LECTURE No. 7. Auditing activities

1. Nature and objectives of the audit

Federal Law "On Auditing Activities" dated August 7, 2001 No. 119-FZ (as amended and supplemented on December 30.12.2004, XNUMX): "Auditing activities, audit - entrepreneurial activities for independent verification of accounting and financial (accounting) statements.

At the microeconomic level, audit is an element of the market infrastructure, the need for the functioning of which is determined by the obligations:

1) is used for decision-making by its interested users, including management, participants and owners of the property of an economic entity, real and potential investors, employees and customers, authorities and the public in general;

2) may be subject to distortion due to a number of factors, in particular, the use of estimated values ​​and the possibility of ambiguous interpretation of the facts of economic life, in addition, the reliability of financial statements is not automatically ensured due to the possible bias of its compilers;

3) the degree of reliability of financial statements, as a rule, cannot be independently assessed by the majority of interested users due to the information, as well as the large number and complexity of business transactions reflected in the financial statements of economic entities.

An audit does not replace state control over the reliability of financial (accounting) statements, carried out in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation by authorized state authorities. According to Law No. 119-FZ, an auditor is an individual who meets the qualification requirements established by the authorized federal body and has an auditor qualification certificate.

The auditor has the right to carry out audit activities as an employee of an audit organization or as a person engaged by an audit organization to work on the basis of a civil law contract, or as an individual entrepreneur operating without forming a legal entity. An individual auditor has the right to carry out auditing activities, as well as provide audit-related services. An individual auditor is not entitled to carry out other types of business activities.

An audit organization is a commercial organization that performs audits and provides audit-related services. The auditor's opinion on the reliability of financial statements can contribute to greater confidence in these statements on the part of interested users. Thus, audit contributes to the reduction of business risk and can be seen as a process of reducing information risk to an acceptable level for users of financial statements.

The main purpose of the audit of financial statements is to express the opinion of the audit organization on the reliability of the financial statements of the economic entity in all material respects. This goal can be achieved if, during the audit of the financial statements, sufficient audit evidence is obtained that allows the auditor to draw conclusions with some certainty regarding the compliance of the audited organization's accounting with the requirements of regulations governing the accounting and preparation of financial statements.

Users of financial statements should not interpret the opinion of an audit organization as a guarantee of the future viability of an economic entity or the effectiveness of its management, a guarantee of the absence of any other circumstances affecting the financial statements of an economic entity.

2. Contract in audit activity

Audit contract - this is an official document regulating the relationship between the audit organization and the economic entity. Like other business contracts, an audit contract legally reflects and fixes the agreed interests of the parties of the customer and the contractor.

Before signing the contract, the auditor needs not only to understand the client's desire, but also (if possible) to try to help him formulate his order correctly. The quality of the audit, the absence of conflict in the relationship between the auditor and the client largely depend on the quality of the contract for the audit.

The contract must take into account some features of the audit of the Russian Federation. This is due to the fact that the audit activity is specific, and the management of the economic entity often does not fully understand the essence and content of it.

After a preliminary acquaintance with the activities of the economic entity and a decision on the possibility of providing audit services to it, the preparation of the contract begins: determination of the labor intensity, cost and timing of the audit, the need to involve consultants and experts. The contract can be concluded for a long period. The subject of such an agreement may be both audit services and related audit services that are not prohibited by the legislation in the field of audit. If the contract is not accompanied by a letter of commitment, then the text indicates the conditions for future cooperation, the rights and obligations of the parties.

The contract is drawn up in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

The text of the agreement should contain the following points:

1) the subject matter of the audit services contract;

2) the rights and obligations of the audit organization;

3) rights and obligations of an economic entity;

4) the responsibility of the parties and the procedure for resolving disputes;

5) cost of audit services and payment procedure.

The text of the agreement may contain other important points for the parties.

In paragraph "Conditions for the provision of audit services" should be indicated:

1) the purpose of the provision of services and the object (in particular, when conducting an audit - the procedure for auditing branches and divisions of an economic entity, as well as its subsidiaries, if any);

2) the timing and stages of the provision of audit services;

3) references to legislative acts and regulatory documents on the basis of which audit services were provided.

The paragraph "Rights and obligations of the audit organization" provides:

1) strict compliance with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation when providing audit services;

2) independent determination of the forms and methods of auditing based on the requirements of regulatory acts of the Russian Federation;

3) verification of any documentation of an economic entity necessary for the audit, as well as obtaining clarifications and additional information on issues that have arisen during the audit;

4) receiving, upon written request, the information necessary for the audit from third parties, including state bodies;

5) refusal to conduct an audit if the audited economic entity fails to submit the necessary documentation;

6) access to the computer data processing system;

7) contacting a consultant or expert if such a need is identified;

8) disposal of their working documentation;

9) the need to involve additional auditors in the audit due to a significant amount of work or any other circumstances that arose after the conclusion of the contract;

10) qualified auditing, confidentiality and trade secrets;

11) ensuring the safety of documents received and compiled during the audit, etc.

