Audit and Assurance –‘A key to the accomplishment of business goals

It can be done either internally or externally just to gain the true and fair view of the finance and accounts of the organisation and simplify the achievement of many goals that a particular business have in their vision.

It involves sequence of steps to be followed for proper audit so that quality assurance can be given at its best.

Firstly, it’s important to decide a proper team and a lead auditor to conduct this service. They notify the organisation to gather all the relevant information & documents including previous reports for review. Their main aim is to understand the scope, objective, performances, conducting a risk workshop and then finally drafting an audit plan.

Second, is the phase of performance which starts from an open meeting with administrative members of the organisation to discuss the overall expectations? Further audit is performed with the help of various questioning and reasoning skills. Findings are then evaluated by the audit team to discuss all the relevant issues and drafting a solution for it and finally a summary of the audit is presented to the management.

Next, several days after the audit completion, a report is finalised and signed by the auditor. The report will include a summary sheet containing all the relevant observations including the audit number, name of the auditor and other required information.

Lastly, Follow up audits are required to give assurance whether the correct report has been generated during the audit and all the nonconformities has been correctly rectified. Down the line it should also be conducted with the same preparations to ensure effectiveness.

Thus, Auditing can help businesses in ensuring that they are performing at the highest level. Therefore it is important for many reasons.

• 360 degree view of your business- It’s good to keep yourself updated about your investment, returns, benefits and flaws of your work. The complete audit report not only provides a shape to your business but also allows you to distinguish between the success and failure of your business.
• Improves Efficiency- Each individual whether an entrepreneur or an employee, strives to achieve higher in their work life. Thus, a well carried audit report helps in fixing the issues and glaring gaps in your work that are not possible, if you do not have any clear reporting mechanism. It improves the efficiency of the business thus making better returns.
• Attracts investors and share holders- Business is able to get a true glimpse of the service and offerings from different perspectives. Its graphical view and clear reports attract many investors and shareholders in your organisation and make your business a well known system in the market.
• Provides reliability- Business can better rely on the information provided in an audit report for further tax calculations and other financial investments and ensures reliability.