home screw

Auditing the financial statements of an enterprise: what is it, its types and purposes. Audit of financial statements - what is it, how is it carried out An audit of financial statements is mandatory if

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, an independent audit is carried out. 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 company's internal control systems are organized and function;
check whether in all forms of financial statements the indicators coincide and correspond to the real ones.

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 one can only be external, that is, it can be carried out by independent experts of firms specializing in auditing, or by individual auditors who are not employees of the audited company.

Firms that must be subject to the statutory audit procedure 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 OJSC;
companies whose securities are admitted to organized trading;
firms with a certain type of activity (this includes credit, clearing, insurance, companies participating in the securities market, 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 participate in tenders, the desire of company managers to reduce tax risks, checking the qualifications of the 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 prepare 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: balance sheet and a statement of financial results of the company, but they are accompanied by a mass 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.

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

ATTENTION! Copies of financial statements for the current year and, most importantly, an auditor's report must be attached to the 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;
the size of the authorized capital differs 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 business 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	An on-site audit revealed the absence of an audit report for 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 opinion 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	During required time 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.

Accounting audit is a verification of the reliability and correctness of conducting accounting and compliance of the submitted tax and financial statements with the real indicators of the economic and financial activities of the organization. The purpose of an accounting audit is to identify weaknesses in the activities of an enterprise and develop a system to improve its efficiency, as well as to protect against risks associated with tax audits. The auditor compares the results of the financial and economic activities of the company with the current legislation Russian Federation, checks the relevance of accounting and reporting in accordance with the amendments to the law. Among other things, the audit of financial statements is intended to certify the data contained in the documentation, the correctness of its execution.

An audit of financial statements involves a complete study of all financial data and indicators in detail. Accounting audit can be external and internal. The external one is carried out by an independent audit company, and the internal one is carried out by the employees of the audited organization, the owner, founders, and so on.

An audit may be mandatory, in which cases and when it is carried out, its regulations are specified in the relevant law. If the audit is carried out at the request of the customer, it is called initiative. As a rule, a professional audit team is invited for an initiative audit, with which a contract for the provision of services is concluded. The organization acts as a client. The contractor and the client in the contract indicate the goals, procedure, objects of verification and other details, after which the document is signed by both parties, and the verification begins.

What is accounting reporting? These are documents that contain information about the property on the balance sheet of the organization, financial flows and economic activity of the enterprise, which are formed at a given frequency. Typically, reports on current activities within the company are generated monthly, sometimes weekly. It depends both on the type of activity of the organization, and on the policy set by the owner or management. An annual mandatory audit is carried out with verification of all documents.

What is accounting

What reporting is provided during the audit? Documents vary in frequency and content. Here are the main types of reporting:

Internal documentation - documents that are in circulation exclusively within the company or enterprise.
External documents are papers provided for reporting and control to inspection bodies, investors, clients.
Annual reports are documents reflecting all the economic and financial activities of the organization carried out during one calendar year.
Interim reports, as a rule, are compiled periodically: weekly, monthly, quarterly, and contain data on movements for the corresponding period.
Private reporting reflects the activities of any department or area of the company.
General reporting includes data on all activities of the enterprise as a whole.

An audit of accounting may include an audit of specific documents for a certain period of time, an annual audit is mandatory and involves an audit of all company documentation.

The following are subject to audit: a report on the results of the financial activity of the enterprise, a balance sheet, a report on changes in capital and a report on the movements of financial flows. Accounting explanations or additional reports may be attached.

What is revealed during the audit

During the audit of the accounting of the enterprise, the following indicators are checked:

Availability, composition and content of the submitted documents
Correspondence of data from different reports to each other
Logical and hereditary connection of financial statements
Correct control of reporting items
The correctness of the preparation of consolidated financial statements

As a result of the audit, a number of violations in the organization's reporting may be identified. The auditors draw up a conclusion on the identified violations and recommendations. This conclusion is provided to the regulatory authorities and management of the organization.

There are companies that are simply obliged to know how an audit of financial statements is carried out. Consider what it is, who and when should conduct such an audit at the enterprise.

Dear readers! The article talks about typical ways to solve 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!

We will define the main regulatory documents that govern this issue and analyze the basic information that may be useful to you.

