Audit of financial statements and financial results of the enterprise. Audit of financial statements Audit of the company's financial statements

When the management of an enterprise needs to check the documentation related to its activities for reliability and compliance with the requirements specified in the legislation, it is carried out independent verification— audit. For some companies, this is a mandatory procedure that must be completed annually.

Auditing activities in the Russian Federation are regulated by the Federal Law of December 30, 2008. No. 307 (Law "On Auditing").

Goals and objectives of the audit of accounting (financial) statements

The purpose of this audit is to form an opinion of an audit specialist on the reliability of the company's accounting (financial) statements and, in addition, to find out whether accounting is in accordance with the norms of the legislation of our country.

The following tasks of the accounting audit are distinguished:

find out whether the reporting and its indicators comply with the norms of the legislation and the accounting policy of the company;
find out how fully all business transactions are reflected in the documentation;
check how the systems are organized and functioning internal control companies;
check if in all forms financial statements indicators match and correspond to reality.

The methods used by specialists in the audit of financial statements are similar to audit methods in general. These include:

actual control (observation, inventory, expert assessments);
documentary (study of important papers of the company in form and content);
settlement analytical (statistical calculations, economic analysis).

Which companies are required to be audited?

Audit of financial statements can be mandatory and proactive. The first can only be external, that is, carried out independent experts firms specializing in auditing, or individual auditors who are not employees of the audited company.

Firms to be subject to the procedure statutory audit, are named in the Federal Law of December 30, 2008. No. 307 (Law "On Auditing"). These businesses include:

companies with the organizational and legal form of JSC;
companies whose securities are admitted to organized trading;
firms with a certain type of activity (this includes credit, clearing, insurance, companies participating in the market valuable papers, microfinance, SROs, cooperatives, organizers of gambling, etc.);
companies that have a revenue of more than 400 million rubles or an amount of assets of more than 60 million rubles (for the year preceding the reporting year), etc.

A detailed list can be seen in Art. 5 of the Federal Law No. 307 "On Auditing".

An initiative audit can be carried out in certain cases, such as: lending in banks, the need to take part in tenders, the desire of company managers to reduce tax risks, proficiency test accounting department, preparing a report for a potential investor.

The procedure for auditing financial statements

The audit takes place in several stages:

Traditionally, the first stage is planning and preparing for the audit. The auditor examines the activities of the company, draws up a work plan, requests Required documents. At the same stage, an agreement is concluded between the audit firm and the object of verification.
Next, the collection of evidence and analysis of the data received for verification begins. A list of all requested documents is examined. If necessary, employees of the company are interviewed, sometimes in writing. Data is grouped and organized. The auditor makes a conclusion about the reliability of financial statements.
The head of the audited company is informed of the conclusion - an opinion on the reliability of the accounting financial reporting. An auditor's report is formed and handed out, which is the immediate purpose of the audit. In addition, some firms draw up an audit report, which describes in detail the progress of the audit, all identified shortcomings and other information that may be useful to the management of the audited company to improve the quality of the accounting department.

What documents are checked

During the audit, auditors request a large list of documents, which includes:

accounting (it includes 2 important papers: the balance sheet and the statement of financial results of the company, but they are accompanied by a host of other documents - the latter are listed below);
tax returns;
statutory documents;
permits, licenses and more.

It is checked whether the papers are filled out correctly, whether they correspond to the approved forms, whether the deadlines for filing (declarations) are met, whether the documents are certified by the signatures of the chief accountant and manager, etc.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION! If an audit is carried out according to a special task, then in such a situation only the documentation that relates to a specific task is checked.

Result

So, at the end of the audit, the company receives a report and an audit report. The form in which the information will be provided, as well as its recipients, must be prescribed in advance in the contract with the audit firm. The report, also known as written information, is a confidential document. It usually contains the following information:

the methods that the auditor uses in the audit;
recommendations on changes in accounting policies that may affect the entity's financial statements;
proposals for adjusting the company's financial statements;
other points that the head of the organization needs to pay attention to (this includes errors in the conduct of internal control, situations of unreasonable actions of management).

The report lists violations found and possible options their fixes. Typically, this is done in the form of a pivot table.

ATTENTION! The report must be accompanied by copies of financial statements for this year and most importantly, the auditor's report.

Auditor's report

This is an official document that contains the opinion of an expert auditor on the reliability of the accounting statements of the audited company. It is it that should be submitted to the statistical authorities along with the financial statements.

The structure and information that must be included in the auditor's report is described in detail in Art. 6 of the Federal Law No. 307, mentioned earlier.

Briefly about what the document should contain:

title "Auditor's report";
information about who the document is addressed to (JSC shareholders, LLC participants, etc.);
information about the audited entity;
information about the auditor conducting the audit;
a list of documents (accounting) that was checked by the auditor, indicating the date when they were drawn up;
the auditor's opinion on the reliability of the information specified in the audited documents;
test results;
the date on which the opinion was drawn up.

The conclusion may be provided only to the person with whom the contract was concluded.

Typical mistakes and violations

Here is a list of common violations that can be identified during the audit:

expenses and income are reflected incorrectly;
accounting details are filled out incorrectly or incompletely;
incorrectly calculated tax amounts;
indicators of different reporting forms contradict each other;
size authorized capital different from what is prescribed in the charter;
arithmetic errors in calculations;
formal inventory, conducting it with errors, etc.

