Audit, as such, can be represented in the form of accounting carried out from the outside. The audit object is the same, only the functions of this type of activity are formed differently. An audit of financial results is intended to control the accounting in accordance with established rules and standards, has the task of identifying errors, eliminating them and holding consultations with responsible persons to improve the quality of their work.
Information, as you know, plays the role of a direct factor in production, the efficiency of any enterprise or company depends on its quality and accuracy. Such information has the property of transordinarity - that is, it is necessary for almost all participants in the economic process, but everyone who needs it uses some specific element of it for their specific purposes.
As part of the economic process, the main source of such independent information may be an audit of financial results. International standards approve the audit as an independent audit, while emphasizing that objects can be subject to audit, regardless of whether they bring any profit to their owner. According to international standards, an audit may be conducted with the aim of expressing an opinion. Thus, the category audit of financial results is much broader in content than the concept of audit, because it includes such functions as examination of accounting documents, development of proposals for improving accounting, professional advice to accountants.
The overall goal of the audit of the financial results of the enterprise is to study the compliance of accounting in the enterprise with the established rules and regulations. The object of it in this case is the entire financial and economic work of the organization or enterprise. As a rule, types of audit are classified into external and internal. An external audit of financial results is independent, which means that it is not responsible to the controlled enterprise, but to its consumers, providing them with reliable information about the state of the enterprise or organization. An external audit is carried out, as a rule, in the interests and at the initiative of the owner of the enterprise.
Moreover, financial control acts here as a specific branch of control as such. Its binding objectively follows from the very nature of finance, which assumes the existence of a control function. Financial control, including in the form of an audit, is carried out in the manner prescribed by law and by special bodies authorized to do so.
As already noted, the main goal that the audit of accounting for financial results pursues is to verify and establish the reliability of accounting information in the enterprise and its compliance with government regulations governing activities in this area. From the content of the category itself it objectively follows that the main subject of the audit in this particular case is information relating to the issue of the origin of the profits and losses of the enterprise.
The general objectives of the audit in this context are:
- verification of the completeness of information showing the results of the economic activity of an enterprise or organization;
- determination of the ownership of the information shown and reflected in the documentation;
- study of the correctness of the assessment for all positions and accounting standards;
- establishing compliance with the data on the results of financial activities conducted by the enterprise accounting policies;
- verification of the classification of income and expenses;
- establishing the legality of the procedures used for processing operations and reconciling data that are reflected in the accounting records;
- establishing the reliability of reflection of the results of financial activities;
- verification of compliance with the established norms and rules of the correctness of the creation of a net profit by the enterprise;
- checking the completeness and timeliness of payments to the budget.
The final procedure, which involves the audit of financial results, should be the opinion of the auditor, which directly assesses the acceptability, validity, correctness and completeness of the information presented.