Audit is a concept that many enterprises and individual entrepreneurs have to deal with in practice, especially when it comes to financial statements.

But it is difficult for newcomers to business to determine where to go, what is subject to verification and what procedures should be carried out by auditors. Let's consider all these questions in detail.

Required Information

When conducting accounting and preparing financial statements, it may be necessary to conduct an audit of such information. What is the essence of such a concept?

What you need to know

An important data system is the accounting and financial reporting system. With its help, they obtain information about the economic activity of the company.

Reporting is a set of accounting records with which you can track the economic activities of the enterprise.

This is a system of tables that reflect summary information that allows you to assess the financial condition of the company and the effectiveness of its work.

Functions of accounting reports:

Reporting is required once or twice a year. Whether the information in the reporting is reliable can be found out during the audit.

What is the purpose of the verification?

We list the main goals:

The most important goal is an objective assessment of the reliability and accuracy of the reflection of assets, liabilities, financial results.

The main goal can be supplemented by the identification of a reserve due to customers best use financial resource, etc.

When checking reports, the auditor summarizes the results of all procedures that were obtained at each stage of control.

The purpose of such an event is to assess the cumulative impact of identified and possible errors on reports in general.

Legal grounds

There are several levels of audit regulation.

on the activities of auditors, which was approved by the State Duma on December 24, 2008	The place, goals and objectives of audit procedures in the system of the economy are determined
Federal Standards for Auditors According to (as amended on August 25, 2006)	The series is determined general issues regulation of the work of auditors, which are mandatory for each facility
Norms of Russian legislation that were developed in accordance with Federal laws in the field of licensing the activities of auditors	They establish general provisions regulating the work of audit companies and an individual auditor
Rules of an accredited professional association	Regulated specific issues of the activities of auditors

The work of auditors is carried out in accordance with the Federal Law, which was adopted by the government of the Russian Federation on August 7, 2001 No. 119.

Auditing the company's financial statements

Stages of control of accounting reports:

Who is carried out?

Audit procedures are carried out by audit organizations (clause 2, article 7 of Federal Law No. 119).

Those auditors who have the status of an individual entrepreneur do not have the right to issue an audit opinion on mandatory types of audit.

The definition of an audit company is given. They understand a business that performs an audit and provides a range of related audit services.

Such a company can be created in any organizational and legal form, except for a joint-stock company.

Previously, an audit company had the right to provide services only after it received the appropriate permit (license).

At the moment, this obligation has been cancelled. It is enough just to be a member of one of the self-regulatory audit firms.

If verification is carried out individual, he must have an attestation certificate and the status of a member of the COA.

All companies can start the activities of the auditor after registration in the register of audit firms and auditors. must consist of at least 5 people.

Half of the personnel must have Russian citizenship and permanently reside in the country. If the head of the company is a foreigner, then the number of Russian citizens should be 75%.

Order of conduct

When conducting audit procedures, it is necessary to adhere to the requirements of the FSA. Data are checked for at least two years - the reporting and the previous one.

This means that the auditor's obligation is to check the comparability of information presented by comparable financial statements for the previous period.

It is required for comparison with the current period financial statements and is not considered part of the current period financial statements.

The auditors get acquainted with the information that is needed to identify possible inconsistencies with the audited financial plan statements.

If such inconsistencies are found, it should be established in which document to make adjustments.

If there are significant misstatements of the data, it is worth talking about them with the head of the audited company in order to determine all the nuances and better understand the facts.

If the company is unwilling to eliminate distortions, the representatives of the owner are notified by an appropriate document.

After the audit, tables are drawn up with a deviation for all forms of financial statements and recommendations for adjustments are given.

The auditor is not entitled to independently make entries in the documentation of the enterprise. If a misstatement is incorrectly corrected or not corrected at all, a modified auditors opinion will be formed.

How is the procedure carried out? First, the planning of the audit is carried out, during which the overall audit plan is developed.

The expected volume, type, sequence of procedures is indicated. Next, you need to get information about the work of the company that is being checked. The auditor draws up and documents the overall audit plans.

The form and content of the plan can be changed taking into account the scale of the enterprise. The audit work consists of 3 stages:

The task of the auditor is to answer the following questions:

what are the indicators of the reliability of accounting reports;
whether they meet the requirements.