Responsibility for failure

The economic entities listed above must undergo an audit of their financial statements every year, and also send an opinion to the statistical authorities. The submission of the conclusion must be carried out together with the submission of reports. If it is not possible to send the document on time, then you can submit it within 10 days from the date of issue, but no later than December 31 of the year that follows the reporting one. This is stated in the Federal Law of December 6, 2011 No. 402 (the law "On Accounting"), namely in its 2 article.

In addition, within 3 working days from the date of issuance of the opinion, the company is obliged to enter information on the results of the audit into the Unified Federal Register on the facts of the activities of legal entities.

The mere fact of non-audit does not entail punishment. Administrative liability occurs in the cases described below. Punishment is possible only for those organizations that are required to undergo a mandatory audit of financial statements.

Initiator of the fine	Cause	Article	Fine
FTS	On site inspection, it was found that there was no auditor's report during the required storage period (from 5 years).	Part 1. Art. 15.11 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation	From 5 to 10 thousand rubles for officials.
Rosstat	If an audit report was not provided to this body during the required period.	19.7 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation	From 300 to 500 rubles for officials and from 3 thousand rubles to 5 thousand rubles for legal entities.
Bank of Russia	Within the required period, the auditor's report was not posted on the JSC's website.	Part 2 Art. 15.19 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation	From 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles or suspension from work for 1-2 years for officials. For legal entities - from 700 thousand to 1 million rubles.

The amount of the fine may be reduced by a court decision if there were any exceptional circumstances that led to an administrative offense.

Elena Titova,

expert of the Legal Consulting Service GARANT, member of the Chamber of Tax Consultants

Before sending the annual accounting (financial) statements, the organization must check the completeness and correctness of its completion. It is at this final stage of the check that there is still an opportunity to identify possible inconsistencies and timely eliminate the detected errors. The procedure for testing reporting can be established by the organization itself.

Verification Criteria:

1. Compliance general requirements to the accounting (financial) statements established by Law No. 402-FZ and PBU 4/99.

2. Completeness of information in reporting.

The presence of all forms of financial statements established by law is checked.

Special attention it is required to give to those lines in the reporting in which dashes were put in an automated way. In this case, you should make sure that the organization really did not carry out transactions that resulted in such "crossed out" indicators.

3. Reliability of reporting.

False information in the reporting can lead to the most sad consequences. Meanwhile, the concept of reliability is not defined by law. From the point of view of audit, this concept refers to such a degree of accuracy of financial statements that allows users to draw correct conclusions about the results of activities based on them. economic entities and make decisions based on those findings.

Validation tasks include:

– verification of the correctness of the financial statements (filling in all the necessary details, the presence of the signature of the head of the organization or another person to whom such powers have been transferred on the basis of a power of attorney);

– checking the comparability of the indicators of previous reporting periods, reflected in the columns “As of December 31, 2014”, “As of December 31, 2013”, with the reporting data of previous years. Differences will mean that the entity has either corrected errors from previous years or has changed its accounting policy. But in this case, the difference should be reflected in section 2 of the Statement of Changes in Capital;

– verification of compliance of indicators of all forms of financial statements;

– checking the compliance of indicators in the accounting and tax reporting.

Interrelation of indicators of accounting and tax reporting

In some cases, the correctness of the formation of accounting data can be verified by comparing them with indicators tax returns.

For example, an income tax return can be reconciled not only with the income statement and the income statement Money but also with balance.

This method of verification will make it possible to timely identify discrepancies between individual indicators of tax and accounting reports, make the necessary corrections (if these discrepancies are recognized as erroneous), which in the future will eliminate the need for explanations with tax office and the need to submit revised declarations.

Reconciliation of reporting indicators is also carried out by the tax authorities.

For this, there are special control ratios, which until recently were classified proprietary information. At the present time, the “Foreign particle board” stamp has been removed and all taxpayers can use the ratios. The updated control ratios of the Federal Tax Service of Russia are sent by open letters and posted on its official website (FTS of Russia dated March 23, 2015 No. GD-4-3/4550@).

If discrepancies are found between individual indicators of tax returns and the data of reporting forms, the tax authority may require explanations of the reasons for such discrepancies (TC RF). At the same time, in some cases, such discrepancies may become the basis for an in-depth desk audit or to include the organization in the list of applicants for field check(FTS of Russia dated July 17, 2013 No. AS-4-2/12722@).

In order for the users of the GARANT system to be able to methodically and consistently check the statements before sending them, the experts of the Garant company prepared tables for linking indicators - a good help at the final stage of the check.

Linking tables can be found in the following materials “Encyclopedia of solutions. Accounting and reporting”:

Interrelation of indicators of accounting and tax reporting;

Linking the indicators of the Balance Sheet and the Statement of Financial Results;

Linking the indicators of the Balance Sheet and the Statement of Cash Flows;

Linking the indicators of the Balance Sheet and the Statement of Changes in Equity;

Linking the indicators of the Balance Sheet and Explanations to the Balance Sheet and the Statement of Financial Results;

Linking the indicators of the Statement of Financial Results and the Statement of Changes in Equity.

To find these materials in the GARANT system, enter in the Basic search line: correlation of indicators.

An audit of financial statements is a verification of the compliance of the financial statements of an organization or company with legal requirements. This is a serious event that requires preliminary preparation and a thorough approach to the conduct. Which organizations are required by law to conduct an audit and how to properly organize this procedure? See this article for tips and advice.

An audit of the financial statements of an enterprise is a procedure during which compilation errors are identified. accounting documents, the accuracy of reflection of mandatory financial indicators, assets and liabilities. For many companies and entrepreneurs, such checks are a requirement of the law.