3. Mandatory audit

Mandatory audit is regulated by the state. The Federal Law of August 07.08.2001, 119 No. XNUMX-FZ "On Auditing" provides a list of criteria by which an organization is subject to mandatory audit.

Mandatory audit - this is an annual audit of accounting and financial (accounting) reporting of an organization or an individual entrepreneur. A mandatory audit is carried out if:

1) the organization has the organizational and legal form of an open joint stock company;

2) the organization is a credit, insurance or mutual insurance company, a commodity or stock exchange, an investment fund, a state extra-budgetary fund, the source of the formation of funds of which is the mandatory calculations provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation, carried out by individuals and legal entities, the fund, the sources of the formation of funds of which are voluntary contributions individuals and legal entities;

3) the amount of revenue of an organization or an individual entrepreneur from the sale of products (performance of work, provision of services) for one year exceeds 500 thousand times the minimum wage established by the legislation of the Russian Federation or the amount of balance sheet assets at the end of the reporting year exceeds 200 thousand times established by the legislation of the Russian Federation the minimum wage;

4) the organization is a state unitary enterprise, a municipal unitary enterprise based on the right of economic management, if the financial indicators of its activities comply with paragraph 3 above. At the same time, for municipal unitary enterprises, the financial indicators may be lowered by the law of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation.

5) mandatory audit in relation to state unitary enterprises, municipal unitary enterprises based on the right of economic management, organizations or individual entrepreneurs, provided for by this Federal Law.

Mandatory audit is carried out only by audit organizations. This improves the quality of the audit, which is of great economic importance. When conducting a mandatory audit in organizations, in the authorized (reserve) capitals of which the share of state property or property of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation is at least 25%, the conclusion of contracts for the provision of audit services should be carried out based on the results of an open tender. The procedure for holding such competitions is approved by the Government of the Russian Federation.

Of great importance for both auditors and the audited entity is the issue of confidentiality of information during the audit. Auditing organizations are required to keep secret about the operations of audited entities. In addition, they are obliged to ensure the safety of information and documents received or compiled by them in the course of audit activities, and are not entitled to transfer the specified information and documents or their copies to third parties, disclose them without the written consent of organizations or individual entrepreneurs in respect of which the audit was carried out, except as provided for by this Federal Law and other federal laws.

However, there may be cases when documents containing information about transactions are at the disposal of an audit organization and can be demanded and submitted solely by a court decision by a person authorized by this decision or a state authority of the Russian Federation in cases provided for by legislative acts of the Russian Federation on their activities.

4. Fundamental principles of the audit

Auditing organizations in the course of their activities are required to observe and use the following professional ethical principles as the basis for making any decisions of a professional nature:

1) independence;

2) honesty;

3) objectivity;

4) confidentiality;

5) professional behavior.

Independence - this is the absence of the auditor, when forming his opinion, of financial, property, family or any other interest in the affairs of the audited economic entity, exceeding the relationship under the contract for the provision of audit services, as well as any dependence on third parties. The requirements for the auditor in terms of ensuring independence and the criteria that the auditor is not dependent are regulated by regulatory documents on auditing, as well as codes of ethics for auditors.

Honesty - this is the commitment of the auditor to professional duty and following the general norms of morality.

Objectivity - this is impartiality, impartiality, not subject to any influence when considering any professional issues and forming judgments, conclusions and conclusions.

Professional Competence - this is the possession of the necessary amount of knowledge and skills, allowing the auditor to provide professional services in a qualified and high-quality manner. The audit organization should attract trained, professionally competent specialists and monitor the quality of their work to ensure a qualified audit.

Conscientiousness - is the provision of professional services by the auditor with due diligence, care, efficiency and proper use of their abilities.

The principle of conscientiousness implies a diligent and responsible attitude of the auditor to his work, but should not be interpreted as a guarantee of error-free auditing.

Confidentiality - it is the responsibility of auditors and audit organizations to ensure the safety of documents received or compiled by them during the audit, not to transfer these documents or their copies (both in full or in part) to any third parties and not to disclose the information contained in them without the consent the owner (manager) of an economic entity, with the exception of cases provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation. The principles of confidentiality must be strictly observed, regardless of the continuation or termination of the relationship with the client and have no time limits.

professional conduct - this is the observance of the priority of public interests and the obligation of the auditor to maintain a high reputation of his profession, to refrain from committing acts that are incompatible with the provision of audit services and that can reduce respect and trust in the audit profession, damage its public image.

If the audit organization is a member of a professional association, it should comply with the rules of ethics provided for by the documents adopted on a voluntary basis by this professional association.

The auditor in the course of planning and conducting the audit must show professional skepticism and understand that there may be circumstances that entail a material misstatement of the financial (accounting) statements.

Professional skepticism should be exercised during the audit, in particular, not to overlook suspicious circumstances, not to make unjustified generalizations in drawing conclusions, not to use erroneous generalizations in determining the nature, timing and extent of audit procedures, as well as in evaluating their results.

