Before writing an engagement letter and concluding an audit contract, auditors carry out preliminary audit planning, which in practice is often called a preliminary examination of the client's state of affairs. In table 13.1 shows approximate areas of work in this area.

Data on the organizational and staffing structure of the customer (presence of dependent organizations, structural divisions, separate economic entities, departments and services of the customer, etc.) Constituent documents, privatization plans, records department data, personnel, other documents Oral survey of responsible persons

What documents must the accountant submit to the auditor for the audit?

First of all this company's constituent documents, including licenses to conduct certain activities. These are all legal documents related to the activities of the organization. Documents regarding ownership of the occupied premises or its lease.

During the audit, the auditor is obliged to check the powers of the executive body legal entity. Therefore you must introduce him contract with the general director. Moreover general manager has the right to sign contracts and other documents on behalf of a legal entity without a power of attorney, only if information about it is entered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Therefore, even before the inspection, it is advisable to check whether you have forgotten to submit information to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for your director.

How to prepare for an audit

1. No matter how competent an accountant is, he may not physically have enough time to check the correctness of reporting. And an audit just means
2. As a rule, accounting specialists are forced to perform a huge amount of routine work, as a result of which there is a risk of missing out. And given the constantly changing Russian legislation, keeping track of changes is very difficult! Therefore, in this situation it will be very useful information that auditors have.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that, based on many years of practice, the auditors of AKG “Ural Union”, as part of the audit, provide professional advice on issues of accounting and tax accounting. The information obtained during consultations will allow the accountant to defend his point of view before regulatory authorities.
3. The audit will identify risky business transactions, and thus will help avoid penalties provided for by the Tax, Administrative, and Criminal Codes Russian Federation.

Every year, accountants face a difficult period of preparing annual reports, and most of them wonder, “Do we need audit? If the answer to the question is positive, a decision is made to engage professionals to conduct an audit. Another part of accountants asks the question “Why are auditors needed in principle? How can they help us?

Audit

That's why a clear organization of the audit is required, which is based on planning and programming. On initial stage the main goals and objectives are determined, the objects to be studied and the most effective analytical methods are selected.

• Preparation (organization) and planning. The process is carried out in accordance with current legislation and in accordance with the conditions stipulated in the contract for the provision of services. Based on the drawn up contractual agreement and the audit plan, the auditor is provided with all required documentation, including accounting and tax reports, allowing you to get full view about all areas of financial economic activity audited object. Accounting and internal control systems are studied and assessed, the risks of the upcoming audit are determined and an audit plan is drawn up.
• Execution (implementation) of control procedures consists of collecting audit evidence, namely testing controls for compliance, conducting substantive testing.

What documents are needed for an audit?

An audit usually takes from a week (for small audited firms) to a month. At the same time, auditors request the documents they need - acts, invoices, personnel documents, invoices, contracts, accounting policy, tax reporting, reconciliation reports with counterparties, tax and customs authorities, various explanations from your employees, both written and oral.

1. Constituent documents, orders of the founders;
2. Documents for obtaining licenses, patents and other types intellectual property;
3. Materials of court proceedings and decisions of judicial, higher and local authorities;
4. Documents and reports on receipt and use budget funds;
5. Industry norms, rules, guidelines;
6. In-house instructions and regulations;
7. Staffing. Collective agreement. Remuneration regulations;
8. Business agreements (rent, supply, commission, etc.) and other commercial agreements for all types of activities;
9. Production and personnel orders;
10. Planned and actual calculations. Estimates. Projects. Calculations and justifications for the approval of regulated tariffs, etc.;
11. Production and other internal reports;
12. Planned and actual estimates for the use of the Enterprise’s own funds. Estimate of entertainment expenses. Documents defining the distribution of profits;
13. Order on accounting policies. Working chart of accounts (sub-accounts). Document flow schedule;
14. Documents for tax registration with the tax authorities and off-budget funds, Notification of assignment of codes in the territorial department of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation and other registration documents;
15. Reconciliation reports for taxes and fees tax authorities. Acts of inspection of the enterprise by tax authorities;
16. Annual reporting with appendices and explanations thereto;
17. Written information and audit reports based on the results of audits for at least 2 previous financial years.
18. Tax registers, calculations and declarations, certificates of calculations (for all taxes). Documents justifying tax benefits;
19. General ledger, working balance;
20. Quarterly and annual accounting and statistical reporting in full;
21. Book of purchases and sales. Journal of registration of incoming and outgoing invoices;
22. Order journals, transcripts (analytical accounting) for accounting on all balance sheet accounts. Information, analytical accounting for conducting transactions on off-balance sheet accounts;
23. Inventory acts of inventory, fixed assets, Not tangible assets, cash on hand, debt calculations and other balance sheet items;
24. Everything primary documents, confirming accounting data recorded in order journals, statements, machine diagrams;
25. Invoices, purchasing acts, acceptance acts, liquidation, writings, and other documents confirming the movement of inventory items. Material and commodity reports;
26. Acts of acceptance and transfer, commissioning, liquidation, sale, revaluation, cards, etc., confirming the movement of fixed assets. Inventory of fixed assets;
27. Primary documentation on accounting and storage of inventories;
28. Agreements with financially responsible persons. A log of issued powers of attorney and other documents at the request of the auditor;
29. Enterprise cash book, certificate of establishing a balance limit cash. Cash documents(receipt and expense orders with all attachments);
30. Advance reports reporting persons with applications;
31. Acts of offsets: assignment agreements and other documents on the repayment of obligations. Acts of acceptance and transfer of bills. Acts of reconciliation of settlements by counterparties;
32. Results of the latest and previous inventory;
33. Bank documents (statements with attachments). Treaties bank account, loan, credit. Pledge agreements;
34. Documents for acquisition and disposal securities. Book of securities accounting;
35. Calculations according to wages employees by attaching all documents - grounds for calculation: time sheets, sick leave, calculation of vacation pay; documents justifying the use of income tax benefits, employment agreements, work contracts, applications, personal accounts, tax cards, any other documents related to payroll and calculation income tax. Depositor ledger. Loan agreements and others;

