Auditing is an essential element in any enterprise. The Russian Federation has federal rules and auditing standards, which will be discussed in this article.
The concept of auditing
An audit is an independent audit of the financial statements available at the enterprise. Before the start of the audit, all the necessary documents are collected, which are later examined. An audit is necessary to carry out honest and impartial verification activities. Independent persons check the documentation of the enterprise and draw conclusions about the state of the organization.
Audit services can be private and public. In the first case, management independently hires an audit team that engages in independent verification. In the case of the state expert group, an audit is carried out to make a decision: to leave or withdraw the license from the enterprise.
An audit cannot replace accounting control. The audit program is designed so that both types of audit activities can be compared.
State standards
The Russian government has developed a number of federal rules and standards for auditing. Such documents are necessary to determine the exact audit requirements. National standards should not contradict international standards, otherwise it would be a violation of the constitutional norm. All rules are binding. At the same time, they should not create obstacles to the implementation of audit activities.
What auditing standards are currently in place? It is necessary to pay attention to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 696, which contains 34 standards, some of which have lost force. Recent changes to the document were made in 2011. Then some provisions ceased to be valid. In the near future, the list may be changed.
Audit objectives and general principles
Standard No. 1 identifies the main objectives of any audit activity. The main objective is to express an objective opinion on the reliability of financial documentation. The responsibility of the auditor is to prove the authenticity of the reporting available at the enterprise.
The same standard outlines the basic principles of auditing. It is worth highlighting independence, honesty, objectivity, integrity, confidentiality, professionalism and competence.
The second standard describes the content and form of working documentation. The auditor is obliged to draw up working documentation in a voluminous, detailed and fairly complete form. The documents should reflect information on the time frame, information, nature and extent of all procedures performed.
The third standard describes audit planning. The norms of time, the scale of activity are fixed, potential problems and difficulties are considered.
Quality control
Federal rules and auditing standards contain information on the principle of materiality in conducting an audit. What does this mean? According to the law, the auditor has the right to a subjective point of view, but somewhat limited. So, a specialist has the opportunity to evaluate what is significant in his professional judgment.
Standard 7 talks about audit quality control.The responsibilities of the audit are disclosed, a characteristic is provided for a number of ethical requirements. A separate account is also given of how exactly the audit team is formed.
The audit program is described in standard No. 8. Particular attention is paid to assessing sources of information and risks in its preparation. According to the law, an audit specialist is required to understand the activities of the audited entity and the state of the environment in which it is implemented. Evaluation activities of the financial results of the person being inspected must be carried out quickly and efficiently.
Interaction with the audit object
Standard No. 12 talks about how exactly the coordination of audit activities should take place. It is obligatory to draw up a contract for the provision of audit services, which should include:
- audit objectives;
- volumes of work;
- price of work;
- requirements for free access to financial documentation, etc.
Standard 11 establishes the norm according to which the audited entity has the opportunity to realize its activities in full during the audit. The same norm is enshrined in the Federal Law "On Auditing".
Sample
Particular attention should be paid to standard No. 16, which talks about the audit sample. According to the law, sampling refers to the procedure for applying the same type of operations to reporting elements. Simply put, the sample allows the auditor to determine the authenticity and correctness of the documentation available at the enterprise.
Particular attention in the standard is paid to errors that can be found in the documentation. The law introduces the concept of extrapolation - the dissemination and classification of errors for their exact definition.
The last ten federal rules and standards of audit activity describe the powers and responsibilities of the auditors themselves. According to rule No. 18, specialists have the ability to access information from external sources. The concepts of negative and positive external confirmations are introduced. In the case of a positive confirmation, a response is requested to the auditor. A response to a request for confirmation of a positive type is sufficiently reliable evidence, and in the case of a negative confirmation, vice versa.
About the work of the auditor
The Decree on the approval of federal rules and standards of audit activity describes the features of the audit of the audited entity, which is carried out for the first time. An accounting policy is being conducted, the features of conducting an accounting audit are considered. As a rule, the first audit is always the most important.
Standard No. 20 talks about a number of analytical procedures during verification, and rule No. 21 talks about the audit of evaluative knowledge. Finally, standard 26 contains samples for comparing audit and accounting data.
The Federal Law "On Auditing" indicates the possibility of attracting experts by the auditor. Experts can come from a wide variety of fields. It is only important that the auditor is able to verify the amount of work of the involved specialists, their qualifications and competence.
The most important for the auditors themselves will be standard No. 34, which talks about state control of audit organizations. An important role is played by monitoring, personnel work and a number of ethical requirements.