The concept of audit and audit activity, as well as audit objectives , standards of audit activity, the procedure for its state regulation, as well as other issues related to the activities of audit firms, are explained in the law of the Russian Federation “On audit activity”.
In accordance with this law, auditing is taken to mean an independent audit of the financial statements of the person to be audited in order to establish the degree of reliability and the correctness of the formation of such statements. Activities for the provision of audit services (audit activities, audit services) are the activities of audit organizations or private auditors in conducting audits and the provision of various kinds of related services. This list of services contains state standards of auditing.
The need for a regular audit of financial statements by specialized companies that have the appropriate licenses was caused by reasons such as
- the ability to objectively assess the accuracy of the information presented and the correctness of the formation of the financial statements by its compilers,
- direct dependence of the results of decisions made by users (investors) on the quality of the information they have,
- lack of user access to information and specialized knowledge for its proper verification.
To achieve the purpose of the audit during the audit, the specialist must solve the main tasks of the audit:
- collection of reliable primary information on the financial and economic activities of the person subject to audit and the formation on the basis of the information received of conclusions about the true financial condition of the business entity;
- functional audit tasks, including adjustment (providing recommendations on possible ways to correct identified errors),
- strategic objectives of the audit (providing advice on the optimal development strategy of an economic entity based on the data obtained);
- operational control (regular and systematic monitoring of the enterprise in order to prevent similar and other errors in the future).
During the audit, the completeness of the use of financial and economic documentation in the reporting, the comprehensive reflection of the movement of assets and liabilities, the presence of any deviations in the methodology for valuing assets from the established at the enterprise are established.
The audit report on the reliability and correctness of the accounting (financial) statements of the audited entity should take into account the following key points:
- the general acceptability of financial statements,
- its validity and completeness,
- separation and accuracy,
- the correct classification of articles, their disclosure and evaluation.
One of the most important places in the economic activity of any enterprise is occupied by fixed assets (OS). They are used in the main activities of the organization (they participate in the production process, delivery of goods or services, are leased, etc.). Therefore, it is extremely important for any business entity to properly organize the accounting policy of fixed assets and to strictly observe it. An audit of fixed assets involves checking the correctness and legality of performing business transactions with fixed assets owned by the enterprise, their proper acceptance for accounting and documentation.
The tasks of the audit of fixed assets are to confirm the information on fixed assets available in the financial statements of a business entity. They involve the study and analysis of the composition and structure of fixed assets , as well as the conditions for their storage and operation, verification of the correctness of reflection in accounting for the relevant operations on the movement of fixed assets , assessment of accrued depreciation and the accuracy of its reflection in accounting, confirmation of the results of the revaluation of fixed assets in the reporting year, etc. .