We list the actions that will be performed by auditors:

An audit methodology is being developed.
A letter is drawn up and an agreement is concluded for the procedure.
Familiarization with the financial issues of the company.
Reporting is studied, errors and shortcomings are identified. The financial situation is analyzed.
The data is summarized and systematized.
All information is passed on to customers.
The conclusion and accompanying documentation are being prepared.

Available options for methods of accounting verification of financial statements:

solid;
selective;
combined;
documentary;
actual.

What is the cost of the procedure?

It is impossible to specify exact prices, since the cost is formed on the basis of several factors on an individual basis.

When pricing, auditors take into account:

activities of the organization;
volumes of documents;
accounting quality indicators;
accounting automation levels, etc.

Some companies offer audit services for 150 thousand rubles or more.

Drawing up a conclusion

The opinions of audit organizations on the reliability of accounting reports are reflected in the audit reports.

The audit report of the client is an official document that reflects the assessment of the specialist, as well as his recommendations.

Such a document may accompany an appendix where all the findings will be discussed in detail. Such applications may not be provided to third parties.

The auditor presents the conclusion of the company whose accounts were audited, as well as those persons with whom the contract for audits has been drawn up.

Audit reports that are prepared without an audit, or drawn up contrary to the accounting documentation, are recognized as false.

But for this it is worth getting a decision of the court, which was made on the basis of a statement from the interested parties.

An application to the court can be filed:

The audit reports are stored in the company along with the accounting reports in respect of which they were drawn up. The legislation establishes a permanent period of storage of the company's reports.

Regulatory documents establish the obligation to submit reports and audit reports to the interested party and founders, shareholders.

Sample document

The auditor's report on the financial statements, an example of which can be viewed in the networks, has the following form:

Frequently asked Questions

The question is often asked as to whether it is mandatory to conduct an audit. Let us find out whether such a need exists only for some enterprises, or for all without exception.

Often there is also a situation where there is no possibility / need for a full-fledged check. What should business entities do in this case to verify reports?

Is it mandatory?

Audit check can be voluntary (initiative) and obligatory. In the first case, the company is guided solely by its own needs.

Video: annual financial statements for 2020 - forms, deadlines, auditor's advice

So you can get complete information about the correctness of accounting, find out the possible risks. Mandatory verification is a type of audit company service, which is carried out in cases specified in paragraph 1 of Art. 7 FZ No. 119.

An audit of financial statements is mandatory if:

Organizational and legal form of the enterprise	JSC (Federal Law 307 paragraph 1 of Article 5)
Companies are	credit companies; bureau of credit histories; insurance companies (this does not apply to agricultural cooperatives); commodity and stock exchanges; investment funds; state off-budget funds; funds, the sources of formation of funds of which are the voluntary deduction of an individual and a company with the status of a legal entity
Revenues of an enterprise or entrepreneur	From sales for the year exceeded the established minimum wage by 500 times or assets at the end of the year exceeded 200 thousand times
The company has the status of a state unitary enterprise	Municipal unitary enterprise, which is based on the rights of economic management, if the financial indicators are similar to the above
Mandatory audit of an enterprise is mentioned in federal legislation	—

How is it an express audit?

If the company cannot conduct a full-fledged audit of the reports, then an express audit takes place, with the help of which the audit of financial accounting is carried out faster.

In such situations, random checks are carried out, which do not require large material costs and time. As a result, the company receives information about the state of accounting.

The information that is obtained during such procedures will be useful not only to the heads of the company, but also to the founding staff. You can check the entire accounting or only a certain direction.

Express audit makes it possible to evaluate the accounting system in general (this is a review), accounting reports, basic documents, business contracts.

are revealed weak spots that are worth improving. As a result, the firm can decide whether a comprehensive audit is necessary.

Purpose of express audit:

assessment of reports, which is given at minimum investment and in a short time;
identification of errors and risks associated with incorrect calculations of tax payments;
increasing the efficiency of accountants.

Checking steps:

The main primary documentation and methods of its accounting are analyzed.
It is checked and analyzed how correctly the calculations of tax amounts were carried out, whether they were paid on time.
It is analyzed whether the company complies with its accounting policy.
The correlation of the performed operations with normative documents is being checked.
The possible risk, including tax risk, is analyzed and calculated. Recommendations are given.
A report of the results of the express check is being prepared.

