The company has been audited. Can I audit the company myself? How to work with auditors as part of the audit of annual accounts

After the financial statements have been drawn up, the company must, first of all, audit the statements, that is, submit them to an audit firm for verification. Let's say right away that only certain categories of organizations are required to conduct an audit.

An audit is a verification of the reliability of financial statements. Such an audit is carried out by private audit companies or individual entrepreneurs at the expense of the company's money.

Auditing is of two types:

• mandatory;
• voluntary (initiative).

Mandatory audit

• open joint stock companies (JSC);
• firms that received in the year preceding the reporting year revenue (line code 2110 of the income statement) over 400,000,000 rubles. (excluding VAT and excises);
• firms whose balance sheet assets (line code 1600) as of the end of the previous reporting year exceed 60,000,000 rubles;
• banks, insurance companies, exchanges.

As a result, the audit of the financial statements for 2012 may not come as a surprise to the company. Thus, quantitative criteria are indicators of the year preceding the reporting year.

According to the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ, an audit report is not a form of a company's financial statements.

New in 2012 report

The auditor's report is submitted only to the state statistics body at the place of state registration of the company. Moreover, this must be done within a calendar year. It is not necessary to submit it simultaneously with the annual financial statements. So, to audit the statements for 2012, you have the entire 2013 year in reserve (clauses 1 and 2, article 18 of the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ).

But if during the year following the reporting year, the company does not submit a mandatory audit report to the "statistics", this is regarded as an independent administrative offense. It is provided for by a new article of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation - 15.37 "Evasion of a mandatory audit". The protocol is authorized to be drawn up by officials of the state statistical accounting bodies. The violating company will have to pay a fine of 700 thousand rubles. True, sanctions can be expected after a year, that is, in 2014. But one thing is clear: now it is “cheaper” to conduct a mandatory audit than to evade it.

There is also good news. Starting from 2013, it is not required to submit an audit report to the tax office. After all, it is no longer included in the financial statements. And this is fair. The fact is that it is not the reporting company itself that draws up and signs the conclusion, but the inspectors - an audit organization or an individual auditor. The auditor's report is the opinion of independent auditors on the company's financial statements.

Voluntary (proactive) audit

If the firm is not required to be audited, it can be audited on its own (proactive audit).

Most often, a voluntary audit is carried out to insure against a possible tax audit. After all, auditors not only help to detect errors in accounting and tax calculation, but also explain how to correct these errors.

New in 2012 report

In the Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ (clause 1, article 14), a new name for the form was applied - a report on financial results. For the time being, the profit and loss statement is used as it (paragraph 34 of the PVBU). Moreover, starting from the reporting for 2012, non-profit organizations no longer compile this report.

Sometimes an audit is ordered by the founders to determine how conscientiously the head and chief accountant conduct the affairs of the company. The desire to conduct an audit may also arise from the head himself - for example, when changing the chief accountant. The initiator of the audit may be the chief accountant, which is especially important in cases where accounting areas are assigned to several accountants. Audit check will help to reveal how carefully subordinates keep records. And sometimes, following the results of the audit, the chief accountant has additional assistants, because it turns out that the volume of accounting operations is too large, which does not allow keeping records with sufficient scrupulousness.

Audit customers can also be organizations or individuals who plan to invest their funds in the firm. In this case, they are interested in the financial condition and solvency of a possible debtor.

In a proactive audit, your firm determines what and how auditors should audit. You can conduct both a comprehensive (that is, all reporting) and thematic (that is, individual sections of accounting or calculations for a specific tax) audit, as well as determine the period that the inspectors will view.

Help for an accountant

The Internet portal will help you to submit ideal reporting this year and get away from unnecessary difficulties. www.buhgod.ru.

You can also use the popular book. With the book you will receive is free access to the Internet portal to support the submission of annual reports www.buhgod.ru .

Audit checks are selective and continuous. The first option is more common, because it is spelled out in the standards of auditing.

In a spot check, auditors look at a portion of the documents (for example, only large transactions or documents for one quarter). Based on the papers studied, the auditors conclude how well the company's accounting is conducted.

There is always a risk that auditors will not find errors. However, with spot checks, this risk increases. After all, shortcomings can be in those documents that the auditors did not look at. Therefore, audit customers often require continuous checks of all accounting documents.

It is clear that such checks are more time-consuming and, therefore, more expensive.

Checks in which auditors check one section of accounting (for example, payroll or cash transactions) are called thematic.

Tax audit is also very popular, when inspectors control the correctness of tax calculation and tax reporting of the company.

Natalia KALOKHINA

A positive audit result depends on quality preparation. But so that the preparation does not take a lot of effort and time, it must be done wisely. The easiest way is to find out in advance how and what the auditors check, and put things in order in the “right places”.

Neither friend nor foe Often, accountants imagine an audit as a kind of tax audit. The only difference is that this check does not threaten with fines, penalties, forfeits and is carried out for money. But it will bring no less trouble and trouble. However, this notion is far from reality. In fact, auditors come to the firm not as controllers, but as independent experts. Their purpose is to certify the reliability of the financial statements and confirm that the accounting in the organization is kept in accordance with Russian legislation. At the same time, they are not interested in “digging up” as many minor errors and violations as possible. The task of auditors is to identify only significant misstatements in the financial statements as a whole. In auditing practice, there is even a special concept in this regard - the level of materiality. This means that the auditor evaluates only those aspects of the company's economic activity, the incorrect accounting of which can lead to a significant distortion of the reporting. And factors that do not have such a total influence on financial statements are usually not awarded an audit at all. In addition, if the auditor still finds serious errors in you, this is not a verdict. Any deficiencies found can be corrected promptly. And as a result, get a positive audit report. “As practice shows, regardless of the level of qualification of accountants, there is no absolutely correct accounting and tax accounting,” says Andrei Kosov, general director of the consulting company Kosov and Partners. “Inaccuracies happen all the time. And because of the incorrect distribution of responsibilities between the employees of the accounting department, and because of the imperfection of accounting computer programs, and because of a misunderstanding of the law. By identifying errors, the auditor makes recommendations on how to correct them. This allows us to improve the work of the accounting department and prevent possible future claims from the tax authorities.” So it turns out that the auditor for the accountant is rather a friendly person. And even useful. By pointing out professional blunders to you, he thereby improves your skills. Buhprofstatus under threat However, it is not worth approaching the audit check in a slipshod manner. It still carries some risks for the accountant. They concern the potential to spoil the relationship between accounting and management. The fact is that according to the results of the audit, auditors usually draw up a report in which they indicate all the identified shortcomings. “We have made it a rule, based on the results of the audit, to provide the client with a report on the audit as a separate document,” says Tatyana Sviridova, general director of the consulting firm Svirita. “This is not yet the auditor's report itself, but only a preliminary description and analysis of the consequences of the detected accounting errors.” This report is addressed to the management of the company. It is not mandatory and is not even provided for by auditing standards. Nevertheless, in practice, most audit firms make it. Thus, they demonstrate the level of their professionalism and trust in the client. Thus, despite the fact that the accountant will subsequently correct most of the violations indicated in the report, the director will still know about them. And the accountant's reputation in the eyes of his superiors will be slightly tarnished. And if the errors found were gross and their elimination threatens the company with a loss of money, then it’s not far from being fired. To prevent such an unfortunate misunderstanding with the accountant, he should clean up his "kitchen" even before the arrival of the auditors. How auditors check When preparing for an audit, don't overdo it. It is not necessary to re-shovel the entire primary of the period being checked. After all, no one will look at your business transactions “solidly”. Therefore, it is necessary to “beautify” accounting selectively. And in order to “choose” for cleaning the same thing that the auditors will be interested in, you need to know the specifics of the audit. It consists in this. Since the task of the auditor is to identify precisely significant misstatements in reporting, he checks only transactions that are significant for this company. That is, for verification, he will select documents, firstly, according to the most characteristic transactions. Secondly, on transactions for significant amounts. This is a normal audit practice established by auditing standards. Thus, first of all, the accountant needs to double-check those areas of accounting that take into account operations that are the “backbone” for the company. For example, if an organization is engaged in wholesale trade, then the main attention should be paid to settlements with suppliers and buyers of goods, transport costs for delivery. Preventive measures There are three main stages that an accountant has to overcome before starting an audit. First, put in order the primary documents for all significant transactions. Auditors will definitely look at them and find fault if the primary organization is framed with violations. “When documenting transactions, the company's management cannot always foresee all tax risks and possible liability,” says Andrey Kosov. – Therefore, the quality of the primary documentation accepted for accounting is often very low. But the accounting department is forced to take into account what is given to it, not being able to intervene in the process. However, auditors do not have the right to ignore such shortcomings.” The upcoming audit is an occasion to finally deal with all the inaccuracies and ambiguities. Contact your counterparties and get the missing documents. Replace dubious papers, collect missing signatures and seals, fill in missing details. If you do not do this in advance, then the audit may be significantly delayed, since clarifications of this kind will still have to be done, but already in the audit process. And it will take a lot of time. And extra time is extra money. The second stage of preparation for the audit is an inventory. By “taking inventory” on the eve of the audit, you thereby confirm that your accounting is not invented out of your head, but fully reflects the economic activity of the company. Again, if during the inventory process you find a discrepancy between the actual and credentials, you still have time to make corrections. Although the legislation obliges to carry out an inventory before compiling annual reports (Article 12 of the Law of November 21, 1996 No. 129-FZ), many firms approach this obligation formally. Only property is inventoried, ignoring accounts payable and receivable, work in progress, reserves, etc. Audit” Nikolai Litvinov. – Inconsistency between inventory accounting data and inventory registers is also not uncommon. Especially if the warehouse is geographically remote from the accounting department. In order to anticipate the detection of such errors by auditors, we recommend checking with the main counterparties and with territorially remote divisions before the audit. The ideal case would, of course, be a complete inventory of all assets and liabilities.” In addition, special attention should be paid to documenting the results of the inventory. The content of the documents should convince the auditor that the inventory was carried out on the merits. If the auditor suspects that the accountant simply printed and signed the unified forms, he may question the results of the inventory. At the third stage, the accountant should close the reporting period, sum up the accounting results and form a draft report. Accounting statements (balance sheet and second form) are an integral part of the audit report (usually filed directly to it). Therefore, going out for an audit, auditors usually require that by the time they arrive, the reporting has already been formed at least in the form of a draft. Suspicion zone Serious auditing firms never approach the audit formally. They have special tricks by which weaknesses in accounting are probed. It is useful for an accountant to know about small auditing tricks and, if possible, to eliminate problematic points in advance. The auditor will not like it if the accounting register contains corrections, erasures, reversals, and similar inaccuracies. After all, such an unpresentable type of document indicates that the accountant was not confident in his calculations and postings. This means that this area is new for him, and there is a high probability that errors will be found here. And this is an occasion to dig deeper into this place. The same can be said about folders with primary documents, which are completely sealed with colored bookmarks, with pencil marks in the margins and in the text of the document. These are clearly places where the accountant had doubts. Or wanted to finish something, but did not have time or forgot. Auditors pay attention to non-standard accounting operations for a particular company. Often the accountant does not have enough information to make "exotic" entries correctly. And there is no time left to deal with the daily routine. The same suspicion of incompetence is caused by auditors in areas where the legislation has changed not so long ago. “I should note that very often we work with accountants who are well versed in accounting issues, but the situation is not very important with taxation,” says Tatyana Sviridova. - For some reason, many accountants do not work with regulations, laws, instructions at all, but are guided by the opinion of a familiar tax inspector or an accountant who has fallen into a similar situation. As a result, the operation is executed incorrectly, repeating other people's mistakes. With special attention, auditors will treat accounting, in which the vast majority of entries are made by the last day of the reporting period (month, quarter, year). “Most likely, in this case, accounting is conducted irregularly,” Nikolai Litvinov expresses dissatisfaction. - An accountant, violating the principle of time certainty, quickly reduces taxes and reporting. At the same time, while trying, if possible, to reduce the amount of VAT and income tax due to the budget, the end of the reporting period often makes unreasonable payments. And for this, he “draws” fictitious contracts, the qualified execution of which is postponed until later. But as a result, he often forgets to redo them altogether. The auditor will definitely be interested if he finds that the share of costs in the total revenue is quite significant in the organization. To satisfy his interest, he will check whether the accountant complied with the law when he executed "costly" transactions. The auditor will look at supporting documents confirming the costs, check the correctness of the cost rationing. And also make sure of the legality of attributing costs to reduce taxable profits. And the accountant will definitely attract increased audit attention to himself if he lingers and in every possible way delays the display of the requested documents - contracts, acts, other primary documents or accounting registers. Or bring the so-called "separate folder". That is, a folder with contracts, in which, as it turns out, part of them is missing. To the corresponding question of the auditor “Where is the rest?” the accountant replies that "the rest" is stored in another "separate folder" (in a safe, with the general (financial) director). “As a rule, this is a sign of unwillingness to show dubious documents or technical errors to the auditor,” notes Nikolai Litvinov. “Therefore, the content of the “separate folder” is subjected to the most thorough analysis. Usually it contains fictitious contracts, bills involved in dubious transactions, salary schemes. Or just very important documents that cannot be left unattended during verification.

The audit check is selective - they check the execution of a small number of each type of documents, as well as the general principles for reflecting them in accounting

There are types of audits of the enterprise, in which the involvement of external auditors is inevitable. But it is quite possible to carry out some types of audits on your own, thus saving on paying the bills of third-party audit firms. Internal audit allows you to protect your company from sudden inspections by regulatory authorities, as well as optimize work processes, identify weaknesses and identify growth areas.

The internal audit of the company is a check of the company's activities by its employees in accordance with its own regulations. In addition to saving on external specialists, an independent audit allows you to identify errors that may go unnoticed by the audit company due to ignorance of all the accounting subtleties of the processes within the enterprise.

Internal audit procedure

Each company develops its own regulations for conducting internal audits, in accordance with the objectives of the audit and the likely areas of the enterprise's activities in which there is a suspicion of errors. You can check all the accounts by selecting transactions in them at random, as auditors usually do. Or direct the main efforts to the audit of income tax expenses, since it is this expense item that the tax authorities are most interested in during the audit. If you are confident in the transparency and legitimacy of all documents, but admit the possibility of an error in some area, it is worth paying attention to its verification.

Often, an internal audit in a company is carried out by an audit team, which includes the chief accountant and management. This, in our opinion, is not the most rational way to organize an audit, since these employees during the audit are practically deprived of the opportunity to perform their professional duties. In any case, the quality of such a check also suffers due to the fact that one employee needs to check the data on accounting for different areas.

A very progressive internal audit scheme is the so-called horizontal cross-checking. With it, ordinary accounting employees from different areas exchange the results of their work among themselves, identifying errors from each other. At the same time, each employee participating in the audit improves his professional level, mastering new specializations. Employees from other departments or legal entities belonging to a group of companies may also be involved in the audit.

First you need to identify the goals of the audit, and what exactly we want to get as a result. When the area of ​​work is determined, all reporting and documentation of this area, as well as the rest of the company's documentation related to the object of verification, is raised.

The amount of work to be done is distributed between the inspectors, after which the actual verification of the compliance of accounting and tax accounting with the internal standards adopted by the company and the norms of the law begins. Upon completion of the audit, reports are submitted to management or the chief accountant. The audit report should include identified violations and errors, as well as an assessment of the reliability of the raised reporting.

It is quite natural that for the first time it will be very difficult to check your colleagues without knowing the specifics of other areas, especially if the amount of work is large enough. But each time the experience of employees will accumulate, their area of ​​​​competence will expand, and less and less time will be spent on cross-checks. We recommend starting with quarterly reviews. Often a mistake that cannot be detected for a long time is discovered with a fresh look. Such checks keep the team in good shape and encourage them to keep order in the conduct of their site.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated in conducting an independent audit. Good luck with business!

How to prepare for an upcoming audit, whether it be a statutory or initiative audit.

This article presents a short, universal instruction for auditing. So, if your company is suddenly faced with the need to conduct an audit, and you, as they say, “neither sleep nor spirit” and you “have never seen an auditor before”, then the main thing is not to panic, take this article and consider each of it item honestly and with an open mind, compare what you have and what you don't have, without giving yourself any concessions.

Accounting policy

One of the first documents that an auditor will ask you for is a properly executed accounting policy of your organization. We remind you that the need to form an accounting policy and the basic requirements for its content and disclosure are enshrined in Article 8 of Federal Law 402-FZ “On Accounting”, as well as in PBU 1/2008 “Accounting Policy of an Organization”.

The main notes on accounting policies are generally as follows:

• The accounting policy is not formalized properly or is out of date.

  What does this mean? The accountant brings an accounting policy without a signature, just printed sheets with text, it happens that they are still warm after the printer. Or the other extreme: the accounting policy was properly approved, but it was so long ago that even the sheets turned yellow, not to mention that the content of such an accounting policy has long been outdated.

• The accounting policy does not fully reflect the applied accounting methods.

  This means that you forgot to fix some of the actually used accounting methods in the accounting policy. To avoid this, when preparing for the audit, check again your accounting policy for compliance with clause 4 of PBU 1/2008 "Accounting Policy of the Organization". Your document must state:

  • a working chart of accounting accounts containing synthetic and analytical accounts necessary for accounting in accordance with the requirements for the timeliness and completeness of accounting and reporting
  • forms of primary accounting documents, accounting registers, as well as documents for internal accounting reporting
  • the procedure for conducting an inventory of the assets and liabilities of the organization
  • ways to value assets and liabilities
  • document flow rules and accounting information processing technology
  • procedure for controlling business transactions
  • other solutions necessary for the organization of accounting

Financial statements

At this step, you need to check the completeness of your reporting, the compliance of accounting and reporting data, as well as the quality of filling. The fact is that some required fields or lines are not automatically filled in 1s or in another accounting program, and we are all too used to the fact that it is enough to click the "Fill" button. For example, in the balance sheet and income statement, the “Explanations” column must be filled in independently.

In addition, please note that if you are subject to a statutory audit, then the reporting set must contain all forms, including annexes, and not be limited to a set of simplified financial statements. Such a norm is enshrined in paragraph 5 of Article 6 of the Federal Law 402-FZ "On Accounting". As a rule, a small business that encounters a mandatory audit for the first time mistakenly provides an incomplete set, acting in accordance with paragraph 4 of article 6 of the above-mentioned law, which allows small businesses to apply simplified accounting methods, including simplified financial statements.

Reconciliation acts for counterparties

Paragraphs 73 and 74 of the Regulations on Accounting and Accounting in the Russian Federation state:

• settlements with debtors and creditors are reflected by each party in its financial statements in amounts arising from accounting records and recognized by it as correct
• the amounts reflected in the financial statements for settlements with banks, the budget must be agreed with the relevant organizations and are identical. It is not allowed to leave unsettled amounts on the balance sheet for these calculations.

Thus, the law does not establish mandatory reconciliation with counterparties when conducting an inventory of receivables and payables, with the exception of reconciliations with the bank and the budget.

In practice, the auditor, on a selective or continuous basis, will ask you for signed reconciliation acts with counterparties. The fact is that in their activities the auditor is obliged to be guided by the standards of auditing, which, in particular, indicate that audit evidence obtained from an independent source external to the audited entity (confirmation of third parties) is more reliable. Therefore, when preparing for an audit, it is very important to check in advance, if not for all, then for the main counterparties, especially since accounting errors may be identified during the reconciliation process.

Inventory

In accordance with paragraphs 26 and 27 of the Regulations on Accounting and Accounting in the Russian Federation, in order to ensure the reliability of accounting data and financial statements, organizations are required to conduct an inventory of property and liabilities, during which their presence, condition and assessment are checked and documented, in be sure to do this before preparing the annual financial statements. Therefore, when preparing for an audit, make sure that an inventory has been carried out in your organization and its results are documented, since such a procedure as an inventory, due to its mandatory nature, cannot be ignored by the auditor. In addition, the conducted inventory in terms of receivables and payables makes it possible to identify doubtful or bad debts, for which it is necessary to form a reserve.

reserves

At this stage, it is necessary to check whether the reserve for doubtful debts has been formed in accounting and how much the formed reserve corresponds to the results of the inventory as of December 31. The most common mistake in this matter is the complete disregard for the obligation to form a reserve for doubtful debts, despite the unambiguous requirement of the legislation for its formation in accordance with paragraph 70 of the Regulation on Accounting and Accounting in the Russian Federation.

Also make sure that your company has formed a reserve for vacation pay for employees of the organization, which is an estimated liability. In accordance with paragraph 3 of PBU 8/2010 "Estimated Liabilities, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets", all organizations are required to reflect estimated liabilities, with the exception of those who are entitled to apply simplified accounting methods. I repeat once again that if your organization belongs to small businesses, but is subject to mandatory audit, then you cannot apply simplified accounting methods.

Source documents

Of course, you won’t eliminate possible auditor’s remarks regarding primary documents in one day, this is just the case when it’s better to do everything right right away, namely to keep under control not only the timeliness of receipt of original documents, but also the “quality” of your primary documentation. You will be surprised, but for the most part, the auditors' comments on primary documents refer to paragraph 2 of Article 9 of the Federal Law 402-FZ "On Accounting", which lists the mandatory details of the primary document, or to paragraph 1 of the same article, which states that each fact of economic life is subject to registration by the primary accounting document. Thus, typical remarks regarding primary documentation boil down to the following:

• the primary document is issued in violation of the current legislation
• original document missing

As a rule, according to the results of the audit, there are always comments on the primary documents, so it would be useful to pay special attention to this issue when preparing, and it is better to start preparing a year before the audit J.

Any activity enterprises is mandatory to audit, which is a verification of the reliability of the financial statements of the organization, its compliance with the legislation in the field of accounting. The audit also consists in monitoring the activities of the company, as a result of which clarifications and clarifications regarding the work can be obtained. enterprises.

Instruction

1. Audit checks are mandatory and proactive. In the first case, they are held annually and are regulated by Russian law. Joint-stock companies, credit organizations, insurance companies, commodity and stock exchanges, investment funds fall under the mandatory audit.
2. An initiative audit is a check of the accounting and reporting of a company under an agreement with an audit company. At the same time, the scope of verification can vary from the entire accounting and reporting system to its separate part. The most important goal of a proactive audit for a firm is the ability to predict bankruptcy.
3. The basic principle of conducting an audit is to determine the relationship between costs and results. It is necessary to agree in advance with the enterprise the scope of work, the timing of the audit, as well as the method of providing information about the activities of the company. In some cases, auditors travel directly to the enterprise, sometimes the firm presents data on its own.
4. The audit begins with a review of the financial statements enterprises, preparation for the audit. At the same time, the cost of expenses is calculated, as well as the risk assessment of the auditor during the audit.
5. Further, audit procedures are carried out directly, with the help of which the compliance of the company's internal control system with the required standards is determined. After that, an audit report is drawn up, and then it is transferred to the head of the company. At the same time, the violations identified during the audit are indicated, and the level of reliability of the submitted reports is calculated.

The goal of any audit should be the degree of need for verification. This may be an objective state of financial activity, economic strategy and internal control of the control of one or another structural form. Improving the performance of the company should be a top priority in the audit.

Usually, a mandatory audit is carried out before the submission of the annual report. If the audit is carried out in several stages, the company can achieve a number of advantages, namely:

• Rates provided at the end of the calendar year are usually higher because that is when most firms conduct audits.
• Your company will not need to change the data in accounting and tax accounting just before the submission of annual reports
• Limited time is sure to lead to bugs in the fix

It is advisable to conduct an audit with distribution over several periods. For example, the semi-annual and subsequent third quarter. In this situation, the accounting department will have enough time to correct various shortcomings. At the end of the year, it remains only to check the corrections against the comments made earlier. The last quarter will not be as busy. Thus, the burden on the finance department becomes minimal, the cost of the audit is reduced through a phased audit.

The service, which is carried out during the change of the owner, the chief accountant, during the reorganization, is called an initiative audit. The main thing in such an audit is the assessment of the effectiveness of the enterprise and the state of accounting. With this form of audit, the manager can check any departments where cost calculations were made, the correctness of taxation. As a result, your company will be able to pass all tax audits.

Express audit is carried out in cases of brief analysis. This may be a reporting period of a certain time associated with a change in the chief accountant or various personnel changes in departments.

The recommendation of an expert auditor usually contains a number of explanations for the analysis of the financial activities of the customer. Based on any results of the audit, the auditor must issue documents to the customer-client with a detailed report on the work done and a conclusion, which defines the correctness of the financial statements.

In recent years, the services of audit firms are widely used. Right now, many enterprises, even those for which annual inspections are not mandatory, apply for inspections more and more often. Responsible selection of auditors and the goals set by the company are the key to a competent commercial strategy.

Internal audit is carried out in order to obtain truthful information about the financial and material condition of the organization. At the same time, the methods and procedures of the economic system are evaluated for their productivity and efficiency.

Instruction

1. Before conducting an internal audit, you need to decide on the purpose and objectives that you would like to see as a result of the work of auditors. Creating your own audit can be negatively accepted by employees of the enterprise, which may adversely affect the work of the organization. Therefore, it is necessary to convey to all services and departments of the enterprise that the audit is designed to control not employees, but the work process, identifying shortcomings and deviations in work, thereby helping to achieve better results.
2. At the board of directors or at the meeting of founders, a decision is made to create an internal audit, such a decision is recorded in the relevant documents.
3. The rules and powers of internal audit are documented in a written document signed by the board of directors or the founders of the firm.
4. Before conducting an audit, auditors write a plan that describes the method of conducting procedures and the amount of work. The plan is signed by the head of the organization. If necessary, the head gives written explanations about the work of the enterprise.
5. If an audit of a production process or a similar operation requires a specialist with specific knowledge, then an outside professional is hired for such an audit and an appropriate agreement is signed with him.
6. After conducting its own audit, the department issues a report in which the responsible auditor expresses an opinion on all material matters and makes detailed recommendations. When expressing an opinion, the auditor is guided by the norms, according to the professional code of ethics for auditors.
7. The audit department should conduct an internal audit on one assigned task until all errors and deviations are corrected.
8. Remember that the auditor is independent from the management of the company. Only in this way will the reliability of the data provided in the auditor's final report be ensured.

The financial assessment of the company involves an analysis of its financial position. It includes: the calculation of a number of key indicators that reflect the system for the formation of working capital from a legal entity, the direction of their most competent use.

Instruction

1. Calculate the data characterizing different aspects of the company's activities related to the use and formation of all its cash funds. Determine the value of the liquidity ratio. It characterizes the ability of the enterprise to satisfy its short-term debt obligations. In turn, one should find the absolute liquidity ratio, which determines what amount of short-term debt obligations can be returned not in cash, but with the help of securities or deposits. This ratio is determined as the ratio of the amount of cash and financial short-term investments to the amount of current liabilities.
2. Calculate the quick liquidity ratio. It is calculated as the ratio of the most liquid share of current assets (financial short-term investments, receivables and cash) and the amount of short-term liabilities.
3. Determine the value of the current liquidity indicator. It is calculated as a quotient of the ratio of the amount of working capital and short-term debt obligations. This ratio reflects whether the company has enough funds that can be used to pay off short-term liabilities.
4. Calculate the profitability ratios. They will help you assess how profitable the business is. The profitability of sales indicator will be able to show a part of the net profit received from the volume of all sales of the organization. It can be determined from the ratio of net profit to net sales, multiplied by 100%.
5. Find the sum of the return on equity. This indicator determines the effectiveness of the use of equity capital, which was contributed by the owners of the enterprise. You can calculate it using the following formula: divide the net profit by the value of your own cash investments, and then multiply the resulting value by 100%.
6. Compare the received data with normative and planned indicators. Draw the conclusions of the financial assessment of the company.

Based on materials: ac-g.ru, kakprosto.ru

Each enterprise, regardless of the type of activity, needs an audit, which provides for a number of important activities.

This article will provide comprehensive answers to all questions.

The audit is independent and includes the collection, evaluation and analysis of data that indicate the functioning and financial position of a public, commercial or private enterprise (audited entity).

You can learn more about the list of required documents for opening an IP in more detail.

The results obtained make it possible to draw final conclusions (conclusion) on how correctly accounting is maintained, is truthful and reliable.

An independent audit provides only control over how the laws and norms of economic law are observed and whether there are any violations in tax legislation.

There is no purposeful detection of errors in the work of accountants(financiers).

Types and purpose of the audit

Depending on the purpose and goals There are two main types of audits:

• Mandatory audit- is held annually and without fail in compliance with the current law. It is carried out only by audit companies. Regulated by the state or carried out by court order.
• initiative or voluntary- carried out at the request of the client, in order to verify the reliability of accounting and tax accounting, and to assess financial risks. This will help you avoid penalties. But here the main thing is not to make a mistake in choosing an audit firm or a private person providing this kind of service.

The reasons for the audit may also be a change in the owner of the company or a change in the composition of the founders.

See more details on the schedule and procedure for conducting tax audits.

The main objective of the audit is to:

1. validation;
2. timely detection of violations and their elimination;
3. obtaining reliable information about the functioning of the enterprise and the state of accounting, maintaining documents.

After the audit, the audited entity is issued:

• conclusion - with a mandatory audit;
• a report on the audit with the conclusions and recommendations of specialists to improve accounting and activities - during voluntary audits and other types of audits.

Besides, there is an audit:

1. external - carried out by prior agreement between the client and the contractor, and is an independent examination of reliable reporting;
2. internal - is carried out by the economic entity's own forces for managerial control over activities, an increase in economic and financial indicators, and obtaining recommendations (advice) for improving and managing efficiency.

Stages of an audit

The audit procedure is carried out in accordance with the established rules. Conditional stages of the audit:

• Preparation (organization) and planning. The process is carried out in accordance with the current legislation and in accordance with the conditions stipulated in the contract for the provision of services. On the basis of the drawn up contractual agreement and the audit plan, the auditor is provided with all the necessary documentation, including accounting and tax reports, allowing to get a complete picture of all areas of financial and economic activities of the audited object. The accounting and internal control systems are studied and evaluated, the risks of the upcoming audit are determined and an audit plan is drawn up.
• Performance (implementation) of control procedures is to collect audit evidence, namely, testing controls for compliance, conducting a substantive audit.

  The result is the formulation of one's own opinion about the reliability of the facts and their compliance with the current regulations.

• Completion- preparation and execution of working documentation, drawing up an opinion (final document) on the reliability of financial statements with a summary of audit evidence. The information received as a result of the audit is brought to the management of the enterprise.

How is an audit carried out?

A feature of the audit is the time limit.

That's why a clear organization of the audit is required which is based on planning and programming. At the initial stage, the main goals and objectives are determined, the objects to be studied and the most effective analytical methods are selected.

During the events, important evidence is collected, which is the basis of the conclusion drawn up.

Before the start of the audit, a written request (an audit letter) is prepared in accordance with the standard.

Its form and content may have some features, but the indication of the purpose and scope of the audit, the responsibility of the management of the audited entity for the preparatory process and the provision of the necessary documentation are unchanged.

After everything is agreed upon, a bilateral agreement is concluded, which specifies all the conditions for the inspection.

When is a mandatory audit carried out?

According to the law obligatory audit to be carried out annually. The list of organizations includes:

• open joint stock companies (JSC);
• Insurance companies;
• participants in the securities market (professional) or organizations whose securities are admitted to circulation on trading stock exchanges;
• non-state pension funds or companies managing them;
• credit organizations;
• organizers of gambling;
• issuers of securities;
• enterprises whose revenue for the previous reporting year amounted to more than 400,000,000 rubles. or the amount of assets in the balance sheet for the previous reporting period exceeded 60,000,000 rubles.

The exceptions are agricultural cooperatives and unions, state (municipal) unitary enterprises.

Checks are carried out according to the following schemes:

1. in one stage - annual audit;
2. in stages - quarterly, for half a year or 9 months.

With a phased audit, it is much easier to identify violations in accounting and reporting in accordance with applicable regulations and rules.

This makes it possible to promptly eliminate all shortcomings and errors before the end of an independent audit and will positively affect the conclusion drawn up by a specialist.

Internal check

Internal auditing by the management of the enterprise is regulated. Such event is held for the purpose:

• identifying "holes" in the activities of the enterprise and to find ways to improve its efficiency and potential;
• determination of non-compliance of accounting and tax accounting with the current provisions;
• identifying risks associated with the control of various services, which result in fines, sanctions, reprimands, warnings, etc., leading to loss of money and image;
• preliminary preparation for external audit.

Conducting an internal audit contributes to the rational use of company resources, optimization of risks, preservation of assets and improvement of management activities.

It is these factors that are an indicator for the confidence of investors and stakeholders.

FAQ

What is a personnel audit?

Very often, work with personnel documents in companies is in a state of disrepair. The management remembers that it is necessary to put the documents in order when the prospect of control measures “shines”; To do this, they promptly organize an audit and correct all detected errors. However, the audit is not only carried out in such cases. You will now learn how a personnel audit is carried out and what is checked at the same time.

An audit is an inspection and evaluation of the activities of an organization by a professional specialist or an independent organization to identify existing risks of conflict situations, such as a labor dispute or claims from the State Labor Inspectorate.

Personnel documentation in the company plays an important role: it is required by the accounting department for calculating wages, vacation pay, for the employee to submit it to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation or other organizations, for example, to use any benefits. Therefore, such documents must be maintained in strict accordance with the requirements of the law.

If the company is not large enough to have a special unit - the internal audit department, you can invite an auditor under a civil law contract - a specialist who checks personnel documentation submits a report on identified violations, gives recommendations on how to eliminate and prevent them.

In this case, the audit is carried out by a specialist who knows labor legislation well and has the skill to draw up personnel documentation. He appreciates:

1. completeness of the personnel documentation;
2. system of registration and storage of documentation;
3. local regulations;
4. employment contracts, additional agreements to them;
5. the procedure for maintaining work books.

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