It is important to understand that an audit is an independent review, which means that for it it is necessary to invite specialists from specialized audit companies. Sometimes there is a so-called "internal" type of audit, when the audit takes place within the company by staff members.

But it is obvious that even a qualified accountant is not able to adequately and objectively check their own work. Moreover, he may be interested in hiding the committed violations. For this reason, it is preferable to entrust the audit to a profile and independent company not interested in falsification.

An audit of financial statements is a verification of the compliance of the financial statements of an organization or company with legal requirements.

Why checks are carried out

The main purpose of the audit is an objective assessment of the legality, proper accounting of the company, as well as the accuracy of reflecting all financial indicators in it. To do this, experts consistently solve the following tasks:

Checking the financial statements, the regularity and correctness of maintaining all the documentation prescribed by law.
Analysis of the completeness of the display of all necessary provisions, including costs, profits and financial results company work.
Identification of financial reserve, volume borrowed money and finding ways to better use money.

The legislative framework

chief legislative act, on which the work of auditors is based, is the federal law "On Auditing" dated December 30, 2008. The term "audit" is disclosed in article 7 of the said act. In addition, in the text of the law, you can find out that an audit is mandatory when a number of legally prescribed conditions are met.

The text of this law must be read by all entrepreneurs and businessmen who are faced with the need to carry out this procedure. At the end of 2017, changes were made to the federal law. In addition to this act, the procedure for conducting inspections is regulated by federal standards activities of auditors, certain norms of legislation and rules of professional accredited communities.

An audit is mandatory when a number of legally prescribed conditions are met

Which organizations are required to be audited

It is important for an entrepreneur or company owner to know whether his business is subject to mandatory verification organization's financial statements. To find out this circumstance, you need to refer to Article 5 of the above federal law. The article is quite voluminous and contains a very detailed list of directions. For example, All public corporations are required to undergo this procedure annually.. Regarding private firms and companies, it can be summarized that only a few varieties are subject to mandatory audit:

Varieties of JSC (JSC, CJSC, PJSC).
Credit organizations (including microfinance).
NPF (non-state pension funds).
Housing savings cooperatives.
Gambling organizers.
Association of tour operators and individual tour operators working in the field of outbound tourism.
Political parties.
Self-regulatory organizations (NPOs that unite entrepreneurs in a particular industry).
Investment funds.
Insurance funds.

In addition, an audit will be required if the company does not belong to the above categories, but the amount of its revenue for last year exceeded 400 million rubles or the company's securities were admitted to organized trading.

For the majority of companies subject to mandatory annual audits, public accounting statements are provided. This is the name given to the publication of financial indicators of an organization in the media. mass media or in separate editions.

The nuance is that the publication is recognized as legal only when prepared on the basis of an audit. Legislation requires mandatory publication in print media (newspapers or magazines) or distribution of booklets and brochures. Publishing a report online is not enough.

Such companies are required to undergo an annual audit, under a contract concluded with a specialized firm selected by the results of an open tender. For companies that do not fall under the characteristics specified in this article, the law does not provide for a mandatory audit.

However, the range of organizations requiring audit is not limited to the listed categories. Auditing is useful for most enterprises, for example, to assess the quality of the work of accountants, identify possible violations and adjust the approach to financial policy.

Auditing is useful for most enterprises

Varieties of audit

There are several approaches to the classification of audit. For example, often distinguish between "external" and "internal" audit. This formulation is not correct in the strict sense. Under this approach, “external” refers to an audit performed by an independent company involved.

"Internal" is rather a check inside the company, organized on its own. There is no guarantee that errors and actual violations will be detected as a result of it, since the verifier may well be interested in falsifying the results of the analysis of the documentation.

Also, the audit is often divided into:

Special. The purpose is to study specific documents or issues of activity, compliance with the procedures prescribed by law by the company.
Audit of financial statements. This is a large-scale analysis of the entire volume financial documents company for the reporting period, for example, annual financial statements.

Regularity is often used as a classification criterion. For example, there is an "initial" audit - the first for the company - and "agreed" - conducted regularly. In the economic literature, one can also find a different division of audit procedures.

Separately, it is worth highlighting such a direction of checks as "express audit". This is the name of a quick and selective analysis of documents, the reason for which is often any emergency circumstances. For example, an unexpected crisis situation in the company or the owner's suspicions of violations of the company's work.

The express audit technique involves an oral conversation with responsible person companies(usually with the chief accountant) and spot check documents. This method is good enough for the rapid search for violations and shortcomings, but does not give a comprehensive picture of the state of the company.

Express audit is good for quick search for violations and shortcomings

What documents need to be prepared for the audit

The list of documentation to be studied by the inspectors is quite extensive. Mandatory minimums include:

statutory documents of the company, including the memorandum of association (if any);
statement of entry into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities;
certificate of registration with the tax service;
licenses and certificates;
information about bank accounts;
tax and accounting reports for the analyzed period;
contracts with contractors;
acts, invoices, accounting cards;
staffing and documents of the personnel department;
calculations for the distribution of indirect costs;
tax accounting registers;
audit report for previous period(in the presence of).

What are the stages of an audit?

Checking accounting and financial statements takes a long time. As a rule, the entire procedure lasts at least 1 week., and if the company's sales reach 100 million rubles, the work of auditors will take 3-4 weeks.