Audit report

• its name, as well as date and place ( locality) compilation;
• information about the organization conducting the inspection (TIN, checkpoint, address and telephone);
• auditor data (his full name, certificate number and other identification data);
• information about the company in which the audit is being carried out (also – tax identification number, checkpoint, address, telephone number, full name of the director and chief accountant).

The audit report is subject to mandatory storage as one of the most important control documents. As a storage space, it is best to select a cabinet, access to which is strictly limited. The storage period is determined either by internal regulations or by the legislation of the Russian Federation (but not less than five years).

Which companies are required to undergo an annual audit?

Audit initiative inspection proactive audit can be carried out at any time and in the volumes that will be established by an independent decision of the management body economic entity, which is a legal entity, or a decision individual engaged in business activities (audit initiators)

Audit check an activity consisting of collecting, assessing and analyzing audit evidence relating to financial situation economic entity subject to audit, and resulting in the expression of the auditor’s opinion on the correctness of accounting and credibility financial statements this economic entity.

General audit documents

• 1) the purpose of the audit of an organization is to express the auditor’s opinion on the reliability of the financial (accounting) statements of the audited entity for the year 200_, prepared in accordance with Russian standards accounting;
• 2) when planning and implementing procedures for collecting audit evidence, the auditor will proceed from the established volume of business transactions for each section of accounting, the volume of activity of the audited entity, as well as the established document flow scheme and the necessary time spent by the organization’s personnel to prepare the required information;
• 3) when preparing and planning audit procedures, the auditor will proceed from the principle of sufficiency and appropriateness of carrying out specific audit procedures in relation to the audited entity and its business activities;
• 4) all documentation must be submitted to the auditor for verification in Russian. All reports and documentation will be prepared by the auditor in Russian;
• 5) written information on the results of the audit of the financial statements for the reporting year 200_, compiled taking into account the requirements of the law, will be submitted no later than « (numbers)« (months) of the year following the reporting year. Written information must be provided to a person authorized by the audited entity, or directly to the manager who signed the audit agreement, in two copies and on electronic media, in compliance with the principle of confidentiality;
• 6) the auditor’s report on the audit of the financial statements of the audited entity, drawn up in accordance with the requirements of the FSAD, will be drawn up and presented no later than « (numbers)« (months) of the year following the reporting year.

When organizing work to conduct an audit, both general and special, aimed only at certain areas of the organization’s activities, there is a need to draw up a number of documentation, the content and structure of which can be standard and unified in the audit firm. For example, to conclude a contract and issue an audit report, it is useful to use a standard form with a description general information by organization, which can be prepared in advance by auditors (Table 11.1).

Audit

1. The company's management decides to conduct an inspection.
2. The organization enters into an agreement to conduct an audit with an audit firm. The contract must specify the purpose of the audit - internal audit of reporting, verification before reporting to regulatory authorities or the tax office, and others.
3. Company specialists are preparing a package necessary documents for submission to audit firm, or, in another case, auditors visit the company to collect information.
4. Auditors receive reliable information about the structure of the organization, the specifics of work, can familiarize themselves with the company’s accounting policies, and receive regulations and inspection reports from tax office. If necessary, the auditor has the right to study the business plan and other documents according to which the work is carried out.
5. The auditor then focuses solely on testing financial statements. The work is carried out for the period specified in the contract, the reporting of the branch or branches, if any, is taken into account.
6. During financial audit real indicators are compared with the plan, as well as with indicators for past periods and with information that was provided to the tax office.
7. Compiled preliminary assessment financial condition companies.
8. Financial statements are reconciled, tax returns are reviewed, reporting documents accounting, including balance sheet and order book.
9. If accounting errors or discrepancies in results are found, the auditor determines the reasons for the inaccuracy. The legality of each transaction is checked.
10. Tax returns are audited on a per-digit basis. The auditor also checks the timeliness of filing returns and paying taxes. During verification, payment dates recorded in bank documents are used.
11. Based on the results of the audit, a report is drawn up, which the auditor must agree with the chief accountant of the audited organization.

