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.

The accountancy profession has built up a significant amount of expertise in performing financial statements audits.

Accounts audits were established as an instrument to protect third parties, the users of accounts, since the auditor's opinion helps establish credibility of financial statements.

Special bodies of users, such as supervisory boards, employee representatives, government agencies may sometimes need an indepth audit report, which is usually confidential.

It should be stressed that auditors do not monitor, they offer an opinion, and the audit process and audit procedures are complicated and manifold. The auditor's opinion is gradually being built up from a mass of detailed work to the final judgement 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. Interestingly enough, however, the auditor's attention is not directed towards the financial statements' elements as such, but towards the correctness of various assumptions made by the management for their preparation. 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.¹ 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.

Although the financial statements are the ultimate objectives of an audit, normally such audits cannot be completed without a proper study and evaluation of the accounting system and assessment of the internal accounting controls.

Defining the audit strategy the auditor has to decide whether to rely on internal controls or to resort to substantive testing applying analytical review procedures, such as tests in totals, comparison with budgets or even statistical analysis of figures.

In the planning stage as well as during, the performance of audit procedures and, finally, in forming conclusions, "materiality" and "audit risk" are critical elements in the auditor's judgement. "Materiality" refers to the magnitude or nature of a misstatement (including an omission) of financial information.

"Audit risk" (including three different components – inherent risk, control risk, detection risk) is the risk that an auditor may give an inappropriate opinion on financial information that is materially misstated.

The natural fmalization 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 opinion².

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.

Below you will find a sample of an auditor's opinion: