The organization needs an audit. What is an enterprise audit. What will the construction company check

In order for the work of the enterprise to always have a positive trend, it is necessary to periodically check how efficiently it is managed and whether the distribution of internal resources and funds is correct. One of the most popular ways to collect information and analyze disparate data about the work of the organization is to conduct an audit.

With the help of regular audits, it is possible to realistically assess the economic activity of the company and properly control it.

Audit control in an organization allows you to check the compliance of the accounting department with current legislative acts and monitor the implementation of the rules that are reflected in a variety of economic and legal documentation.

What is an audit?

As a rule, audits are done by independent firms or private external auditors and contain a number of mandatory steps, including the collection, evaluation and analysis of the information received. The analysis of the collected data helps to improve the company's performance and stabilize its financial position.

The purpose of the audit is to obtain conclusions about whether the organization maintains an accounting report and how the financial statements correspond to the real state of affairs.

Checking an individual entrepreneur, joint stock company or any other company by external auditors also involves collecting information about how well the company complies with tax laws, whether there are any violations of the law in the course of business activities and what is the financial situation of the organization.

Why do we need an audit of a company, what are its main goals?

1. Checking the accuracy of the information specified in the accounting documentation of the enterprise;
2. Checking the rest of the company's documentation, on the basis of which it is possible to draw conclusions about how well the organization functions;
3. Identification of violations of economic activity and their immediate elimination (or issuance of recommendations for elimination).

Important! Based on the results of the audit, the organization is issued an official document - a conclusion (if the audit was mandatory) or a report on the audits carried out with the conclusions and recommendations of specialists regarding the improvement of the organization's activities (with a voluntary audit).

Types of audits

There are several ways to classify an audit, for different reasons. If we talk about general categories, we distinguish between independent audit (conducted by an independent organization under a contract), state audit (customer - official government services) and internal audit, which is done by the company itself. There is a division of audits according to the profile of activity - general, banking, tax, insurance, audit of extra-budgetary funds, and so on.

However, the main division is carried out according to the nature of the order. In this context, a distinction is made between mandatory and voluntary audits, as well as audits according to an agreed task.

Mandatory Checks

An audit is mandatory for those organizations that meet the criteria detailed in Article 5 of Federal Law No. 307-FZ "On Auditing" dated December 30, 2008. If a company meets these criteria, then it must organize an independent audit every year to review its financial and accounting records.

As a result of such an audit, the company receives a conclusion and detailed written information about the violations found. Sometimes a mandatory audit is carried out not according to the requirements of Russian legislation, but according to the decision of the company's owners.

Important! If a company is obliged to conduct annual audits, then it is not entitled to apply a simplified method of maintaining accounting (financial) statements.

Voluntary audit

A voluntary audit is practically no different from a mandatory one, but is carried out exclusively at the good will of the organization's management or its owners. This allows you to make sure that the accounting and tax documentation is properly maintained.

At the end of such an audit, management is issued an audit opinion and additional written information, which should be carefully considered. Following the recommendations received will help to avoid significant tax sanctions and large fines in the future.

Audit according to the agreed task

This type of audit is necessary when the management of the enterprise knows exactly which audit needs to be emphasized. As a result, the auditor will give a specific answer to the question posed to him. The task for the coordinated audit must be set very clearly, the number of procedures that the auditor will be required to carry out depends on this. The result of the check will be a report with a description of the work performed and a list of specific recommendations, in accordance with the task.

How is an audit carried out?

An audit of any company, regardless of its organizational and legal form, involves passing 4 mandatory stages of verification, including:

1. Preparatory stage. General acquaintance with the organization, studying its constituent documents, assessing the risks associated with the company's industry profile, its financial position, staff turnover, the level of qualification of the accounting department employees and the growth rate of production capacities. The audit itself begins only if the auditor is satisfied with all the working conditions studied by him. Initiates a verification letter of consent, which is sent to the management of the enterprise;
2. Planning stage. Planning begins with the conclusion of an agreement between the auditor and the organization, which specifies in detail the timing of the future audit, its cost, the composition of the audit team. Then an overall plan is agreed upon, including audit strategies and methods, the level of materiality and other important parameters. The planning stage ends with the compilation of an audit program, which determines how deeply the various areas of reporting will be worked out;
3. Main stage. At the main stage of the audit, according to the declared standards, a number of mandatory procedures are carried out - collecting and reviewing the primary documentation of the organization and information on financial activities, evaluating the sample and studying the reporting data, as well as assessing the level of materiality and audit risks, determining the compliance of accounting (financial) documentation with legal requirements, collection of evidence;
4. Analysis of evidence and drawing up a conclusion. Based on the results of the activities carried out, a final analysis of the data is made, all the collected information is summarized, a report on the status of accounting documentation is generated, a written opinion or a report on the audits is issued to the company's management.