The audit differs by type of verification - independent (external), state or internal. In case of independent verification, an agreement is concluded with third party. State is carried out if the order for it comes from official service. Sample inspection and conclusion during internal audit not too different, but the inspection department is formed from company employees.

Why is an audit needed?

OOO voluntarily may engage an auditor to audit its annual reports, balance sheets and current affairs of the Company. The invited auditor must be not only professional, but also independent – ​​i.e. not associated with any property interests with the Company, members of the board of directors, members of the executive body of the LLC and participants of the Company.

An audit is a form of financial control in the form of an audit of financial statements, carried out at the request of the client. The audit procedure consists of collecting, evaluating and analyzing audit evidence regarding the financial position of the enterprise. And the result of the audit is a conclusion on the correctness of accounting and the reliability of the LLC’s financial statements.

What documents are needed for an audit?

Accounting approach is traditional. It consists in developing verification methods for various sections of accounting, for example, audit cash transactions, audit of settlements with personnel regarding wages, etc. Methods for auditing accounting accounts in one set or another are components of each audit. In the rules (standards) of auditing activities they are called methods for checking turnover and balances of accounting accounts.

All subsequent actions depend on the auditor’s assessment of the state of accounting and internal control at the enterprise. Thus, if the auditor, as a result of studying the reporting and conversations with staff, has absolute confidence that the reporting is compiled correctly based on correct and reliable source data, then he can conduct a random check of primary documents and accounting registers.

When is a statutory audit carried out?

1. Checking the accounting records of the enterprise;
2. Work on organizing the verification process, approval by the customer and coordination with internal structures enterprise audit plan;
3. Assessing the reliability of the processing of accounting information, assessing the correctness and compliance with the law of all operations and performance results;

1. Companies that have the organizational and legal form of OJSC;
2. Organizations issuing securities that have circulation on stock exchanges, or carrying out actions with securities;
3. Banks, credit institutions;
4. insurance and clearing companies;
5. extra-budgetary funds (except for state ones);
6. stock, commodity and currency exchanges;
7. non-state pension fund, joint-stock fund, mutual investment funds;
8. firms operating professionally in the securities market;
9. Enterprises (except for bodies state power, agricultural cooperatives, local governments, unitary enterprises) that have revenue from activities (sale of goods, services, performance of work) exceeding 400 million rubles, or the amount of balance sheet assets at the end of the reporting period - 60 million rubles;
10. Organizations publishing their reports in the media;
11. Other cases.

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If auditors find errors or omissions in your annual reports, they will certainly reflect them in the auditor's report. Therefore, it is better to eliminate all possible inaccuracies in advance, and also prepare complete package documents.

Preparation work will begin soonauditor's report on the company's annual reports . To avoid mistakes, all departments of the company must participate in this work. In addition, you can obtain from auditors in advance a list of documents that they will need in the first days of the audit. This will save time and also shorten the inspection time.

Who is required to conduct the audit?

In accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 5 Federal Law dated December 30, 2008 No. 307-FZ “On Auditing Activities”, a mandatory audit is carried out in cases where:

• the organization has a legal form joint stock company;
• the organization’s securities are admitted to organized trading;
• the organization is credit institution, bureau credit histories, an organization that is professional participant securities market, insurance organization, clearing organization, mutual insurance company, trade organizer, non-state pension or other fund, joint-stock investment fund, management company joint stock investment fund, mutual investment fund or non-governmental pension fund(except for state extra-budgetary funds);
• the volume of revenue from the sale of products (sale of goods, performance of work, provision of services) of an organization (except for state authorities, local governments, state and municipal institutions, state and municipal unitary enterprises, agricultural cooperatives, unions of these cooperatives) for the previous reporting year exceeds 400 million rubles or the amount of assets balance sheet at the end of the previous reporting year exceeds 60 million rubles;
• An organization (with the exception of a government body, a local government body, a state extra-budgetary fund, as well as a state and municipal institution) submits and (or) publishes summary (consolidated) accounting (financial) statements.

Let's take a closer look at the reporting forms, applications and possible comments from auditors.

• How to optimize the process of preparing and submitting reports in a group of companies

What does the annual reporting consist of?

The annual reporting includes balance sheet And income statement(approved by order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 2, 2010 No. 66n “On forms of financial statements”). The only thing you need to pay attention to when filling out these forms is the level of detail in the lines. Some audit companies require that this detail be documented as an annex to the accounting policies. But this is not true. Since only the final reporting indicators can provide information about what needs to be detailed. But what should be reflected in the accounting policy is the level of materiality on the basis of which this detailing will be made.