5. Functions of management audit within marketing management

Management audit - this is the study of business operations in order to develop recommendations for the economical and efficient use of resources, the achievement of the final result and the development of an organization's policy.

Management audit should help managers in the performance of their functions and lead to an increase in the profitability of the organization. The official methodological provisions do not take into account an important point - the assessment of the competitiveness and market attractiveness of products. Naturally, in itself, the analysis of the competitiveness of products, methods of its promotion on the market does not solve the problem of restoring solvency, but measures related to improving its quality and demand for it are the only reliable, promising way out of the zone of insolvency or bankruptcy. This task can be implemented by the audit service, which will include not only specialists in accounting, analysis, evaluation, but also marketers, management and management psychology specialists.

One of the main tasks of the audit is the reliability of accounting for the financial results of the organization, its property and financial condition. In this case, the consumers of information are mainly external users.

Audit - this is an activity aimed at reducing business risk, the process of reducing to an acceptable level of information risk for users of financial statements. In a market economy, audit performs two main functions:

1) a provider of reliable, verified financial information to users;

2) a guarantor of the financial activity of the organization, when in case of financial losses due to the use of information certified by the auditor, but which turned out to be unreliable, the auditor compensates for the losses to clients.

The government is interested in the information necessary for the development of economic policy, including tax incentives. Companies in which the management and owners are represented by the same persons conduct an audit because it provides them with a number of advantages:

1) the ability to avoid disputes between partners, especially in situations with a complex agreement on the distribution of profits, due to the fact that the accounts are subjected to an objective analysis by an independent auditor;

2) simplification of the procedure for attracting a new partner due to the opportunity to study the auditor's conclusions about the financial condition of the company;

3) simplification of relations with the tax authorities, since the accounts verified by the auditor cause more confidence;

4) the ability to receive qualified assistance in solving various problems: the auditor is often invited as an arbiter in the analysis of specific contentious issues between partners.

Auditing is now more like a referee who enforces the rules of the game in business and tax calculations than a doctor who assesses a firm's health and suggests ways to treat and prevent disease. It is unrealistic to expect an immediate appearance in Russia of an audit based on risk or evaluating the effectiveness of public investments, although foreign experience suggests that the reliability of an audit is not enough to assess the degree of efficiency of an economic entity.

In conclusion, it should be noted that management requires other audit financial control, which is in the process of development. Its field of activity will expand with the development of civilized market relations in the country, the improvement of the qualifications of employees of audit services and the growth in demand for their services from private firms and corporations in order to reduce financial risks in the face of growing competition.

6. The concept of auditing

Audit activities - this is an entrepreneurial activity for independent verification of accounting and financial (accounting) statements of organizations and individual entrepreneurs.

Purpose of the audit - expressing an opinion on the reliability of the financial (accounting) statements of the audited entities and the compliance of the accounting procedure with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

The concept of related services. In the total scope of the auditor's work, the provision of related services, as a rule, occupies a leading position in quantitative and cost terms.

Audit-related services mean the provision by audit firms and individual auditors of the following services:

1) setting up, restoring and maintaining accounting records, drawing up financial (accounting) statements, accounting consulting;

2) tax consulting;

3) analysis of the financial and economic activities of the organization and individual entrepreneurs, economic and financial consulting;

4) management consulting, including those related to the restructuring of organizations;

5) legal advice, as well as representation in judicial and tax authorities in tax customs disputes;

6) automation of accounting and introduction of information technologies;

7) assessment of the value of property, assessment of enterprises as property complexes, as well as business risks;

8) development and analysis of investment projects, drawing up business plans;

9) conducting marketing research;

10) carrying out research and experimental work in the field related to auditing, and disseminating their results, including on paper and electronic media;

11) training in accordance with the procedure established by the legislation of the Russian Federation for specialists in the field related to auditing.

At the same time, the law provides that audit organizations and individual auditors are prohibited from engaging in any other business activities, except for auditing and the provision of related services.

An auditor is an individual who meets the qualification requirements established by the authorized federal body and has an auditor's qualification certificate. The auditor has the right to carry out audit activities as an employee of an audit organization or as a person engaged by an audit organization to work on the basis of a civil law contract, or as an individual entrepreneur operating without forming a legal entity. An individual auditor has the right to carry out auditing activities, as well as provide audit-related services.

Audit organization is a licensed commercial organization that performs audits and provides audit-related services.

The date of receipt by an audit organization or an individual auditor of a license to carry out audit activities is the date of the decision to issue an appropriate license. If, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, the provision of certain types of audit-related services requires obtaining appropriate licenses, audit organizations and individual auditors are not entitled to provide such services without obtaining an appropriate license.

Auditing organizations can be created in any organizational and legal form, with the exception of an open joint stock company. The requirements for an audit organization provide that at least 50% of its personnel should be citizens of the Russian Federation, and if the head of an audit organization is a foreign citizen, then at least 75%.