The audit includes the following steps:

Preparation planning. At this stage, the composition of the audit team is formed, the work procedure is agreed with the audited party, organizational issues are resolved, tasks are defined and an audit plan is developed. It is worth knowing that in the case of the very first or especially complex check, a lawyer is often included in the group.
His task is to evaluate the constituent documents of the organization, the concluded contracts and agreements, to evaluate the order of procedures approved within the company (for example, auctions). Also, the lawyer takes part in the preparation of the final report on the results of the entire audit.
Direct check of the documentation. Specialists work with papers, as well as interact with the chief accountant and individual employees responsible for certain areas of work. Auditors have the right to ask oral questions and send written requests.
The audited party has a similar right: auditors can be asked questions throughout the entire time of work, both orally and in writing.
Summarizing, drawing up a report and sending it to the management of the audited organization. Traditionally audit firms prepare two documents: an auditor's report and an explanatory note, which characterizes all the significant materials of the audit. Errors and shortcomings indicated in the explanatory note are subject to operational investigation, analysis and elimination.

The company may receive a positive opinion with an opinion that is not unconditionally positive

If the study did not reveal any violations, and the company went to meet the auditors, providing all the necessary papers and responding to all requests, the auditors issue an unconditional positive opinion with a positive opinion.

In a similar situation where no deficiencies were found, but any document was missing or no response was received, the company may receive a positive opinion with an opinion that is not unconditionally positive or with a disclaimer of opinion.

However, the review may not go so smoothly, and as an option, the organization will receive a negative opinion. In the event that any violation in the company's work is indicated in a report or an explanatory note, but is not eliminated by the company until the next audit, the head of the company risks receiving a negative audit report and penalties from regulatory authorities.

How much does an audit cost

Cost independent evaluation accounting and financial reporting directly depends on the type of audit (full or special) and the size of the company (the more documentation that specialists have to evaluate, the more you have to pay). The price for an audit starts from 50 thousand and can reach several million rubles.

Some companies estimate the cost of the audit in audit hours, that is, the price will directly depend on the time that the specialists will work with the company's documents. Prices per hour range from 2,000 to 10,000 rubles. Some organizations attract customers with lower prices (up to 200 rubles per hour), but you need to check if this is a scam.

Conclusion

An audit is a complex procedure that involves the involvement of an independent professional firm to verify the correctness of accounting and financial documentation. For some organizations, an annual audit is a legal requirement. The list of categories of such organizations is established in Article 5 of the federal law "On Auditing".

No one is immune from mistakes, especially in calculations. Even in the presence of a highly qualified accountant, there is a possibility of technical failures and errors, both systemic and on the part of employees. To identify such moments, an audit of the financial statements of the enterprise is intended.

Basic moments

Dear readers! The article talks about typical solutions legal issues but each case is individual. If you want to know how solve exactly your problem- contact a consultant:

APPLICATIONS AND CALLS ARE ACCEPTED 24/7 and 7 days a week.

It's fast and FOR FREE!

Accounting reports are an ordered systematized set of information about the existing assets and liabilities of the enterprise, as well as the results of its activities in financial terms.

Functions of accounting reports:

informational, that is, to give information about the general financial situation of the subject;
control, that is, to provide the possibility of reconciliation accounting indicators with the actual state of affairs.

Accounting regulations provide for several classifications of reporting:

According to the time criterion it can be annual and periodic (semi-annual, quarterly, monthly, etc.).
Depending on the completeness of the information provided it is divided into internal (for own needs) and external (for third-party users).
By the degree of aggregation of indicators reporting can be primary and consolidated. The first is built on the basis of primary sources (waybills, invoices and other documentation). The second one is compiled on the basis of the primary one by combining and summarizing the presented indicators.

What is an audit?

An audit of financial statements is a check of all documentation for the accuracy of the information displayed in it.

Regulatory basis for verification

The annual financial statements are audited by an independent third party.

It is based on:

on the activities of auditors;
administrative act of the company's management.

Also, the regulation of this process is carried out on the basis of other norms of Russian legislation developed in accordance with federal law in the field of licensing the activities of auditors.

Goals and objectives

The main purpose of such independent control is to assess the reliability of the information reflected in the statements and the compliance of the technology of doing business with legislative acts.

Audit tasks:

determine the degree of compliance of reporting values with internal standards and legislation;
compare actual and reported values of indicators;
check the completeness of coverage of all operations of the enterprise;
evaluate the effectiveness of internal control.

When is it mandatory?

In some cases, statutory audits must be carried out in accordance with government regulations.

It passes:

large enterprises whose revenue for the past year exceeded 400 million or the volume of their assets over 60 million;
companies whose shares are traded;
organizations involved in lending, insurance, and clearing institutions, cooperatives, casinos.

Who is obliged to carry out?

This check can be carried out both by an independent specialized organization and by private experts who have the appropriate licenses. In addition, they advise the management of new enterprises on whether the organization's financial statements are subject to mandatory audit or not.

In some cases, only audit firms are authorized to perform audits.

This applies to:

government institutions;
pension funds;
companies whose authorized capital consists of at least a quarter of state assets;
companies generating consolidated reporting;
organizations whose main activity is lending or insurance;
companies whose securities are listed on the stock market.

Any institution engaged in independent accounting research must be a member of a self-regulating union of auditors.

Kinds

Checks can be carried out with varying degrees of detail.

Modern practice provides for a complete and selective audit of financial statements:

Solid. All to be studied primary documents. It takes a lot of time, so the prices of such services are high.
Selective. In this case, not the entire array of documentation is subject to consideration, but only a part of it, representing a sample. This option is not so expensive, but during its implementation there is a possibility of missing errors.

An expert can evaluate both the entire range of the enterprise's activities (comprehensive audit) and its individual areas (thematic audit).