In the balance sheet form, in almost all lines specified in Appendix No. 1 to Order No. 66n of the Ministry of Finance of Russia, Column 1 “Explanations” must be filled in. The table contains documents that require disclosure of balance sheet form indicators.

table. List of documents obliging to disclose indicators of the balance sheet form

ASSETS		PASSIVE
Line no.	Regulatory provisions	Line no.	Regulatory provisions
1110	PBU 14/2007 (clause 40, clause 41) PBU 4/99 (clause 27)	1310-1370	PBU 4/99 (clause 27, clause 28, clause 30)
1120	PBU 17/02 (clause 16, clause 17)	1410 and 1510	PBU 15/08 (clause 17, clause 18)
1130 and 1140	PBU 23/2012 (clause 21, clause 22, clause 23, clause 24, clause 25)	1420
1150 and 1160	PBU 6/01 (clause 32), PBU 4/99 (clause 27), PBU 21/2008 (as regards changes estimated values)	1430 and 1540	PBU 8/2010 (clause 24, clause 25, clause 26, clause 27, clause 28), PBU 4/99 (clause 27), PBU 21/2008 (regarding changes in estimated values)
1170 and 1240	PBU 19/02 (clause 41, clause 42), PBU 4/99 (clause 27), Letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia No. PZ-4/2009	1520
1180	PBU 18/01 (clause 23, clause 24, clause 25)	1530	PBU 13/2000 (regarding budgetary funds)
1210	PBU 5/01 (clause 23, clause 24, clause 25, clause 26, clause 27)
1220	—
1230	PBU 4/99 (clause 27), PBU 11/2012 (regarding information about related parties)
1250	PBU 4/99 (clause 28, clause 29), PBU 23/2011 regarding linkage with ODDS (clause 22)

How to fill out appendices to annual reports

The forms of annexes to reporting have not been approved at the legislative level. Therefore, each company decides for itself in what form it will decrypt the strings in it. Using application forms recommended by the Ministry of Finance of Russia (Order of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated July 2, 2010 No. 66n “On forms of financial statements of organizations”), we must not forget about the information that was disclosed in the explanatory note in previous periods. In accordance with the Federal Law of November 21, 1996 No. 129-FZ “On Accounting”, this explanatory note was included in the financial statements. And if the note itself, as an element of financial statements, is now absent, the requirements for disclosure of information remain the same. Let's look at some of them.

Requirement 1. Disclosure of transactions with related parties. As a rule, auditors send a number of requests to the company, one of which requests a list of organizations associated with it (partners, suppliers, clients, customers, etc.). It is critically important to disclose the transactions of each of these entities in reporting.

If the auditor is unable to obtain sufficient evidence regarding related parties to the entity being audited, including beneficial owners, or concludes that the disclosures in the financial statements are unclear or incomplete, the auditor should modify the auditor's report accordingly, i.e., amend the audit report. he made a number of comments that were undesirable for you.

Requirement 2. On the disclosure of information on the repayment periods of loans and credits. The information that is required to be disclosed is contained in the Accounting Regulations “Accounting for Loan and Credit Expenses” (PBU 15/2008), approved by the Russian Ministry of Finance by Order No. 107n dated October 6, 2008.

What to consider when preparing your annual inventory report

Inventory of the company's property and financial obligations is one of the most effective procedures of the internal control system. It is very important to carry out and formalize this procedure correctly, as well as to avoid mistakes that many enterprises often make. To confirm the results of the inventory and, as a consequence, the reliability of the annual reporting of the enterprise as a whole, the presence of a representative of the audit company during the inventory is highly desirable.

Inventory allows you to solve many issues. I will give two striking examples.

1. The issue of correct reporting of the value of non-current assets. Thus, if a fixed asset of an enterprise is unable to bring economic benefits in the future, then it must be written off from accounting.

What does it mean to be “unable to provide future economic benefits”? This means that this object is unsuitable for further use or sale and its cost must be included in other expenses. Such objects are identified only during an inventory.

2. Question of intended use inventories. It is resolved only during inventory. So, if materials are intended to create non-current assets, then they must be reflected in this section of the reporting.

Why is the emphasis placed on these two points? Because if the amounts are significant, incorrect recognition of such assets may lead to a reservation in the auditor's report.

What errors can auditors find?

We will name the most common comments so that they can be eliminated before the inspection begins.

1. Lack of primary documents. The reasons for this remark may be different. And they do not always depend on accounting. But in any case, this fact indicates the insufficient effectiveness of the company’s internal control and document flow system, which is food for thought. Therefore, I strongly recommend before audit make sure that all documents are carefully prepared, systematized and filed.

2. Overdue accounts receivable. It also indicates a weakened internal control system. Moreover, it may arise as a result of fraudulent actions by employees of your company.

3. Lack of accrued required reserves. This error may be caused by for various reasons. For example, your employees do not know the legal norms or simply do not want to “suffer” with this type of reporting, since “no one except auditors needs it.”

By the way, it also happens that an employee deliberately does not accrue required reserves in order to inflate financial results company activities. In any case, if the amount of misstatements is significant, the inspectors will definitely include this violation in the audit report of the annual reports.

4. Lack of accounting policies, internal regulations, methods. It says not enough high level accounting organizations. Let me remind you that companies whose financial statements are subject to mandatory audit, are obliged to organize and exercise internal control over accounting and preparation of financial statements (except for cases where its manager has assumed the responsibility for maintaining accounting records).

5. Regular untimely recording of business transactions. As a rule, this violation is a consequence of untimely receipt of primary documents in the accounting department, which also indicates a weakened internal control system.