7. Audit risk, its relationship with the information base and materiality

The audit organization and the individual auditor in the process of conducting an audit are required to assess the materiality of information and its relationship with audit risk.

Information about individual assets, liabilities, income, expenses and business transactions, as well as components of capital, is considered material if its omission or distortion may affect the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of financial (accounting) statements. Materiality depends on the value of the indicator of financial (accounting) statements and (or) errors, assessed in case of their absence or distortion.

When developing an audit plan, the auditor establishes an acceptable level of materiality in order to identify misstatements. Examples of qualitative distortions are:

1) insufficient or inadequate description of the accounting policy, when there is a possibility that the user of the financial (accounting) statements will be misled by such a description;

2) the lack of disclosure of information about the violation of regulatory requirements in the case where it is likely that the subsequent application of sanctions could have a significant impact on the results of the entity's activities.

The auditor needs to consider the possibility of misstatements in relation to relatively small amounts, which together can have a significant impact on the financial (accounting) statements. For example, an error in a month-end procedure could indicate a possible material misstatement if such an error were repeated every month.

The auditor considers materiality both at the level of financial (accounting) statements as a whole, and in relation to the balance of funds on individual accounting accounts of groups of similar transactions and cases of information disclosure. Materiality may be influenced by regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, as well as factors related to individual accounting accounts of financial (accounting) statements and the relationship between them. Depending on the considered aspect of the financial (accounting) statements and the relationship between them. Depending on the considered aspect of the financial (accounting) statements, different levels of materiality are possible. The auditor should take into account materiality when determining the nature, timing and extent of audit procedures: evaluating the effects of misstatements.

When planning an audit, the auditor considers what could cause a material misstatement of the financial (accounting) statements. The auditor's assessment of materiality relating to individual accounting accounts and groups of similar transactions helps the auditor decide, for example, which indicators of financial (accounting) statements to check, as well as the use of selective checks and analytical procedures. This allows the auditor to select audit procedures that are expected to collectively reduce audit risk to an acceptably low level.

There is an inverse relationship between materiality and audit risk: the higher the level of materiality, the lower the level of audit risk, and vice versa. The auditor compensates for this by either reducing the pre-assessed level of control risk where possible and maintaining the lower level by performing enhanced or additional tests of controls, or by reducing the risk of misstatement by changing the nature, timing and extent of planned substantive procedures.

8. Content of pre-audit planning

Planning, being the initial stage of the audit, includes the development by the audit organization of a general audit plan indicating the expected scope, schedules and timing of the audit, as well as the development of an audit program that determines the scope, types and sequence of audit procedures necessary for the formation of an audit organization of an active and a reasonable opinion on the entity's financial statements. The audit organization and individual auditors are required to plan their work so that the audit is carried out effectively.

Audit planning involves the development of an overall strategy and a detailed approach to the expected nature, timing and extent of audit procedures. The audit organization must agree with the management of the economic object on the main organizational issues related to the audit. The auditor's planning of his work helps ensure that important areas of the audit are given the necessary attention, so that potential problems are identified and the work is performed at optimal cost, quality and in a timely manner.

Audit check, as a rule, is always limited to a certain period (on average - 2 weeks); Due to these limitations, it is not always possible to conduct a complete audit at a large and even medium-sized enterprise. Therefore, the auditor should determine the verification strategy, taking into account the individual characteristics of each economic entity, which provides for:

1) consideration of the collected information about the activities of the client;

2) a preliminary assessment of the risk and effectiveness of internal control;

3) determination of the depth, nature and duration of checks of individual groups of operations.

The audit strategy should take the form of a plan drawn up by the auditor in writing, the purpose of control:

1) preliminarily determine the scope and type of required tests;

2) estimate the costs of their implementation;

3) reach an understanding with the client on all major issues before the start of the audit;

4) have evidence of the validity of the audit and its quality for this client.

Planning is preceded by the following steps:

1) preplanning preparation;

2) obtaining information about the client's business (the specifics of the activity, the structure of relations, policies, legal circumstances);

3) assessment of materiality;

4) assessment of audit risk;

5) study of the internal control system and assessment of the risk of its inefficiency.

Many audit firms develop their own audit plan standards tailored to the industry specifics of their clients.

Planning usually includes:

1) development of audit schedules;

2) determining the terms and income and discussing them with the client;

3) briefing the members of the audit team;

4) organization of interaction with departments within the company;

5) discussion of the audit strategy with the client.

The audit strategy is based on the choice of the most rational ways to achieve the goals of this audit and depends on the experience and qualifications of the auditor, the duration of cooperation between the audit firm and the client, the nature of the tasks to be solved in the audit.

At the preliminary planning stage, the auditor should become familiar with the financial and economic activities of the economic entity and have information about:

1) external factors affecting the economic activity of an economic entity, reflecting the economic situation in the country (region) as a whole and its industry specifics;

2) internal factors affecting the economic activity of an economic entity associated with its individual characteristics.

