Meaning and Definitions of Audit

What is Meant by Auditing?

The audit meaning or the concept of auditing can be defined as the verification of certain data of accounting by the determination of the accuracy and the reliability of the statements and reports of accounting.

Principles of Auditing

There are certain principles of auditing which must be governed properly. The proper procedural structure of inspection has principles and these are the basics of auditing or the Auditing and Assurance Standards (AAS). So the principles of auditing standardize the professional responsibility of the auditor which needs to be carried out. The basic principles governing an audit are namely integrity, objectivity and independence, skills and competence, confidentiality, work that are performed by others, planning, documentation, audit evidence, internal control and accounting system, and lastly, audit conclusions and reporting. These constitute the basic principles of auditing.

Features of Auditing

Some of the features of auditing are:

• The basics of auditing is an orderly procedure. It is a coherent and logical strategy to analyse the records of an association for their precision. There are rules and strategies to follow. 

• The audit is constantly done by an autonomous position or an assemblage of people with important capabilities. They must be autonomous so that their perspectives and conclusions can be fair-minded. 

• Indeed, an audit is the assessment of the considerable number of books of records and money-related data of the organization. So it is a confirmation of the final accounts of the association, for example, the profit and loss articulation and the balance sheet toward the finish of the financial year. 

• One of the most important characteristics of auditing is that audit is not just the survey of the books of records but also the inside frameworks and interior control of the association. 

• To direct the audit we need the assistance of different sources of data. This incorporates vouchers, documents, endorsements, polls, clarifications and so on. The auditor may investigate some other reports he sees fit like Memorandum of Association, Articles of Associations, vouchers, minute books, investors register and so forth. 

• Features of auditing also consist of the fact that the auditor should associate himself with the precision and genuineness of the financial statements. At that point, he would be able to offer the input and confirm that they are valid and reasonable articulations.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Auditing

Some of the advantages of auditing are: 

Assurance to the Investors: 

The greatest preferred position of auditing is that it offers confirmations to the proprietors, financial specialists, investors etc. The proprietors of the business will be guaranteed about the precision of their books of records.

Errors and Frauds: 

A blunder is something that is managed without the expectation of the organization’s extortion. It is a conscious misrepresentation. During the procedure of auditing, both errors and fakes are found. Auditing forestalls blunders and frauds like these. It makes a dread of being identified.

Moral Check: 

One of the different points of auditing is that the staff of the organization do not attempt to swindle the organization. They are under consistent investigation since they realize that the records will be audited. Any anomalies can be distinguished during such an audit. This helps the staff in being straightforward and capable consistently.

Independent Viewpoint:

If the auditor is an external auditor, the business can hear the second point of view on their budget reports and the monetary remaining also.

Stakeholders’ Confidence: 

In the wake of inspecting, partners like loan bosses, speculators, banks, debenture holders etc, can depend on the books of records with more certainty. Thus during auditing by an autonomous power, the budget reports have greater believability.

Limitations of Auditing or Disadvantages of Auditing

Some of the limitations of auditing are:

Cost Factor: 

One of the main disadvantages of auditing is that an exceptionally intensive and detailed audit would be an expensive programme. So the auditor needs to constrain the extent of his audit and use strategies like examining and test checking.

Time Factor: 

Auditors for the most part chip away at a certain course of events because of legal prerequisites. This implies that the auditor needs to audit an entire year's records in half a month. Thus deficient time is one of the fundamental restrictions of auditing. 

Inconclusive Evidence: 

The limitations of auditing include that the audit proofs the evaluator gathers are convincing in nature but not definitive. So there will never be a penny per cent convincing proof as a rule while auditing.