Also during the audit, auditors may launch the following specific procedures (be prepared for them!).

• A procedure (usually a questionnaire) to review the auditee's compliance with anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws. For example, whether unofficial reporting is created in the organization, whether unaccounted for or incorrectly recorded transactions have been identified, or whether there are cases of intentional destruction of accounting documentation.
• Procedure for reviewing compliance by the audited entity with the Federal Law “On Combating Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime and the Financing of Terrorism.” The auditor may ask questions such as: has the organization developed rules and internal control programs for transactions with in cash or other property for the purpose of preventing, identifying and suppressing acts related to the legalization (laundering) of income; whether the organization has established a procedure for ensuring the confidentiality of information; whether the organization has criteria for identifying and signs of unusual transactions, taking into account the specifics of the organization’s activities.

6. Unfair actions of officials. It should be noted that Russian accounting legislation (in particular, PBU 22/2010 “Correcting Errors in Accounting and Reporting”), unlike IFRS, does not distinguish between errors made as a result of unintentional actions of officials and errors caused by intentional actions of these persons.

International standards draw a clear line between error and fraud, which specifically refers to deliberate actions of officials leading to distortion of the organization’s financial statements (IFRS (IAS) 8 “Accounting policies, changes in accounting estimates and errors").

In other words, in accordance with the above international standard error is defined solely as the result of unintentional actions of officials.

When to schedule an audit

Some companies want to have time to conduct an audit before submitting annual reports, hoping to protect themselves from updated declarations and corrective entries. In fact, this is an unprincipled question. The main thing when conducting an audit is comfortable conditions for all participants. It should not interfere with the company’s work activities, and the accounting department should continue to carry out its immediate duties in a routine manner. Because, you see, not every chief accountant will be pleased when one day before the deadline tax return he will be constantly distracted by questions from auditors. Wasting the time of both parties on updating accounting databases, when changes are constantly being made to them during the audit, can lead to unnecessary comments in the report and create a nervous atmosphere during its discussion.

Therefore, when determining the timing of the audit, it is advisable to discuss this issue with the chief accountant, because it is he who will bear the entire burden of the audit.

If the volume of business transactions is large enough, then it is better to split the annual audit into several stages. For example, conduct ongoing quarterly reviews. This will remove additional burden from the accounting department, improve the quality of the audit, and promptly eliminate comments identified during the audit.

And in conclusion, let me remind you that in accordance with Part 1 of Article 18 of the Federal Law “On Accounting” No. 402-FZ, companies required to prepare financial statements must submit one copy of the annual financial statements to the state statistics body at the place of state registration.

When submitting a copy of the annual financial statements that are subject to mandatory audit, the auditor's report on it is submitted to the state statistics body along with such statements no later than 10 working days from the day following the date of the auditor's report, but no later than December 31 of the following reporting year.

Audit is an independent verification of accounting and financial (accounting) statements of organizations and individual entrepreneurs.

Lebedeva M.A.

Traditionally, the audit planning process includes three stages - business study; risk and materiality assessment; design of the audit program.

At the business study stage, the auditor must obtain basic information about the organization, including information about the specifics of the activity, the control environment, the computer equipment used, changes that have occurred since the last audit, and information about critical areas. At this stage, sets of issues significant for the audit are identified, and the effectiveness of the organization’s internal control system is assessed.

The assessment stage involves determining the acceptable level of materiality and assessing the risk that a material misstatement may exist in the entity's accounting records and that it will remain undetected.

At the stage of designing the program, issues of organizing the work of auditors, distributing responsibilities during the audit in order to implement ongoing control, and preparing audit programs are resolved.

From planning the work to its completion, the auditor makes many decisions that together constitute the audit strategy. The most important of these strategic decisions concerns the need for and scope of control procedures. As a result, an audit plan is developed for each account and each judgment based on an assessment of internal and control risks.

The nature of the strategy depends on the experience and qualifications of the auditor, the degree of knowledge of the client’s characteristics, the assigned tasks to be solved in a specific phase of the organization, and other factors.

According to Federal Rule(standard) N 8 “Assessment of audit risks and internal control carried out by the audited entity” (approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated July 4, 2003 N 405), developed on the basis of ISA 400 Risk Assessments and Internal Control, audit risk includes three components: inherent risk, control risk and detection risk.

Inherent risk means the exposure of an account balance or a group of similar transactions to misstatements that may be material (individually or in combination with distortions in the balances of other accounting accounts or groups of similar transactions), assuming that the necessary internal controls are not in place.

Control risk means the risk that a misstatement that may occur in an account balance or a group of similar transactions and be material (individually or in combination with misstatements in the balances of other accounts or groups of similar transactions) will not be prevented or detected and corrected in a timely manner through accounting and internal control systems.

The risk that the audit procedures will not substantially detect a misstatement of account balances or groups of transactions that could be material, individually or when aggregated with misstatements of fund balances of other accounts or groups of transactions, is referred to as detection risk. The risk of detection is a key factor because it determines the amount of evidence required. The amount of evidence required is inversely proportional to the level of detection risk: the lower the level of detection risk, the more evidence is required.