9. Preparation of the overall plan and audit program

The audit organization must and has the right to independently make decisions about the types, number and depth of audit procedures, the time spent, the number and composition of specialists required to carry out a full-fledged audit and prepare a reasonable audit report.

The main audit situations are:

1) audit planning;

2) obtaining audit evidence;

3) use of the work of other persons and contacts with the management of the economic entity by third parties;

4) audit documentation;

5) generalization of conclusions, formation and expression of an opinion on the financial statements of an economic entity. The audit should be planned on the basis of the understanding reached by the audit organization of the activities of the economic entity. The purpose of planning is to organize an efficient and cost-effective inspection. At the planning stage, it is necessary to determine the strategy and tactics of the audit, the timing of its implementation; develop a general plan and audit program.

During the audit, a sufficient amount of high-quality audit evidence should be obtained (as a rule, from several sources and by different methods), which can serve as the basis for forming an opinion of the audit organization on the reliability of the financial statements of an economic entity. When conducting, a rational balance should be observed between the costs of collecting audit evidence and the usefulness of the information extracted. Nevertheless, the complexity and laboriousness of the implementation of a particular procedure cannot be considered a reason for refusing it, if the need for this procedure is due to the circumstances of the audit.

To achieve the objectives of the audit, the work of other persons can be used: auditor's assistants, involvement of experts, internal auditors, and other audit organizations. In doing so, the audit firm should consider the results of their work in the context of the procedures performed by the auditors, as well as assess the possibility of using the results of the work of others as reliable audit evidence or the basis for obtaining such evidence. The involvement of other persons in the audit does not relieve the audit organization of responsibility for the opinion expressed on the financial statements of the economic entity and does not reduce the degree of this responsibility.

During the audit, the main aspects of the work performed, the conclusions drawn and other significant issues relevant to the preparation of the audit report, as well as to evidence of the quality of the audit, should be documented. The working documentation of the audit should be sufficiently complete and convincing to serve as confirmation of the correctness of one or another opinion of the audit organization on the financial statements of the economic entity.

At the stage of preparing an opinion on the reliability of the financial statements of an economic entity, the audit organization is obliged to summarize and evaluate the conclusions drawn on the basis of the data obtained. In this case, one should proceed from the criteria for compliance with regulatory requirements in the preparation of financial statements by an economic entity and its compliance with the information on the activities of an economic entity that the audit organization has.

The auditor's report must contain a clearly expressed opinion on the degree of reliability of the financial statements of the economic entity. Of course, a positive audit report indicates that the audit organization considers the financial statements of an economic entity to be reliable in all respects.

10. Audit documentation

Issues related to audit documentation are regulated by the following standards: "Audit documentation", "Audit planning", "The procedure for drawing up an audit report on financial statements".

The audit organization and the individual auditor must document all information that is important in terms of presenting evidence supporting the audit opinion, as well as evidence that the audit was conducted in accordance with federal rules (standards) of auditing. The term "documentation" refers to working documents and materials prepared by and for the auditor, or received and retained by the auditor in connection with the audit. Working documents may be presented in the form of data recorded on paper, photographic film, in electronic form or in other form.

Working papers are used:

1) when planning and conducting an audit;

2) when exercising current control and checking the work performed by the auditor;

3) to record the audit evidence obtained in order to confirm the opinion of the auditor.

The auditor should reflect in the working papers information about the planning of the audit work, the nature, timing and extent of the audit procedures performed, their results, as well as the conclusions drawn from the obtained audit evidence. The working papers should contain the auditor's rationale for all significant points on which it is necessary to express his professional judgment, together with the auditor's conclusions on them. In cases where the auditor considered complex issues of principle or expressed professional judgment on any issues important to the auditor, the working documents should include the facts that were known to the auditor at the time of the formation of the conclusions, the necessary argumentation.

The scope of the audit documentation should be such that if it becomes necessary to transfer work to another auditor who does not have experience in this assignment, the new auditor can understand the work done and the validity of the decisions, conclusions of the former auditor.

The form and content of working documents is determined by the following factors:

1) the nature of the audit engagement;

2) the requirements for the auditor's report;

3) the nature and complexity of the activities of the auditor;

4) the nature and condition of the accounting and internal control systems of the auditor;

5) the need to give instructions to the auditor's employees, exercise ongoing control over them and check their work;

6) specific methods and techniques adopted in the audit process.

Working papers should be drawn up and systematized in such a way as to correspond to the circumstances of each audit and the needs of the auditor during its implementation. In order to increase the efficiency of preparation and verification of working documents, it is recommended that standard forms of documentation be developed in an audit organization (for example, a standard structure of an audit file (folder) of working documents, forms, questionnaires, standard letters and appeals). The standardization of documentation makes work easier and allows you to control the results of the check performed. To improve the efficiency of the audit, it is allowed to use charts, analytical and other documentation during the audit.

The results of performing analytical procedures should be used to obtain audit evidence necessary for the preparation of an audit report, as well as to prepare written information from the auditor to the management of an economic entity based on the results of the audit.

11. Financial control system and internal audit

The financial control system, designed to control and regulate all financial and economic activities of all entities and the actions of individuals, protect their legitimate interests and suppress violations and abuses in the field of finance, must function effectively, have a well-functioning control system with instructions for its implementation, a system of penalties for detected violations and a system of rewards for its correct execution.

General financial control is carried out on the basis of the Federal Law of November 21.11.1996, 129 No. XNUMX-FZ “On Accounting”, the Civil Code, the Code of Administrative Offenses, the Criminal Code, the Budget Code, the Tax Code, and individual control activities are carried out by control and audit bodies , Treasury, Accounts Chamber, Ministry of Finance, financial authorities of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and municipalities, antimonopoly authorities, tax and other government authorities within their competence.

The financial control system includes preliminary control (control prior to business transactions, preventing illegal financial actions), current control (control in the process of business transactions, promptly eliminating identified violations), subsequent control (control of already completed business transactions by analysis methods, tracking, comparison, recalculation and others in order to verify their legality and expediency, correctness and completeness of the reflection of these operations).

Internal audit is a kind of financial control carried out by the internal services of the entity. This may be a control department, an audit commission or an internal auditor who performs internal control functions. Internal audit is built depending on the content and specifics of the activity of the economic entity, the scale of this activity, the system for managing economic processes.

The functions of internal audit include: checking the availability and status of asset valuation, the effectiveness of their use, checking the methods and technologies of accounting at the enterprise, its organization, checking the procedure for recording transactions in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, checking the completeness of accounting for transactions and reporting, consulting accounting specialists, making suggestions to improve accounting.

Internal audit must be secured by the provisions of internal local regulations and instructions. The objectivity of internal audit is ensured by the degree of its independence in the structure of an economic entity; as a rule, the internal audit system is limitedly independent.

It is recommended that the auditor's performance standards be used to develop in-house standards for the audit service, which will determine: the organizational status of the internal audit department, the rights and obligations of internal auditors (here it is also necessary to determine the relationship between the internal audit service and other services of the subject), the qualification requirements for specialists of the internal audit department audit (level of knowledge, experience, training). The internal audit service uses methodological techniques, these are:

1) inspection to obtain evidence of the reliability of reflection in the accounting of business processes;

2) verification of documents for the correct execution and completeness of the reflection of business transactions in them;

3) observation - tracking processes, collecting information necessary for verification;

4) request, survey, testing, questioning in order to obtain information for verification;

5) confirmation, recalculation, inventory, selective and continuous verification;

6) reconciliation, identity check, analysis of samples and samples, etc.

12. Actions of the auditor in case of revealing the facts of non-compliance by the audited organization with laws and regulations

If the auditor discovers facts of non-compliance by the economic entity with the requirements of regulatory acts, he should more carefully study the circumstances under which the violations occurred, assess the degree of influence, the significance of violations on the reliability of financial statements.

The consequences of a breach include:

1) collection of penalties in the audited reporting period;

2) threat of alienation of property;

3) termination of the activity of an economic entity;

4) the emergence of doubts about the veracity and reliability of reporting data;

5) making wrong decisions based on distorted financial statements.

In the event that the auditor decides to hide the discovered facts of the corpus delicti, other actions or inaction of the economic entity, it should be remembered that measures of responsibility can also be applied to him, since he gives his professional opinion - a judgment on the reliability of accounting.

The impact of non-compliance with the requirements of regulatory acts by an economic entity is reflected in the assessment of possible risks, entails the adjustment of the audit procedures developed in the plan, the reassessment of the internal control system over the enterprise. The revealed facts of non-compliance with the law indicate either a deviation of the rules for maintaining and organizing accounting and reporting, or non-compliance during the reporting period with the adopted accounting policy in reflecting business transactions and assessing property.

The auditor makes his judgment about the violation: whether it was intentional or unintentional, whether the employees and the head of the economic entity were involved in the facts of non-compliance with the requirements of regulatory documents.

Significant violations of accounting and taxation, the auditor draws up in his working documentation in the form of a table "List of laws for which a violation was revealed."

In addition to the supreme management body of the economic entity, users of reporting data (for example, shareholders) and the management of the audit subject itself (in writing) should also be made aware of violations.

The facts of non-compliance with the requirements of regulatory enactments are taken into account by the auditor in the process of drawing up an audit report (in drawing up they are guided by the rule (standard) of audit activity "The procedure for drawing up an audit report on financial statements" and "Materiality and audit risk"). If the auditor believes that violations of normative and legislative acts led to distortion and affected the reliability of financial statements, then he presents a conditionally positive or negative opinion.