In addition, the audit can be internal, when an employee of the enterprise acts as an inspector, and external, conducted by third-party experts:
Initiated audit. It is carried out by decision of the company's administration. It is carried out to identify errors in the reporting documentation, analysis financial condition firms and develop recommendations to improve efficiency.
- a mandatory audit conducted to verify the accounting of the financial statements of a company or individual entrepreneur.

Auditing the company's financial statements in 2020

In 2020 Russian legislation both obligatory and initiative audits of annual financial statements are envisaged.

If in the first case only specialized organizations can carry it out, then in the second case individual auditors are allowed to do it.

Who is carried out?

The results of the check depend on how qualified the expert is. Therefore, his choice must be approached thoroughly.

This should be done in several steps:

Studying the information available about the auditor (reviews of former clients, membership in SROs, availability of publications in authoritative publications, availability of a quality certificate, issued liability insurance).
Coordination of the cost of services.
Direct acquaintance with the auditor, finding out how the audit is carried out in ordinary cases.

Most often, the reasons for conducting initiative monitoring are: the bank's requirement when issuing a loan, the initiative of the management, one of the conditions for participating in tenders is the need to report to a potential investor.

What documents are checked?

Regardless of the type of verification, the expert examines a certain list of documents:

consolidated annual financial statements (balance sheet, cash flow statement and income statement);
primary documents confirming the fact of financial transactions;
founding documents;
tax returns;
patents, permits, etc.

Auditor Selection Guide

When choosing an auditor to review accounting documentation, the following recommendations should be followed:

You need to find out how long the audit company has been operating. Big term their performance speaks volumes about the stability of the organization.
Find out about the experience of the company in providing the service you require. It is necessary to familiarize yourself with how customers respond to the activities of the organization.
Estimate the amount of insurance in the auditor's policy. The activities of each audit firm are insured. And the larger the amount of insurance, the more insurance compensation upon the occurrence of an insured event.
Check the availability of a certificate and a certificate that allows you to carry out audit services: certificate of state registration of a legal entity; certificate of inclusion in the Register of auditors and audit organizations self-regulatory organization auditors; ACCA diploma; certificate of conformity of the quality control system; certificates of auditors employed in this audit company.
Find out the number of qualified employees, as well as whether they are employed in an audit company or are third-party specialists recruited from another company. Since in the latter case the price for services increases, and the quality decreases.
Find out if the firm has lawyers on staff. They may be required if questions arise from the tax authorities.
Find out the business reputation of the company. To do this, you should pay attention to her awards, diplomas, gratitude, provided by government agencies.

Methods

When reviewing documentation, the examiner may use various audit methods.

As a rule, not one technique is used, but all of them in combination:

documentary (visual) study (checking the form and content of papers);
actual monitoring (inventory, observation, expert opinion);
analytical calculations based on statistics and economic analysis technology.

Notification

A statutory audit should not be sudden.

Before the start of its implementation, the organization receives a notification. Usually it is sent 1 or 2 weeks before the start of the event.

This is done so that employees have time to prepare for it, to smooth out minor inaccuracies. But it is impossible to eliminate serious violations during this period.

Service list

Auditing companies are authorized to provide several types of both audit and related services.

The Ministry of Finance has defined their list:

comprehensive audit of consolidated and primary financial statements;
verification of part of the consolidated and primary financial statements;
comprehensive assessment of systematized financial statements;
assessment of part of the systematized financial statements;
audit of other documents;
related services, including consulting.

Stages

Traditionally, the audit check takes place in several stages:

Preliminary preparation, during which a contract for the provision of services is concluded, the activities of the enterprise are studied and a request for the necessary information is made.
Analysis of the submitted documents, on the basis of which a conclusion is made.
Bringing the results of the audit to the management of the enterprise.

Identification of violations

Identification of violations occurs by evaluating the initial information. In the course of it, the auditor tries to detect contributions that are uncharacteristic for the enterprise, irrational write-offs of assets, or their sale at a lower cost.

In addition, the task of the audit is to search for points indicating irrational purchases that took place at the enterprise, or payment of non-existent invoices, as well as spending the enterprise's funds for personal purposes.

When such evidence is identified, a note about them is placed in the audit report.

Results and conclusion preparation

The results of the audit are reflected in the auditor's report. It is provided in the form that was agreed at the stage of drawing up the contract.

It is transferred only to the person with whom it was concluded.

The report discloses information on the methods of verification, proposals for optimization accounting policy found errors.

Common Mistakes

Most often during the audit control the following typical errors are revealed:

discrepancies in reporting indicators;
inventory and arithmetic errors;
incorrect filling of details;
errors in the calculation of tax payments;
incorrect calculation of income and expenses;
discrepancy between the actual and the size of the authorized capital reflected in the constituent documents.

In addition to the list of identified errors, the auditor gives recommendations for their elimination in the future.

Sample Conclusion

The document issued by the auditor contains the following information:

for whom it is composed;
object of verification;
list of verified securities;
conclusion on the reliability of the information received;
check results;
date of writing the conclusion.

Price

The cost of an audit depends on its complexity. When calculating it, factors such as the complexity of the business, the level of detail of the audit and the qualifications of the auditor are taken into account.

Service name	Price
Mandatory audit	from 60 000 rubles
Audit in the manufacturing sector	from 70 000 rubles
Audit in the field of trade	from 60 000 rubles
Auditing in the field of catering	from 60 000 rubles
Audit in the field of services and marketing	from 60 000 rubles
Auditing in the construction industry	from 90 000 rubles
Auditing in the field of foreign economic activity	from 70 000 rubles

The final price is agreed upon at the stage of conclusion of the contract.