There is a direct relationship between acceptable audit risk and detection risk, and an inverse relationship between acceptable audit risk and the planned amount of evidence to be collected. For example, if there is a need to reduce acceptable audit risk, then the auditor reduces the risk of non-detection and increases the amount of evidence to be collected.

Audit evidence is the information obtained by the auditor during the audit, and the result of the analysis of this information, on which the auditor’s opinion is based. Audit evidence includes, in particular, primary documents and accounting records that are the basis of financial (accounting) statements, as well as written explanations from authorized employees of the audited entity and information obtained from various sources (from third parties).

When forming an audit opinion, the auditor does not usually review all of the entity's business transactions because conclusions regarding the correctness of the accounting balance, group of similar business transactions, or internal controls may be based on judgment or sampling procedures.

The auditor obtains audit evidence by performing the following substantive procedures: inspection, observation, inquiry, confirmation, recalculation (checking the arithmetic calculations of the audited entity) and analytical procedures. The duration of these procedures depends, in particular, on the period allotted for obtaining audit evidence.

An inspection is an examination of records, documents or physical assets. During the inspection of records and documents, the auditor obtains audit evidence of varying degrees of reliability depending on its nature and source, as well as the effectiveness of internal controls over the processing of it.

Documentary audit evidence of varying degrees of reliability includes:

documentary audit evidence created and held by third parties (external information);

documentary audit evidence created by third parties, but held by the audited entity (external and internal information);

documentary audit evidence created and held by the auditee (internal information).

An inspection of an entity's tangible assets provides reliable audit evidence regarding its existence, but not necessarily regarding its ownership or valuation.

Observation is the auditor's monitoring of a process or procedure performed by others (for example, the auditor observing inventory counts performed by employees of the entity being audited, or monitoring the performance of internal control procedures for which no documentary evidence remains to be audited).

An inquiry is a search for information from knowledgeable persons within or outside the entity being audited. A request on the form can be either a formal written request addressed to third parties or an informal oral question addressed to employees of the audited entity. Answers to inquiries (questions) may provide the auditor with information that he did not previously have or that supports audit evidence.

A confirmation is a response to a request for information contained in the accounting records (for example, the auditor typically requests confirmation of accounts receivable directly from debtors).

Recalculation is a check of the accuracy of arithmetic calculations in primary documents and accounting records or the auditor performing independent calculations.

Analytical procedures represent the analysis and assessment of information received by the auditor, the study of the most important financial and economic indicators of the audited entity in order to identify unusual and (or) incorrectly reflected business transactions in the accounting records, identifying the causes of such errors and distortions.

The final document is the auditor's written information to the management of the audited entity based on the results of the audit, which is intended to disclose the most significant deficiencies identified during the audit process.

Every year, accountants face a difficult period of preparing annual reports, and most of them wonder, “Do we need audit? If the answer to the question is positive, a decision is made to engage professionals to conduct an audit. Another part of accountants asks the question “Why are auditors needed in principle? How can they help us?

1. No matter how competent an accountant is, he may not physically have enough time to check the correctness of reporting. And an audit just means thorough analysis of accounting (financial) statements.
2. As a rule, accounting specialists are forced to perform a huge amount of routine work, as a result of which there is a risk of missing latest changes in legislation. And given the constantly changing Russian legislation, it is very difficult to keep track of the changes! Therefore, in this situation, the information that auditors have will be very useful.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that, based on many years of practice, the auditors of AKG “Ural Union”, as part of the audit, provide professional advice on issues of accounting and tax accounting. The information obtained during consultations will allow the accountant to defend his point of view before regulatory authorities.
3. An audit will help identify risky business transactions, and thus help avoid penalties provided for by the Tax, Administrative, and Criminal Codes of the Russian Federation.

Please note, that in addition to the above, our independent audit will reveal hidden reserves to improve the efficiency of the entire enterprise!
To sum up the above, we recommend that all accountants treat auditors not as a regulatory body that will suddenly appear (as tax audit), but exclusively as an ally. And it’s up to you to decide whether you need such an assistant or not.

But if you still decide to involve an audit, then you need to prepare certain documents for the arrival of auditors.

Documents for audit

The list of documents that auditors use in their work is given below:

