Sunday, 1 January 2017

The Importance 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.

For an audit to be efficient, it must be tailored to the particular needs of the organization. The procedure used in conducting these engagements is usually the same for all companies. The accountant begins by assessing the nature of task and organization so as to ascertain the risks involved and viability of the work. Crucial things that one must consider during this engagement acceptance process are the existence of pending lawsuits, the reliability of company management and any other particular circumstances.

Upon acceptance of the job, this professional has to write an audit letter indicating the timing, associated responsibilities and costs. Then, he or she has to start planning for the engagement. The standards required of this auditor make it necessary that he or she does adequate preparation and planning. The gist of this plan is to enable this professional to gain an understanding of the business and industry, performing patterns and ratio analysis and internal control protocol.

This professional also has to conduct some audit tests of the monetary data availed. This person performs these tests during his or her time at the offices or the fieldwork course. This expert does this by choosing a random sample of several payments to ascertain whether they due course was diligently followed by those concerned. This auditor also reviews the invoices related to the payments.

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.

Towards process completion, this auditor must write a detailed opinion report of the assessed financial statements and other associated company practices. This opinion is supposed to provide assurance that company employees are following the underlying principles of accounting. It is also supposed to point out witnessed weaknesses in the firm.

There are instances whereby people have challenged the findings of such engagements through the court procedure. To avoid being caught off-guard, ensure that you keep a copy of this document. Management must have signed against their responsibilities during the process. This copy should be duly recorded and filed.




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