Questions

The following key questions also need to be clarified.

What is an express audit?

This is an independent audit carried out on the basis of financial statements, the state of accounting, balance sheet enterprises. As a rule, it is carried out by the chief accountant or management.

The event is conducted to assess the cumulative impact of the detected and possible errors for reporting in general.

Is online verification allowed?

It is allowed, but it is not considered complete and does not exempt from a mandatory audit with the actual presence of an expert at the enterprise.

Such an audit is carried out online. Reporting documentation sent via the Internet to specialists who check it.

Is it necessary to draw up a contract for holding?

It is necessary to draw up a contract for conducting, since only in this case the results of the verification can have legal force and be recognized as valid.

main goal audit of this section of accounting is an expression of opinion on the reliability of the accounting (financial) statements of the organization and the compliance of the order of conduct accounting the legislation of the Russian Federation.

To achieve and implement this goal during the audit, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

Checking the composition and content of accounting forms;

Checking the correctness of the assessment of reporting items;

Checking the interconnection of reporting indicators;

Checking the consistency of indicators reflected in different reporting forms.

The main stages of the audit of the reliability of the accounting (financial) statements of the organization:

Stage 1. The study of the composition of the forms of accounting (financial) statements of the organization and the completeness of its presentation.

Stage 2. Checking the correctness of filling, analysis and confirmation of the balance sheet (form No. 1).

Stage 3. Checking the correctness of filling, analysis and confirmation of the income statement (form No. 2).

Stage 4. Verification of the correctness of filling, analysis and confirmation of the report on changes in capital (form No. 3).

Stage 5 Checking the correctness of filling, analysis and confirmation of the cash flow statement (form No. 4).

Stage 6 Checking the correctness of filling, analysis and confirmation of the appendix to the balance sheet (form No. 5).

More detailed audit procedures for checking the accounting of loans and borrowings are reflected in the audit program presented in the table ... ..

On first stage audit to the auditor , it is necessary to assess the general issues of checking the reliability of accounting (financial) statements. The audit of financial statements begins with the study of the composition of the organization's financial statements and the completeness of their presentation. In accordance with PBU 4/99 (p. 49) and the Guidelines on the scope of forms of accounting (financial) statements (approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation dated July 22, 2003 No. 67n), the composition of financial statements depends on the submission deadline and type (type) of organization . The composition of the accounting (financial) statements is presented in the table ... .. .

Table……

The composition of the accounting (financial) statements by classification criteria.

Classification sign	Composition of accounting (financial) statements
1. In terms of a). Intermediate (quarterly) b). Annual	Form No. 1 "Balance Sheet" Form No. 2 "Profit and Loss Statement" Organizations have the right to independently determine the composition interim reporting, it may include other forms. Form No. 1 “Balance sheet” Form No. 2 “Profit and loss statement” Form No. 3 “Statement of changes in equity” Form No. 4 “Cash flow statement” Form No. 5 “Appendix to the organization's balance sheet” Explanatory note The final part of the auditor's report
2. Type (type) of organization a). Public organizations who do not entrepreneurial activity and having no turnover on the sale of goods (works, services) b). non-profit organizations c. Small business entities: - not required to conduct an audit of the reliability of financial statements - obliged to conduct an audit of the reliability of financial statements	Form No. 1 “Balance sheet” Form No. 2 “Profit and loss statement” Not provided: Form No. 3 “Statement of changes in equity” Form No. 4 “Cash flow statement” Form No. 5 “Appendix to the balance sheet of the organization” Form No. 1 "Balance sheet" Form No. 2 "Profit and loss statement" Form No. 6 "Report on intended use received funds” Have the right not to provide (in the absence of relevant data): Form No. 3 “Statement of changes in equity” Form No. 4 “Statement of cash flows” Form No. 5 “Appendix to the balance sheet of the organization” May decide on the provision of financial statements : Form No. 1 “Balance Sheet” Form No. 2 “Profit and Loss Statement” Have the right not to provide: Form No. 3 “Statement of Changes in Equity” Form No. 4 “Cash Flow Statement” Form No. 5 “Appendix to the Balance Sheet organizations" Submit reports in the amount of: Form No. 1 "Balance Sheet" Form No. 2 "Profit and Loss Statement" Explanatory note The final part of the auditor's report Have the right not to provide (in the absence of relevant data): Form No. 3 "Report on changes in capital" Form No. 4 “Cash flow statement” Form No. 5 “Appendix to the balance sheet of the organization”

The auditor needs to check the availability of a cover letter drawn up in accordance with the procedure established by law, which contains information on the composition of the reporting.

For each submitted form of financial statements, it is necessary to formally check the availability and completion of the required data:

1) the name of the constituent part;

2) indication reporting date and the reporting period for which the reporting was prepared;

3) full name of the legal entity, its address, type of activity, organizational - legal form/ form of ownership, TIN;

4) the date of acceptance of financial statements or the date of their actual transfer.

When checking the preparation of financial statements on the merits, i.e. on compliance with the requirements of the legislation on the procedure for compiling and presenting reports, the auditor should find out the following questions:

The organization in the preparation of financial statements applies approved forms reporting in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation No. 67n, or uses forms of financial statements developed independently (which must be approved by the head of the organization);

In the developed and accepted forms of financial statements, whether the requirement to save the codes of the final lines, the codes of the lines of sections and a group of articles is observed;

Does the organization comply with the requirements of consistency and constancy of the applied methods;

Are there any erasures, blots in the forms of financial statements;

Who signed the financial statements;

Does it Chief Accountant certificate of a professional accountant;

Does the organization have branches and representative offices;

Does the organization prepare consolidated financial statements;

What forms of financial statements are submitted for verification;

Date of submission of financial statements to the tax authority and owners.

If there are blots, erasures and corrections in the financial statements, then it is necessary to obtain explanations from the persons who signed and approved the statements, because accounting legislation stipulates that the annual financial statements must be approved in the manner prescribed by the constituent documents, and, therefore, corrections to the approved statements cannot be made. Since the auditor needs to pay attention to cases when financial statements are submitted tax authorities before it is approved.

To confirm the reliability of financial statements, the auditor should study the materials annual inventory, which document the existence, condition and valuation of property and liabilities.

If the indicator is in accordance with normative documents in accounting should be deducted from the relevant indicators (data) when calculating the relevant data (interim, final, etc.) or has a negative value, then this indicator is reflected in parentheses in the financial statements.

These indicators include:

In form No. 1 "Balance sheet" - uncovered loss;

In form No. 2 “Profit and Loss Statement” - the cost of goods sold, products, gross loss, commercial expenses, management expenses, loss on sales, interest payable, other expenses, current income tax, uncovered loss of the reporting period;

In form No. 3 "Statement of changes in capital" - indicators reflecting deductions in reserve fund and the amount of dividends (according to column 6); amounts reflecting a decrease in the size of the authorized capital (in columns 3 and 7);

In form No. 4 “Cash flow statement” - indicators of the direction (use) of funds for current activities, investment and financial activities for the reporting period and same period previous year;

In form No. 5 "Appendix to the balance sheet" - indicators in column 5 "Repaid" by sections: intangible assets and fixed assets, profitable investments in material values, as well as the columns "Written off" for the costs of research, development and technological work and expenses for the development of natural resources;

In f. No. 6 "Report on the intended use of funds received" - indicators reflecting the use of funds for the reporting and previous years.

Clause 5 of the Instructions on the procedure for compiling and submitting financial statements contains a requirement that in the event of non-filling in of one or another article (line, column) provided for in the sample forms, due to the organization’s lack of relevant assets, liabilities , income, expenses, economic transactions, these indicators (lines, columns) are not included in the organization forms.

Also, at the first stage of the audit of the reliability of financial statements, it is necessary to carry out the procedure for linking the indicators of reporting forms. For this purpose, the indicators of the balance sheet are compared with the data of other reporting forms. For example, the indicator "Fixed assets" is contained both in the balance sheet (form No. 1) and in the Appendix to the balance sheet (form No. 5) minus depreciation.

The auditor also needs to find out whether the organization has an Order "On Approval of Accounting Policies" on reporting period.

On second stage audit audit The auditor checks the balance sheet of the organization. The balance sheet is main form in the accounting system, since it characterizes the property and financial position of the organization at the reporting date. It is the most important form of reporting, since in most cases this form is used by external and internal users for making managerial decisions.

Verification of the balance sheet indicators begins with the procedure for arithmetic calculations of the totals for groups of articles, sections and balance sheet currencies for assets and liabilities. The results obtained must be verified with the data indicated in the balance sheet of the organization.

Such a calculation is important, since balance sheet data is used in analyzing the financial position of the organization.

During the audit of the balance sheet, the auditor needs to verify compliance with the consistency requirements. The auditor needs to find out whether the provisions expressed in the identity of the indicators of the Balan column “At the beginning of the reporting year” and the column “At the end of the reporting year” of the previous year are observed, taking into account the reorganization made at the beginning of the year, as well as changes in the assessment of asset indicators.

Next, the auditor should check whether the organization has ensured the comparability of the balance sheet data at the beginning and end of the reporting year, both in terms of the nomenclature of items and in terms of the content of the indicators included in the balance sheet items, as well as comparability with the nomenclature and grouping of sections and articles in them for the previous year. reporting year. With this procedure, the auditor confirms compliance with the requirements of consistency and comparability.

To confirm the balance sheet items, the auditor should carry out a procedure for reconciling the identity of the balance sheet indicators and the General Ledger or the Balance Sheet. The check is made by comparing the balance sheet with the indicators of the balance of the accounts of the General Ledger or the Turnover balance sheet. When deviations are identified, the auditor should determine the cause. Information about the discrepancies identified during the audit are summarized in the auditor's working paper "Summary of data on discrepancies identified as a result of checking the identity of the balance sheet and the general ledger".

To check the correctness of the formation of balance sheet indicators, the auditor can also use such a technique as drawing up an alternative balance sheet. An alternative balance sheet is drawn up before the start of the audit according to the general ledger and registers of synthetic and analytical accounting. As a result, the auditor receives a balance sheet similar to the one that he must confirm. Discrepancies between the data of the alternative and the official balance sheet will indicate to the auditor those distortions in the client's balance sheet that are deliberately or erroneously entered into the balance sheet.

An important procedure is to check compliance with the methodology for forming indicators and evaluating balance sheet items.

In the balance sheet, data must be presented in compliance with the following requirements:

1) intangible assets, fixed assets and profitable investments in material assets are shown in the net valuation;

2) construction in progress, purchased equipment requiring installation, are reflected at actual costs;

3) financial investments, by which their current market value can be determined, are shown in their current valuation (at market value), financial investments for which their current market price cannot be determined, are shown by original cost taking into account the reserve for depreciation of financial investments;

4) inventories are reflected at cost, determined on the basis of the method used by the organization for estimating reserves;

5) finished products reflected at actual or standard production cost;

6) accounts receivable and accounts payable are presented with the unit, depending on the circulation period, for short-term (if the maturity is not more than 12 months after the reporting date) and long-term (if the maturity is more than 12 months after the reporting date);

7) accounts receivable, for which reserves for doubtful debts are created, is shown minus the formed reserve;

8) the authorized capital is shown in the amount in accordance with the constituent documents registered in the prescribed manner;

9) loans and credits are shown taking into account interest payable at the end of the reporting period.

