CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Back ground of the study.
An audit is the examination and checking of financial statements by a professional auditor or accountant who has had no part in its preparation. The process involves an examination of the evidence from which the final revenue accounts and balance sheet, or other statements of an organization have been prepared, in order to ascertain that they present a true reflection of the summarized transactions for the period under review and of the financial state of the organization at the end date, so enabling the auditor to report thereon. The objective of the ordinary audit of financial statements by the independent auditor is the expression of an opinion as to the fairness with which
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Auditor’s business and professional futures depend on integrating attest services with, the information user’s demand and delivery systems they can use. This integration will involve developing attest services to deal with 1) relevance as well as reliability 2) non-financial information as well as traditional financial statements 3) electronic databases as well as printed financial reports. Traditional attest functions have therefore expanded resulting in an equally expanded assurance function to involve the expression of written or oral conclusions on the reliability and / or information systems.
We can summarize the main objectives of auditing therefore as: 1. The confirmation of the accuracy of accounts and statements 2. Detection of errors and frauds. 3. Prevention of errors and frauds.
However, to qualify as an auditor, one must be a member of the institute of Chartered Accountants as defined under the Chartered Accountants Act 1963 (170) and must not have been disqualified from acting as an auditor by any legislative instrument by the registrar. An auditor, therefore, is a person who reports on the accounts of an organization or enterprise. Nevertheless; there are two types of audit, namely Internal and External audit. But for the purpose of our study; we would want to concentrate much on internal audit.
The auditor is responsible for obtaining sufficient appropriate audit evidence about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatements. In addition to understanding whether the amounts reported in the financial statements are mathematically
An important decision for any shareholder is deciding whether or not to do business with that company. When a business is audited, the operations are reviewed to make sure that nothing is being hidden. An auditor will review the company’s financial statement and practices to confirm that each are direct and correct. The financial statements are the business’s way of representing them and showing that they are following the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The audit process is an important one because it provides a platform for the auditor’s opinion concerning the financial statements of the company. As part of the audit process the auditor will conduct an audit plan that outlines a number of actions that he or she will be perform while also detailing the reason for those actions. With every audit, the business’s management is in charge of handing over the financial statements that the auditor will review; while the auditor will review the statements for any material or immaterial misstatements.
A review and an audit report are both a form of an attestation engagement. A Review, however, is less in scope so it provides a moderate level of assurance on the financial statements. It is considered a “sniff” of an audit, which comparatively provides reasonable assurance that no material misstatements occurred. Since a review deals with a limited scope, it does not provide the basis for expressing an opinion on the presentation of the
Auditing is described as the independent examination of and expression of an opinion on the financial statements of an enterprise by an appointed auditor in pursuance of that appointment and in compliance with any relevant statutory obligation. Thus auditing of information systems can be defined as independent examination of and expression of an opinion on the development, documentation and controls of information systems of an enterprise by an appointed auditor in pursuance of that appointment and in compliance with any relevant company requirement. The purpose of an audit is not to provide additional information but rather it is intended to provide the users of the systems with assurance that the information
a. The auditors should review the client's planning of the physical inventory and make suggestions for improvement.
When assessing an internal auditor’s competence, an auditor ordinarily obtains information about all of the following except
Various activities and steps are conducted when deciding and considering the acceptance of a new audit client including these eight. Firstly, financial statements and reports are acquired and reviewed. These reports include the company’s annual reports, management reports and income tax returns. Next step includes investigating and inquiring of third parties on the particular company. The opinions of third parties especially the external users such as bank, creditors, suppliers, tax authorities and even consumers are essential to know more about a company. Besides that, permission should be gained to communicate with the
Auditing is a subject that applies to most business as there is the need to make constant financial sense of the resources they are employing as well as what they are getting out of it. When taking auditing as a profession into consideration, there is the need to understand that auditors just like lawyers have an association that they have to answer to in terms of their conduct while performing audit operations. The body allows for rules and regulations to apply so as to allow for a standardize means through which audit process will universally apply for any given nation.
Audits are meant to contribute to a company’s financials by bringing assurance that they are in accordance with GAAP. Auditors provide high quality audit opinions on a client and one
Modern data processing systems pose new, risk-laden challenges to the traditional audit process. Whereas it was once possible to conduct a financial statement audit by assessing and monitoring the controls over paper-based transaction and accounting systems, businesses have increasingly turned to electronic transaction and accounting systems. SAS 94 offers guidance on collecting sufficient, competent evidence in an electronic processing environment. It pays particular attention to identifying circumstances when the system of control over electronic processing must be
What is Auditing, Attestation and Assurance? Auditing relates to the analysis of the financial statements, attestation relates to the financial information beyond the financial statements, and assurance relates to improvement of the reliability of the financial information within the financial statements. This paper will give examples of each type of service, who might request these services, the standards that apply to each service, and who establishes those standards. The paper will also provide a comparison and contrast point of view for all three services.
Auditing is the efficient critical examination done by one person or group of people’s independent from the system audited. To do an audit, confirmed information must be present and some standards by which the auditor can evaluate the information. Another is gathering and evaluating any information to determine whether the information being audited is identified in accordance with establish criteria to satisfy the purpose of the audit and also auditors must be competent to identify the types and amount of evidence to accumulate to reach the correct conclusion after the evidence has been examined and finally the preparation of the audit report, which is the communication of the auditor’s findings
The auditor is a person who performs an audit, trained with knowledge needed to evaluate the effectiveness of a company. The auditor must meet for the proper performance of their profession, features such as solid general culture, technical knowledge, constantly updated, ability to work in multidisciplinary team, creativity, independence, inclusive mentality and vision, objectivity, accountability, among others. In addition to this, this professional must have a comprehensive and progressive training.
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.
A company prepares financial statement to provide information about its financial position and performance. This information is in turn used by a wide range of stakeholders (such as investors, banks, customers, suppliers etc) in making economic decisions with respect to respective economic interest in the company. Typically, in terms of ownership by investment in shares of the company, shareholders though own the company but do not manage it. Therefore, the shareholder and other such stakeholders to get comfort in taking sound decision need independent assurance from the auditors that the financial statements reflect true and fair view of the company affairs in all material respects. Hence, in order to enhance the level of