Audit Methods

Each audit firm independently chooses the procedure for conducting an audit and the methods by which it will be guided by the audit of a particular organization. Quite often, auditors stop at selective methods and testing, but there are other work strategies, special approaches. All of them are further reflected in the working documents of the audit company:

• Solid check implies a detailed, detailed study of all primary accounting documentation, accounting (financial) reports and registers of analytical and synthetic accounting. Due to its high complexity, such a check is used relatively rarely. For example, when auditing banks, it is very difficult to check and compare thousands of customer accounts and identify the correctness of their transactions in financial documents;
• Custom scan allows you to make a conclusion about the state of affairs of the enterprise based on the study of a relatively small part of it. Verification of documents is carried out not in a continuous stream, but selectively. This can be random selection on a special basis (using a table of random numbers), and systematic selection (checking documents at a given interval), and combined selection (a combination of the two previous methods).

In practice, during the audit, a combination of methods of continuous and selective verification is used. They also distinguish between a cameral (documentary) audit, in which it is not required to travel to the facility and interview the organization's personnel, and an actual audit, which involves a visit to the audited facility.

Audit today is an integral part of the internal control system of most companies. Of direct interest in a quality audit are company owner, and her leader, and of course, Chief Accountant! Today's reality testifies to the vital need to create a tax protection system in every company. Such a system should take into account possible risks in all directions. In order for the system to function effectively, joint efforts of all financial departments of the company and auditors, which are an element of external independent control, are necessary.

Why audit an accountant

Not a single specialist, even the most highly qualified, is immune from mistakes. Mistakes come not only from a lack of knowledge, but also from a technical nature. Almost every chief accountant is constantly in conditions of overload and lack of time, and in such a situation it is quite difficult to control everything.

Unfortunately, for some accountants, the audit is associated with his personal review. However, it should be understood that the audit in no way aims to assess the professionalism of the accountant, on the contrary, its purpose is to help the accountant professionally. The result of the joint work will be the correct accounting and reliable accounting and tax reporting, respectively, the level of personal responsibility of the chief accountant will decrease, there will be confidence that the management of the organization is warned in a timely manner about the presence of significant risks.

There are also cases when the reason for the tax risks of an enterprise is precisely the policy of the company's management, often the manager simply does not hear his accountant. The likelihood that the manager will listen to external auditors and think is much higher.

Why audit director

• To obtain an audit report and its subsequent submission to the tax office. This is necessary if the organization is subject to mandatory audit.
• Personal responsibility. It is no secret that the director is responsible for the activities of the organization, and not only administrative and material, but also criminal. Without intentionally violating tax laws, the head of the company can still be subjected to prosecution by regulatory authorities. There are many reasons for this, but the most common of them is an accountant's mistake.
• Business security.
• Oddly enough, in practice, there are quite often cases when organizations overpay taxes. This happens due to technical errors or ignorance by the accounting department of the company of certain features of the tax legislation.
• To assess the qualifications of accounting staff. As stated above, an accounting error can be very costly for both the company and its leader. Therefore, it is very important to have a worthy specialist nearby.
• To assess the effectiveness of the organization. An obligatory element of the audit is the analysis of financial and economic activities. According to the analysis, it is possible to trace in dynamics how the important economic indicators characterizing the activity of the enterprise have changed.

Why audit owners

• Obtaining real data about the company's activities. The audit will reveal the misrepresentations of the company's reporting, after correcting which, the owner will receive reliable financial statements. Accordingly, the owner will be provided with information about the company's income and expenses, the source of dividend payment - net profit, assets and liabilities.
• Obtaining data on the effectiveness of the company. An obligatory element of the audit is the analysis of financial and economic activities. According to the analysis, it is possible to track in dynamics how important financial and economic indicators that characterize the company's activities have changed and to obtain information about the factors that caused certain changes. The well-being of any owner depends on the level of decency and professionalism of the company's management.
• The well-being of any owner depends on the level of decency and professionalism of the company's management. As a rule, the director is not a specialist in the field of economic and financial management. Therefore, the management of financial and economic activities, including the organization of the accounting system, the management of tax risks is actually carried out by other specialists. The director is extremely dependent on their level of professional competence, business integrity. These are qualities that the director cannot test in practice. This requires an instrument of external independent control, which is the audit.
• Reduction of risks of financial losses. Today's reality testifies to many cases when a tax audit ends with the identification of arrears and the imposition of millions of fines. And not every company is able to recover from such financial losses.
• To increase the level of protection of the company from hostile takeovers. It is a well-known fact that any economically valuable enterprise can become an object of capture today. A rather frequent scenario of a hostile takeover is the following: tax audits or audits of other regulatory bodies come to the organization. Signs of tax and economic crimes committed in the course of the company's business activities are revealed. As a result, each audit withdraws substantial funds from the company's turnover (in the form of arrears in taxes and fines), and there are attempts to hold the director accountable. And, as a result, a weakened company with its assets becomes easy prey. Of course, the audit, in this case, will not protect the company completely, but it acts here as one of the elements of preventive protection. During the audit, problem areas of the enterprise are clarified, the elimination of which will significantly reduce the likely possibilities of aggressors.
• Probability of minimizing tax payments. Less taxes - more profit! Oddly enough, in practice, there are quite often cases when organizations overpay taxes. This happens due to technical errors or ignorance by the accounting department of the company of certain features of the tax legislation.
• To increase the credibility of the company. As you know, the audit is a form of independent financial control. Therefore, an auditor's report is a document attesting to the reliability of the company's financial statements, issued by a third-party independent auditor. It should be remembered that by confirming the statements, the auditor confirms the fact that the company really owns the specified assets and bears the specified liabilities. Therefore, the presence of such confirmation is important for persons interested in the company's activities (banks, investors, company owners, etc.).

According to the law, audit activity- this is an entrepreneurial activity for independent verification of accounting and reporting of organizations in order to express an opinion on the reliability of accounting statements and the compliance of financial and business transactions with the law. However, in our practice, we are constantly faced with the fact that today there is no unambiguous understanding of the principles, goals and objectives of audit among its customers, and this situation applies equally to accountants, as well as to the owners and management of companies.

Audit (audit check)- an independent audit to express an opinion on the reliability of the financial statements. The word "Audit" in Latin means "hearing" and is used in world practice to denote verification.

The objective of an audit of financial statements is to enable the auditor to express an opinion whether the audit reports are prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the financial reporting framework.

An audit of financial statements is an assurance engagement.

Someone orders an audit to confirm the economic solvency in front of foreign partners (that is, really to confirm the reliability of accounting and financial statements), someone wants to get rid of the alleged tax risks. Someone does not trust his accountant or does not find a common language with him, someone just wants to be confident in the future without looking back at the mistakes of the past - in general, through an audit, everyone pursues their own goals.

Some companies have been cooperating with auditors all these years, while many are just taking the first steps towards such cooperation. Those companies for which auditors have saved a lot of money no longer imagine their activities without auditors, as external consultants, and do not need explanations about the need to interact with them. For such companies, auditors are a kind of "family doctor" from the moment of the first mutually beneficial cooperation.

Audit of accounting, financial condition of the object for the presence of incorrect documentation, financial calculations. It is usually carried out to improve the efficiency of the facility, as well as to avoid various incidents during inspections by government agencies. It is advisable to conduct an audit at the facility annually for your own interest - to check the status of the facility.

Why invite an audit firm to do your accounting when you can hire an accountant? Do you need an auditor?

I would like to give some explanations about the activities of auditors, supported by the experience of communicating with the management of the enterprises we audit. Why do auditors find major errors in even the most highly qualified accountants? The accountant, as a rule, takes up the lion's share of time with current affairs - registration of primary documents, reflection in the accounting of business transactions, work with debtors and creditors, accrual and payment of taxes, etc. The auditor is never busy with "churn" - he deals daily studying accounting and tax legislation, keeps track of all innovations and problematic issues in their wide range, i.e. constantly deals with those issues for which an accountant usually does not have enough time.

Very often, where a company can afford one (single) accountant, the salary is also not very high. For such positions, a person is hired who has a short work experience or a lot of part-time jobs, or many other nuances. On accounting forums you can find: “Good afternoon! I was hired as an accountant, but they cannot teach me, since the enterprise has just opened. I have this question…". To be honest, it is not clear who should teach whom and whether they should at all, because a person is paid money for the fact that he will work. This raises doubts about the quality of such accounting, and therefore the problems that will arise, and, moreover, they will certainly arise.