When checking the formation of balance sheet indicators for the section "Capital and reserves", the auditor must take into account that, according to paragraph 14 of the "Instructions on the procedure for compiling and presenting financial statements". In the annual balance sheet, data on the groups of articles "Reserve capital", " retained earnings(uncovered loss)" are shown taking into account the results of the organization's activities for the reporting year, decisions taken about covering losses. Payment of dividends, etc.

The auditor should pay attention to the correctness of the reflection in the balance sheet of balances on accounts of settlements. According to the accounting rules, data on the accounts of settlements of the organization with other organizations and individuals in the balance sheet are shown in expanded form.

Upon completion of the audit of the balance sheet, the auditor needs to conduct a horizontal and vertical analysis balance and analysis of the financial position of the organization. Vertical analysis characterizes the structure of the balance sheet, horizontal analysis shows absolute and relative deviations for balance sheet items, which allows you to characterize the dynamics of individual items. Horizontal and vertical analysis complement each other and allow you to assess the financial position of the organization. The analysis of the financial position of the organization is based on the calculation of liquidity and solvency indicators.

On third stage the “Profit and Loss Statement” (Form No. 2) is checked. This form is the main reporting form and characterizes the procedure for the formation of the financial result of the financial and economic activities of the organization.

Before starting the audit, the auditor needs to familiarize himself with the provisions of the accounting policy of the organization regarding the procedure for recognizing income and expenses by the organization in accordance with clause 4 of PBU 9/99.

The auditor should check the arithmetic calculations. Firstly, the auditor needs to conduct a general arithmetic check on the "Profit and Loss Statement" (Form No. 2).

To confirm the reliability and accuracy of determining indicators reporting form reconciliation of the identity of indicators in column 3 "For the reporting year" with the data of the general ledger and analytical accounting registers for income and expense accounts is carried out.

The auditor should also check the value current tax on profit indicated in the "Profit and Loss Statement" and in accounting on account 68, sub-account "Calculations for income tax" in accordance with the requirements of PBU 18/02.

Auditing practice shows that errors are often made when reflecting income and expenses in the Profit and Loss Statement. For example, the line "Other income" and "Other expenses" reflects the final financial result (profit or loss) on operations that generate these incomes and expenses (for example, the sale of fixed assets or other assets). If organizations have such transactions, income, such as proceeds from the sale of assets, is subject to reflection in the line "Other income", and the residual value of the sold assets and expenses associated with their sale, are subject to reflection in the line "Other expenses".

On fourth stage conducting an audit of the reliability of financial statements is the verification of the "Report on changes in equity". The Statement of Changes in Equity discloses additional data on changes in equity and provides explanations for the items in the third section of the balance sheet “Equity and reserves”.

This report contains status and movement metrics:

1) Changes in capital (authorized, reserve, retained earnings);

2) Reserves (formed in accordance with the legislation, formed in accordance with the constituent documents; valuation reserves, reserves upcoming expenses and payments).

It is also recommended to start checking the formation of indicators of the reporting form with arithmetic calculations.

Indicators certain types capital, reserves for future expenses, estimated reserves at the beginning and end of the year and turnover for the year, their increase and use during the reporting period are checked for compliance with the data of the General Ledger or balance sheet and registers synthetic accounting on the respective accounts. Particular attention should be paid to checking section I "Changes in equity", which discloses information about the sources of capital increase of the organization at the end of the reporting year, as well as the reasons for the decrease in capital.

The auditor must verify the correctness of the calculation of the "Net Assets" indicator for compliance with the procedure set forth in the order of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Federal Commission for the Securities Market "On the procedure for assessing the value net assets joint-stock companies» dated January 29, 2003 No. 10n / 03-6 / p3. The value of the value of net assets for assessing the financial condition of an organization is very important, since, in accordance with the requirements of a number of regulations, the net assets are compared with the value of the authorized capital. If the value of net assets is below the value of the authorized capital, then the value of the authorized capital must be brought up to the value of net assets.

On fifth stage the auditor checks the "Cash flow statement" Form No. 4. The preparation of the Statement of Cash Flows is aimed at increasing the usefulness of the information disclosed in the statements. The object of generalization of information in this report is the organization's funds held in bank accounts and the organization's cash desk. This Report allows you to disclose the causes of changes in the volume and composition of cash flows for the reporting period. When forming the indicators of the Statement of cash flows cash flows are classified into three groups depending on the type of activity: current, investment, financial.

The current activity is considered to be profit-making, which is the main goal of the organization.

Investment activity related to the acquisition land plots, buildings, structures and other real estate, equipment, intangible assets and others non-current assets as well as their sale. also in this species activities include the implementation of its own construction and the implementation of development work.

An activity is recognized as financial, as a result of which the size and composition of equity organizations and loans.

It is advisable to entrust the auditor conducting the audit of funds to verify the correctness of the formation of indicators of the Cash Flow Statement.

Checking the formation of indicators is carried out using the data of registers of synthetic and analytical accounting for cash accounts. The auditor uses the procedure of arithmetic calculations to confirm the data of the reporting forms.