Performing the task - to audit cash transactions in any company or company, the auditor must first familiarize yourself with how the company provides internal control over the safety and intended use of funds. If during the process of familiarization the auditor had reasonable suspicions about the possible theft of these funds from the cash desk or any other abuses, he should strongly recommend that the management of the enterprise make an immediate inventory of cash at the cash desk. Such a sudden inventory can be organized by the management of the enterprise together with the auditor directly at the beginning of the audit itself.
The audit of cash registers and cash transactions is recommended according to the following plan:
- check whether checkout operations are documented correctly;
- evaluate the completeness and timeliness of capitalization in cash receipts;
- to analyze whether the funds are correctly written off as an expense;
- check how cash discipline is respected.
Further, the audit of cash transactions provides for the establishment of the legality of cash transactions and their compliance with regulatory documents of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. It all depends on two points:
1) how much of all cash transactions completed are subject to verification;
2) the degree of confidence of the auditor of internal control at the enterprise after reviewing it.
Depending on this, the auditor decides to conduct a full or spot check of cash documents.
The audit methodology of cash transactions provides for the clarification of how they are properly documented. Here, the auditor should pay particular attention to the completeness of filling in credit and debit orders, their mandatory registration and payroll , etc. It is important to clarify whether these documents have the signature of the person in charge and the recipient of the funds, and whether they contain erasures, corrections, etc. For this purpose, it is necessary to carefully compare the cashier's reports and the attached primary documents, as well as check the cash book.
According to all regulatory documents, this book is kept in a single copy and must be laced and numbered, as well as be sealed with the seal of the enterprise with the signature of its head. The auditor must analyze how the entries in the cash book correspond to the reports of the cashier and are confirmed by primary documents.
In cases where the accounting records at the enterprise are computerized, the cash book can also be kept on a computer, but its sheets should be printed in 2 copies. At the same time, the first copies should be periodically stitched into a brochure, and the second should be a cashier’s report for the operations performed. In this case, the audit of cash transactions orders to check (by the auditor alone or with the help of an appropriate expert) whether the computer program is protected from unauthorized access to it. In addition, the auditor must perfectly know the principles of such a program.
When checking cash transactions, the auditor needs to find out how the cash was fully, timely and correctly capitalized, as well as how its expense was documented, that is, to establish whether the issue of money was documented. An audit of cash transactions also provides for verification of compliance with the established limit in cases of cash settlements with legal entities.
In conclusion, we note that we have considered only some areas of the audit of cash transactions. And each auditor, before proceeding with such an audit, must develop a specific plan for its implementation, taking into account all the features of a particular enterprise and strictly follow it.