When an audit of such a plan is carried out, the following information is transmitted to the customer:

compliance of the information reflected in the reporting of financial activities;
what mistakes were made and whether the decisions in the activities of the accounting department are correct;
what are the risks in receiving a comment and a fine from the tax authority;
how effective is the financial department of the company.

Is it possible to check online

On the Internet, there are many offers of audit companies regarding the provision of services online. What is the essence of Internet audit?

This is a check of quarterly or annual financial statements, which is carried out by a specialized company, when there is no need for an auditor to visit the office of the enterprise.

And for this, the Internet is used. In order for the verification to be carried out, you will be asked to submit the following documents:

Copies of reports for the period under review

balances, and

An audit of the financial statements of an enterprise is necessary to control the correctness of the reflection of financial and economic activities. It will help to identify inaccuracies made by the accounting department, which could be made intentionally or not.

Why verification is needed

Purpose of verification— provision of reliable information about the activities of the company to interested parties. Audit reports are required by business owners and regulators.

The following tasks are expected from the audit:

Assessment of the reliability of the information reflected in the accounting documentation;
Inventory of the assets indicated in the documents;
Confirmation of the property right of the audited company to the assets and liabilities taken into account in its reporting;
Checking the reliability of reporting the value of liabilities and assets;
Assessment of the correctness of the compilation of consolidated and annual reports;
Checking the completeness and correctness of fixing the facts of economic activity;
Assessment of the compliance of accounting and taxation at the enterprise with the norms of the law.

joint stock companies, banks, insurance companies and exchanges must annually audit their financial statements, this is established by law. Also, this requirement applies to all enterprises if one of the financial indicators or both exceed the established value:

revenue for the previous year over 400 million rubles;
the value of assets at the end of the same period is more than 60 million rubles.

The absence of a mandatory audit is punishable by the imposition of penalties on the organization.

Financial statements are divided, depending on the deadline for submission of documents, completeness of information and purpose, into the following types:

documents for internal use;
documents intended for external use. They are provided to regulatory authorities, investors, contractors;
annual reporting;
interim reporting. Contains information about the activities of the organization for a certain period, usually a month or a quarter;
private reports. Display information only for individual sections of accounting;
general reports.

There are two ways to check documents. The first is called the deduction method, if the auditor uses it, he will begin his study by checking the accounts. Then he will move on to checking the accounting registers on the basis of which it was compiled. The primary documents will be checked last.

The second method is the induction method, in which the audit of documents takes place in the reverse order.

Conducting an audit

How are financial statements audited? It is carried out in three stages:

Planning. The audit firm receives an invitation from the enterprise to conduct an audit. The specialist gets acquainted with the organization and studies information about its activities. Branch and regional features are taken into account, the systems of automation of accounting and financial control carried out at the enterprise are evaluated. Then a verification plan and an agreement are drawn up, which detail the rights and obligations of the parties. The audit will be carried out only after the signing of the document.
Checking documentation. The financial statements are being studied to identify distorted information. At this stage, the following audit procedures are applied: data collection, confirmation of information and their analysis. In his work, the auditor conducts an inspection, recalculation of property. To confirm the errors found, a survey of employees is carried out, documentation is checked. The inspector compares individual indicators of financial statements to determine their reliability.
Audit conclusion. Upon completion of the audit, the auditor provides the company's management with a written audit report. If everything is in order, it will be unconditionally positive or with reservations. If serious violations are detected, the conclusion will be negative. If little information has been provided for verification and analysis, the auditor may decline to express an opinion.

During the audit, the following documents are examined:

tax returns. They are checked for compliance with the approved forms and the presence of the necessary details and signatures. The deadlines for submitting declarations to the tax authority are also being studied.
Accounting documents on the move Money. They must be confirmed by the signature of the chief accountant, otherwise they are not accepted for accounting. All information contained in accounting registers must be supported by primary documentation.
Reporting. For its compilation, only standard forms established at the legislative level should be used.
Explanatory notes to the reporting.
Inventory sheets. The real assets and liabilities of the organization must correspond to those indicated by the results of the inventory.