1. Constituent documents, orders of the founders;
2. Documents for obtaining licenses, patents and other types of intellectual property;
3. Materials of court proceedings and decisions of judicial, higher and local authorities;
4. Documents and reports on the receipt and use of budget funds;
5. Industry norms, rules, guidelines;
6. In-house instructions and regulations;
7. Staffing. Collective agreement. Remuneration regulations;
8. Business agreements (rent, supply, commission, etc.) and other commercial agreements for all types of activities;
9. Production and personnel orders;
10. Planned and actual calculations. Estimates. Projects. Calculations and justifications for the approval of regulated tariffs, etc.;
11. Production and other internal reports;
12. Planned and actual estimates for the use of the Enterprise’s own funds. Estimate of entertainment expenses. Documents defining the distribution of profits;
13. Order on accounting policies. Working chart of accounts (sub-accounts). Document flow schedule;
14. Documents for tax registration with tax authorities and extra-budgetary funds, Notification of assignment of codes in the territorial department of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation and other registration documents;
15. Reconciliation reports on taxes and fees by tax authorities. Acts of inspection of the enterprise by tax authorities;
16. Annual reporting with appendices and explanations thereto;
17. Written information and audit reports based on the results of audits for at least 2 previous financial years.
18. Tax registers, calculations and declarations, certificates of calculations (for all taxes). Documents justifying tax benefits;
19. General ledger, working balance;
20. Quarterly and annual accounting and statistical reporting in full;
21. Book of purchases and sales. Journal of registration of incoming and outgoing invoices;
22. Order journals, transcripts (analytical accounting) for accounting on all balance sheet accounts. Information, analytical accounting for conducting transactions on off-balance sheet accounts;
23. Acts of inventory of inventory, fixed assets, intangible assets, cash, debt settlements and other balance sheet items;
24. All primary documents confirming accounting data recorded in order journals, statements, machine diagrams;
25. Invoices, purchasing acts, acceptance acts, liquidation, writings, and other documents confirming the movement of inventory items. Material and commodity reports;
26. Acts of acceptance and transfer, commissioning, liquidation, sale, revaluation, cards, etc., confirming the movement of fixed assets. Inventory of fixed assets;
27. Primary documentation for accounting and storage of inventories;
28. Agreements with financially responsible persons. A log of issued powers of attorney and other documents at the request of the auditor;
29. Cash book of the enterprise, certificate of establishing a cash balance limit. Cash documents (receipts, expenditure orders with all attachments);
30. Advance reports of accountable persons with attachments;
31. Acts of offsets: assignment agreements and other documents on the repayment of obligations. Acts of acceptance and transfer of bills. Acts of reconciliation of settlements by counterparties;
32. Results of the latest and previous inventory;
33. Bank documents (statements with attachments). Bank account, loan, credit agreements. Pledge agreements;
34. Documents for the acquisition and disposal of securities. Book of securities accounting;
35. Calculations of employees’ wages by attaching all documents - the basis for the calculation: time sheets, sick leave, calculation of vacation pay; documents justifying the use of income tax benefits, employment agreements, work contracts, applications, personal accounts, tax cards, any other documents related to payroll calculations and income tax calculations. Depositor ledger. Loan agreements and others;

During the audit, the auditor is obliged to verify the powers of the executive body of the legal entity. Therefore you must introduce him contract with the general director. Moreover, the general director has the right to sign contracts and other documents on behalf of the legal entity without a power of attorney, only if information about him is entered in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Therefore, even before the inspection, it is advisable to check whether you have forgotten to submit information to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities for your director.

First of all this company's constituent documents, including licenses to conduct certain activities. These are all legal documents related to the activities of the organization. Documents regarding ownership of the occupied premises or its lease.

Before writing an engagement letter and concluding an audit contract, auditors carry out preliminary audit planning, which in practice is often called a preliminary examination of the client's state of affairs. In table 13.1 shows approximate areas of work in this area.

Data on the organizational and staffing structure of the customer (presence of dependent organizations, structural divisions, separate economic entities, departments and services of the customer, etc.) Constituent documents, privatization plans, records department data, personnel, other documents Oral survey of responsible persons

How to prepare for an audit

1. Constituent documents, orders of the founders;
2. Documents for obtaining licenses, patents and other types of intellectual property;
3. Materials of court proceedings and decisions of judicial, higher and local authorities;
4. Documents and reports on the receipt and use of budget funds;
5. Industry norms, rules, guidelines;
6. In-house instructions and regulations;
7. Staffing. Collective agreement. Remuneration regulations;
8. Business agreements (rent, supply, commission, etc.) and other commercial agreements for all types of activities;
9. Production and personnel orders;
10. Planned and actual calculations. Estimates. Projects. Calculations and justifications for the approval of regulated tariffs, etc.;
11. Production and other internal reports;
12. Planned and actual estimates for the use of the Enterprise’s own funds. Estimate of entertainment expenses. Documents defining the distribution of profits;
13. Order on accounting policies. Working chart of accounts (sub-accounts). Document flow schedule;
14. Documents for tax registration with tax authorities and extra-budgetary funds, Notification of assignment of codes in the territorial department of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation and other registration documents;
15. Reconciliation reports on taxes and fees by tax authorities. Acts of inspection of the enterprise by tax authorities;
16. Annual reporting with appendices and explanations thereto;
17. Written information and audit reports based on the results of audits for at least 2 previous financial years.
18. Tax registers, calculations and declarations, certificates of calculations (for all taxes). Documents justifying tax benefits;
19. General ledger, working balance;
20. Quarterly and annual accounting and statistical reporting in full;
21. Book of purchases and sales. Journal of registration of incoming and outgoing invoices;
22. Order journals, transcripts (analytical accounting) for accounting on all balance sheet accounts. Information, analytical accounting for conducting transactions on off-balance sheet accounts;
23. Acts of inventory of inventory, fixed assets, intangible assets, cash, debt settlements and other balance sheet items;
24. All primary documents confirming accounting data recorded in order journals, statements, machine diagrams;
25. Invoices, purchasing acts, acceptance acts, liquidation, writings, and other documents confirming the movement of inventory items. Material and commodity reports;
26. Acts of acceptance and transfer, commissioning, liquidation, sale, revaluation, cards, etc., confirming the movement of fixed assets. Inventory of fixed assets;
27. Primary documentation for accounting and storage of inventories;
28. Agreements with financially responsible persons. A log of issued powers of attorney and other documents at the request of the auditor;
29. Cash book of the enterprise, certificate of establishing a cash balance limit. Cash documents (receipts, expenditure orders with all attachments);
30. Advance reports of accountable persons with attachments;
31. Acts of offsets: assignment agreements and other documents on the repayment of obligations. Acts of acceptance and transfer of bills. Acts of reconciliation of settlements by counterparties;
32. Results of the latest and previous inventory;
33. Bank documents (statements with attachments). Bank account, loan, credit agreements. Pledge agreements;
34. Documents for the acquisition and disposal of securities. Book of securities accounting;
35. Calculations of employees’ wages by attaching all documents - the basis for the calculation: time sheets, sick leave, calculation of vacation pay; documents justifying the use of income tax benefits, employment agreements, work contracts, applications, personal accounts, tax cards, any other documents related to payroll calculations and income tax calculations. Depositor ledger. Loan agreements and others;