What to do if the accountant does not agree with the opinion of the auditor?

This is the right of an accountant, especially since, as already mentioned, the auditor is an external consultant, and your company has the right to either accept or not accept the auditor's comments and recommendations. It should be noted that the auditor's opinion is always based on legislation, with mandatory reference to regulations.

What is the difference between a mandatory audit and an initiative one?

The criteria for the mandatory audit are given in Decree No. 67 dated 12.02.2004. In general, the criteria for conducting a mandatory audit is the presence of foreign investments in the authorized capital of the enterprise or revenue for the previous reporting year of more than 600 thousand EUR. In turn, an initiative audit is carried out at the request of the owner or top management of the enterprise, and, as a rule, when they feel the inevitability of a tax audit or simply want to have an objective picture of the financial condition of their business. In the vast majority of cases, an initiative audit is ordered when changing the chief accountant or financially responsible persons, as well as when expanding activities, increasing sales, and also so that the shortcomings of the past do not ruin the activities of the future.

But do not auditors facilitate the work of tax inspectors?

The auditor's report on the audit carried out is strictly confidential information, and it is in it that the violations identified by the audit are indicated - this is information inaccessible to the tax authorities. The user of this report is only the audit client. The enterprise itself submits a completely different document to the tax inspectorate - an auditor's report containing a general opinion on the reliability of financial statements, and the report is submitted to the Tax Inspectorate only in the case of a mandatory audit.

The presence of an audit opinion increases the confidence of tax officials in your enterprise, and the audit report helps to control the introduction of corrections recommended by the auditors by the accounting department and other services. The higher the business reputation of the audit firm that issued the report, the less willingness the tax authorities have to conduct an on-site audit at this enterprise.

Can the cost of an audit exceed the size and cost of tax risks?

Maybe yes, but we have not encountered this in our practice. The fact is that tax legislation is imperfect and often does not have unambiguous answers to emerging questions, in addition, it is dynamic and is in the process of permanent refinement.

At one time we even kept statistics and came to interesting conclusions. On average, the economic effect of an audit (prevention of possible penalties, optimization of taxation, etc.) exceeds the cost of conducting it by 6-7 times. In addition, audit costs are planned and also reduce taxable income. Compared to this, penalties, together with underestimated taxes revealed after a tax audit, are not planned or reserved by enterprises, and, accordingly, they have never pleasantly surprised anyone. In addition, the consequences of a tax audit often paralyze the activities of an enterprise, and sometimes, as a result of economic insolvency, even lead to its liquidation.

What, besides his reputation, can the auditor answer for his audit? Is an audit possible with a guarantee?

Indeed, auditors often have nothing to guarantee the quality of their audit. In the event of any disagreement with the regulatory authorities, which entailed penalties after the audit, all that the auditor can do is simply sympathize with the customer. After all, as a rule, the working capital and solvency of consulting companies are low, and penalties can be in the billions. Of course, the loss of reputation is the worst thing that can happen to a professional consultant, because a dissatisfied client will tell everyone about it. That's just the client from this is not easier.

And so, to summarize:

Auditor- a person engaged in audit (audit of accounting books, documents and reports) and consulting activities related to the adjustment of accounting and who has high qualifications and experience to cope with many tasks, this is a "walking bank of knowledge".

The audit firm is:

The cost of work is at the same level as the estimated salary of a hired accountant;

This is the entire cost of services included in the gross costs and you do not pay crazy deductions to various funds that take up to 50% of the possible salary of a hired accountant;

You always know for sure that your bookkeeping is done accurately and on time;

All "novelties" of the legislation are tracked. And in our country you never know what else the state will come up with to “replenish the budget”;

You can come to our office at any time and receive a summary of your affairs.

Who needs it?

As in any business, we have a circle of Customers, most often they are:

Founders who want to check their accountants for honesty;

Founders, if the enterprise is not operating, however, numerous reports must be submitted;

Founders when changing the chief accountant;

Directors, who, like the founders, can hire an audit firm to audit their affairs or keep accounts;

Directors when changing the chief accountant;

Chief accountants who check their subordinates or double-check themselves;

All of the above users in preparation for an audit by the tax office and other authorities;

And finally, a mandatory audit, which cannot be avoided.

Moreover:

Potential investors;

Potential buyers of the enterprise.

Sources: www.goldenlion.kiev.ua, www.axium.by