Figures for the same indicators in different reports should be identical.

What errors can an auditor find?

During the audit, the auditor may identify the following errors:

inconsistency of the results of the inventory with the values indicated in the reporting. This may indicate a formal inventory taking;
arithmetic errors made when counting and rounding figures;
lack of links between different forms reporting;
incorrect reflection of the income or loss of the organization;
concealment of information about deposits;
misrepresentation of management expenses;
the size of the authorized capital does not correspond to the amount specified in the constituent documents;
incorrect calculation of income tax.

When choosing an audit company, you need to make sure that it has a license to carry out such activities and insurance. Now all audit organizations must insure their liability against violation of the audit contract. It is also worth considering the staff of auditors, especially for large companies, since many specialists will be required to check their activities. The auditor should not be in any way connected with the customer and even less dependent on him. When choosing an audit firm, you should collect recommendations and pay attention to the reviews of previous clients.

The audit is obligatory only for a certain circle of companies, the rest can conduct it on their own initiative. It will reduce the risks of providing false information to regulatory authorities and other reporting users, and will avoid abuse of official position by accounting employees. However, it is important to choose a professional audit company that has managed to establish itself well in this service market. Whatever the audit (mandatory or initiative), accountants are warned about it in advance, so they have enough time to prepare documentation for auditors.

Verification of reporting is primarily a verification of the reliability and compliance of the prepared reporting forms of the audited entity, annexes to them and an explanatory note, as well as all necessary calculations, declarations, references to legislative and regulatory documents.

The main purpose of the audit of accounting (financial) statements is to confirm their reliability, as well as to verify their compliance with the composition and forms of the current legislation.

An audit of financial statements is understood as an independent audit carried out by an audit organization and resulting in the expression of the audit organization's opinion on the degree of reliability of the financial statements of an economic entity.

Auditing is mainly subject to external reporting. In addition, despite the fact that the audit report is attached (or filed) only to the financial statements, all types of external reporting (tax, statistical) are subject to verification to one degree or another.

Financial statements are designed to meet the information needs of a wide range of users, so the main focus of the audit is given to it. It is also mandatory to check tax reporting: it turns out on the calculation and payment of which taxes the audited entity is obliged to report. The system of taxation used in the organization (simplified system, tax on imputed income, etc.) is clarified. In accordance with the achieved understanding of the activities of the audited entity, a list of legislative and regulatory documents should be formed, for compliance with which tax reporting will be checked.

When checking the annual financial statements, the auditor also checks the interim (quarterly, monthly) statements. It should be remembered that the composition and content of interim reporting, as a rule, differ from the composition and content of annual reporting in the direction of simplification.

Audit of financial statements can be carried out in the following areas:

1. Checking the reporting technique (checking the correctness of filling out reporting forms based on the general ledger and other accounting registers, checking the interconnection of reporting indicators among themselves for all reporting forms).
2. Checking the quality of reporting information (accounting statements must meet the information needs of a wide range of users).

The auditor, being an independent guarantor of the reliability of reporting, in addition to checking the technique of its formation, must assess the quality of information:

- relevance (depends on the content and materiality of the information);
- reliability (provided by achieving objectivity, completeness and neutrality of information);
- comparability (provided by informing interested users about the accounting policies adopted by the organization, any changes in accounting policies and the impact of these changes on the financial position and financial performance of the organization).

As a result of the audit, the following errors can be identified:

- incomplete filling of reporting details;
- significant indicators are not disclosed in the reporting;
- reporting indicators are not subject to the results of the inventory;
- there is incomparability of reporting data with previous reporting data;
- there is no interconnection of some forms of reporting;
- Insufficient explanation of reporting.

An auditor's report is an official document intended for users of the BFO of audited entities, containing the opinion of an audit organization, an individual auditor, expressed in the established form, on the reliability of the BFO of the audited entity (clause 1, article 6. Federal Law No. 307).

According to the results of the audit, the audit organization and the individual auditor must express in auditor's report an opinion on the reliability of the BFO of the audited entity, formed on the basis of the obtained audit evidence.

The auditor's report must be in writing.

Thus, the audit of financial statements is an integral element of a market economy, helping economic entities find new sources of financing and prevent possible errors in accounting.