If the management (staff) of the audited entity prevent the auditor from obtaining reliable information that the facts of non-compliance with regulations have materially distorted the statements, the auditor is obliged to draw up a negative opinion or refuse to express his opinion in the audit report. If the reason for the restrictions was random circumstances, and not the management or staff of the company, then the auditor either draws up a conditionally positive opinion, or refuses to express his opinion in the opinion.

In practice (in a highly competitive environment), auditors help organizations correct all violations, since an unfavorable conclusion characterizes both the company and the auditor himself in terms of business reputation, therefore negative conclusions are a rare phenomenon and can most likely occur when audited on behalf of state organs. In most cases, enterprises receive a conditionally positive or positive conclusion.

13. Internal audit in the organization's management system

Internal audit - this is an integral part of the management control of an enterprise, a system of control over compliance with the established accounting procedure and the reliability of the functioning of various levels of management, organized by the economic entity itself, acting in the interests of its management and owners and regulated by internal documents. The work of internal audit has informational and consulting value for the management or owners of an economic entity: it is designed to help optimize the activities of an economic entity and fulfill the duties of its management.

Internal audit functions include checking accounting and internal control systems, developing recommendations for improving these systems, checking accounting and operational documentation, compliance with laws and other regulations, checking the activities of various levels of management, evaluating the effectiveness of the internal control mechanism, checking the availability, condition and provision the safety of the property of the enterprise, special investigations of individual cases, for example, suspicions of abuse, the development of proposals for eliminating the identified shortcomings and recommendations for improving management efficiency.

One of the most important areas of internal control is the accounting policy of the enterprise. Since 1995, it has been developed at all Russian enterprises. The following information is reflected in the accounting policy: determining the moment of proceeds from the sale, the method for determining the cost of materials written off as production costs, the methodology for calculating the depreciation rates of fixed assets, the procedure for reflecting exchange rate differences in the accounting, the list of funds and reserves formed and the rate of allocation of funds to them, methods writing off the cost of repairing fixed assets, etc. Studying the accounting policy, the auditor determines typical operations and concludes that there are violations of the accounting policy.

In the production accounting system, first of all, information about costs is created. Production costs are one of the main objects of management accounting. They are grouped and accounted for by types, places of their occurrence and cost carriers. Another object of management accounting are the results, which can also be taken into account under the tests of cost incurrence and cost carriers. In the process of comparing the costs and results of various accounting objects, the efficiency of production and economic activities is revealed. Management accounting information is usually a trade secret of the organization, is not subject to publication and is confidential. The administration of the organization independently establishes the composition, timing and frequency of submission of internal reporting.

An important step in the internal control system is the document flow. When studying the workflow and analyzing documents, the auditor concludes that the rules for registration are observed, the relationship of individual primary documents with each other and with accounting registers, and the compliance of the primary document with a business transaction. Based on the analysis of the document, a conclusion is made about the degree of compliance of the document with legislative acts. Obtained during the analysis of the internal control system, registration and clarification of internal control, expanded and specified during the audit information about the functioning of the enterprise allows the auditor to quickly respond to problems that arise in the enterprise. The use of the internal control system allows, without significant expenditure of time and money, at the first stage to detect shortcomings in the construction of accounting at the enterprise and highlight areas that should be paid attention to.

14. Audit of settlements with suppliers, contractors, debtors and creditors

The purpose of the audit of settlements with suppliers, contractors, debtors and creditors is to verify the legitimacy of the occurrence of receivables and payables, the timeliness of repayment of such debts, the correctness of accounting for transactions on settlements with contractors, suppliers, debtors and creditors, as well as measures to eliminate the causes that cause the occurrence unclaimed debt.

The sources of information for such a check are: the accounting policy of the organization, materials of the inventory of calculations, primary documents, registers of invoices, powers of attorney, registers of analytical and synthetic accounting, acts of mutual settlements and other documents.

It is necessary to evaluate the quality of the internal control system and accounting for such settlements at the enterprise; for this, the control system for accounting for settlements with suppliers and contractors is being tested. The test includes the following questions: are there any contracts for all deliveries and services, how often are accounting reconciliations carried out, what percentage of suppliers, contractors, debtors and creditors are covered by such reconciliations, to whom are powers of attorney issued, are there any cases of shortages, non-submission of reports for issued powers of attorney whether all invoices are registered, whether claims are made in a timely manner and how they are satisfied, whether penalties are applied for failure to comply with the terms of contracts, whether prices are reconciled according to documents and prices specified in contracts. The verification program includes verification of:

1) contracts - legal assessment from the standpoint of compliance with legislation, including tax legislation;

2) inventory of calculations (reveal the reality of the debt, the validity of the amounts of shortages, the amounts of debts for which the limitation period has expired, the persons guilty of missing these deadlines).

In the audit, examples of tracking, confirmation, recalculation, identity and reconciliation, selective verification are used.

Particular attention is paid to non-invoiced deliveries, the quality and quantity of incoming raw materials or the volume and quality of services provided are also checked.

