an organization’s risk management; governance and internal control processes are operating effectively. Internal auditors are obliged to provide an impartial and objective view. They are independent from the operations they evaluate and report to the senior managers and governors.
Internal auditors deal with issues that are primarily essential to the survival of any organization. Internal auditors help companies succeed, through a combination of assurance and consulting. In comparison to external auditors, they look beyond financial risks and statements to consider wider issues such as the company’s reputation, growth.
KPMG
Having internal controls is one thing, but how the company evaluates that control is a matter all by itself. Being an independent auditor, it is our job to understand an entity and
External audit- Independent auditors examine our business to ensure compliance with regulations, ISO 14001, and our own standards.
Auditors have the responsibilities as well as management to report internal controls. The auditors must examine closely management’s claim of effectiveness and also physically test the controls. After the examination, the auditors should express their opinion and any recommendations to fix any internal control weaknesses.
According to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), The primary objective and responsibilities of auditor is to express an opinion on the fairness with which all financial statement including all of its (material aspects, financial position, the result of the company operation and its overall level of cash flows) AU Suction 110. Thus, what this means is that auditor must be fully independent and must be fully able and willing to apply professional judgment as it relates to the audit engagement under consideration.
Auditors usually use the internal control to assess the adequacy of the accounting system as a basis for preparing the accounts and consider factors that will affect the risk of misstatement. There are five components of internal control such as control environment, risk assessment, controlling activities, information and communication and monitoring
Internal Audit, Internal audit is conducted by the internal auditor who is an employee of an organization. The main purpose of internal audit is to find out whether the internal control system is working successfully or not. The report of the internal
A company might decide to establish an internal audit department because an effective and independent internal audit department add values and improve effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes. It also helps prevent and detect the frauds.
The company should hire it’s own internal auditor’s to ensure that the staff understand the company’s accounting procedures. This also helps the external auditor as it give the external auditor another viewpoint when assessing fraud risks. The internal auditors are apart of those charged with governance and that helps take the pressure off of the external auditor if a fraud should be discovered.
Auditors having the appropriate competence and capabilities to perform the audit, and follow ethical requirements, and maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit.
The auditor’s responsibilities are to audit annual financial statements and internal controls over financial reporting, and reports from the 10-Q quarterly reports. The auditor must also advice on new accounting pronouncements, and consolidating financial statements. (Intel Proxy Statement 2011, 48)
According to ICAEW, auditor independence mainly refers to the independence of the external auditor from parties that have an interest in the financial statements of the business being audited. It requires having both integrity and an objective manner to the auditing process. In order for the concept to be deemed effective the auditor needs to carry out their work freely. One of the main purposes of auditing is to increase credibility of the entity’s’ financial statements, as they have expressed their own professional opinion on the truth and fair view in accordance with the proper accounting standards used. This is only possible if the audit is made with reasonable assurance that it has come from an independent source and has not been influenced by other parties, such as managers, directors or by conflict of interest.
Internal auditing is an independent objective assurance and consulting acitivity designed to add value and improve an organizations operations.
Internal auditors cannot effectively provide an analysis on the company’s internal dealings as they are part of the company. External auditors, however, can observe these processes from the outside and then determine where the funds of the company and whether the dealings adhere to the regulations. Using external auditors in a company prevents conflict of interest from happening. Conflict of interest is a situation where an individual or organization has multiple interests and of those multiple interests, one could possible corrupt the motivation for an act on the other when the auditor has any kind of beneficial interest in their client’s performance. In other circumstances, there is also the threat of familiarity where auditors become
The aim of this essay is to study the function of external auditors in order to analyze why it is important to be independent. The primary mission of external auditors is to review and evaluate all the financial records of a company or corporation. They provide an objective opinion on the organization’s financial statement and effectiveness of the accounting polices in order to help management to make decisions. If the independence of the external auditors is impaired, the public will doubt the quality of professional auditing services, and the consequence would be very serious, just like the bankruptcy of Enron led to the disorganization of Arthur Andersen, once a giant accounting company in the world. In order to maintain and increase
The role of internal audit is to provide independent declaration that an organization’s threatadministration, governance and internal control processes are functioning effectively. Internal auditors deal with concerns that are essentially important to the existence and success of any organization. Unlike external auditors, they aspect beyond financial possibilities and statements to reflect wider problems such as the organization’s reputation, development, its power on the location and the approach it treats its organizations.In summary, internal accountantssupport organizations to thrive.