If necessary, a decision can even be made on the participation of the auditor in the acceptance of goods and materials. Attention is paid to cash settlements when paying off debts with suppliers, contractors, debtors and creditors, since these settlements provide opportunities for fraud.

You should also carefully study the accounting of bills, barter transactions. In particular, they check the accounting of bills, the correctness of the calculation of exchange rate differences, in barter transactions they pay special attention to the valuation of exchanged goods, taxation on legal transactions.

They check the correctness of the write-off of costs from the credit of settlements with debtors and creditors for the cost of products, services, the correctness of the postings, the correctness of calculations expressed in foreign currency, the calculation of sum differences.

When checking settlements with contractors, the auditor must establish whether the objects are provided with a source of financing, whether there are design estimates for the objects, whether the volumes of work performed indicated in the delivery certificates correspond to the actual volumes.

The most common violations:

1) undetermined goods and materials;

2) discrepancy between the data of suppliers' invoices and the accounting data of the audited subject;

3) incorrect correspondence of accounts;

4) incorrect reflection of VAT;

5) destruction of original documents;

6) forgery and falsification of documents;

7) drawing up unrealistic obligations and debts for the purpose of incorrect cash payments;

8) reflection of unreal receivables and payables on the accounts of accounting.

15. Internal audit of the bank's activities

Internal audit should be understood as checking and evaluating the effectiveness of the functioning of all departments of the bank.

The audit is organized in accordance with the Regulation "On the organization of internal audit in the Central Bank", approved. Order of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation of March 31.03.1997, 02 No. 140-XNUMX. Internal audit allows you to have reliable information about the state of affairs in various areas, prevents financial risks (credit, currency, interest, the risk of lost profits, liquidity), determines the financial stability and competitiveness of the bank, ensures the safety of shareholder property, protects the interests of the bank, its participants and creditors .

The main tasks of internal audit are:

1) compliance with the requirements of regulatory legal acts;

2) compliance with established procedures when making decisions to eliminate the identified deficiencies;

3) fulfillment of the requirements for effective risk management of banking activities;

4) correct reflection of transactions in accounting accounts and ensuring the reliability of accounting and other reporting;

5) interaction with other regulatory bodies;

6) prevention and elimination of violations by bank employees of the current legislation.

The internal audit service operates on the basis of the bank's charter and the regulation on the internal audit service, approved by the supreme management body of the bank or other authorized body.

The organization of the internal control service can be built as follows:

1) creation of a special structural subdivision (department) in the bank;

2) provision in the staff list of positions of auditors.

Employees of this service must have professional skills and relevant qualifications.

The Internal Audit Service of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation conducts audits of the activities of structural divisions and organizations at least once every 1 years, and to ensure the safety of cash and other valuables in the vaults of the Central Bank - annually, in order to protect the interests of the bank, participants and creditors, ensuring control over the adoption of measures to minimize risks, resolve emerging conflicts.

The rights, duties and responsibilities of employees of the internal control service are provided for in the Regulation "On the organization of internal audit in the bank" (approved by Order No. 31.03.1997-02 of 140) and job descriptions.

Internal audit is classified according to various criteria. By the time of the event, it is preliminary and subsequent.

Preliminary is carried out before the adoption of management decisions in order to prevent illegal banking operations, actions of officials and financially responsible persons: efficient use of banking resources; preventing the occurrence of unproductive expenses and other actions that are detrimental to the activities of the bank. The subsequent one is carried out to establish the reliability and legality of banking operations and the actions of officials in the performance of official duties, as well as to identify internal reserves, eliminate existing shortcomings and omissions.

According to the timing, there are operational and periodic internal audits, the operational one is organized during the working day, within the reporting period, in order to timely identify deviations, their causes and perpetrators.

Periodic audit is carried out for a period of more than 1 month. At the same time, the timeliness, correctness, and expediency of banking operations are established. Depending on the sources of information, internal audit is divided into documentary and actual. Documentary is carried out according to the data of documents, accounting registers and reporting forms, and the actual one is carried out by examination, inspection, recalculation, laboratory analysis, examination, etc.

Author: Ivanova E.L.

<< Back: The essence and concept of audit (Concept, purpose and objectives of the audit. Audit as a control tool. Organization of the audit. Grounds and frequency of the audit. Directions of the audit. Preparation and planning of the audit. Main stages and sequence of the audit. Documentation of the audit. Conclusions and proposals based on the audit materials. Implementation audit results. Preparatory stage of the audit. Rights and responsibilities of the audit commission. Audit of funds and transactions with them)

>> Forward: Control over payments (Control over settlements with other debtors and creditors. Control over settlements for wages. Control over settlements for joint activities. Control over settlements with the budget and extra-budgetary income. Checking the accounting of fixed assets. Control of transactions for the receipt, disposal and depreciation of fixed assets. Control over accounting of inventory. Control over external settlement operations. Organization of audit work at facilities of different organizational and legal forms and forms of ownership. Control over transactions with imprest amounts. Control of cash transactions. Control and audit of settlement and credit transactions)

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