1. No matter how competent an accountant is, he may not physically have enough time to check the correctness of reporting. And an audit precisely implies a thorough analysis of accounting (financial) statements.
2. As a rule, accounting specialists are forced to perform a huge amount of routine work, as a result of which there is a risk of missing the latest changes in legislation. And given the constantly changing Russian legislation, it is very difficult to keep track of the changes! Therefore, in this situation, the information that auditors have will be very useful.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that, based on many years of practice, the auditors of AKG “Ural Union”, as part of the audit, provide professional advice on issues of accounting and tax accounting. The information obtained during consultations will allow the accountant to defend his point of view before regulatory authorities.
3. An audit will help identify risky business transactions, and thus help avoid penalties provided for by the Tax, Administrative, and Criminal Codes of the Russian Federation.

How does an audit work in practice? What audited companies receive as a result of an audit

An audit usually takes from a week (for small audited firms) to a month. At the same time, auditors request the documents they need - acts, invoices, personnel documents, invoices, contracts, accounting policies, tax reporting, acts of reconciliation with counterparties, tax and customs authorities, various explanations from your employees, both written and oral.

All sections of accounting are checked, auditors participate in an inventory of the company’s property, if its value is significant, they check the correctness of the calculation of taxes, contributions, the compliance of your data on the status of settlements with the budget and the data of your personal account with the tax office, the data of your accounting of settlements with suppliers and buyers and data on the status of settlements received from your counterparties, the correctness of the accounting and tax reporting, compliance with tax, currency, cash, partially labor and civil laws.

It is no secret that auditors begin their acquaintance with a company at the entrance. It is not uncommon for companies to delay the process of issuing passes. Therefore, in order to avoid misunderstandings on the very first day of the audit, order passes in advance for all auditors for the entire duration of their work on the territory of your company. To do this, ask the audit company for a list of auditors sent to you.

When meeting with auditors, introduce yourself and exchange business cards. Introduce auditors to your employees. Tell us about the structure of your accounting service and about the document storage system (what and where to look). If you both wish, guide the auditors through services and departments. Prepare a list of internal telephone numbers for auditors in advance, and tell your employees the internal telephone number installed in the auditors’ room.

What documents are needed for an audit?

Legal approach includes the development of methods for testing various issues from a legal point of view. In some aspects, such methods overlap with accounting ones, but imply a more in-depth study of the legal side of reflecting the economic activities of an enterprise in accounting. These methods include audit methods authorized capital, including an examination of the correctness and completeness of the formation of the authorized capital, as well as the procedure for verifying the correctness of the accounting of settlements with the founders.

The set of work packages of an enterprise that need to be checked during an audit can be divided into 2 groups. First includes constituent and other general documents, business contracts, accounting policies, reporting, internal control system. Second– complexes for all sections and accounts of accounting.

Audit of financial statements

In general, in the process of gathering audit evidence, the auditor may use a variety of procedures and methods. The most commonly used audit methods include arithmetic accuracy testing accounting records(and other documents). During the audit, the auditor can independently carry out the necessary recalculations.

As we have already found out, the essence of an audit of financial statements is to determine whether the maintenance of documents complies with the law. Before conducting an audit, the organization must receive notification of the upcoming audit, unless the audit is unscheduled. The notice specifies exactly what to prepare for and how long the accounting audit will take.

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1. Checking the accounting records of the enterprise;
2. Work on organizing the audit process, approval by the customer and coordination with the internal structures of the enterprise of the audit plan;
3. Assessing the reliability of the processing of accounting information, assessing the correctness and compliance with the law of all operations and performance results;

1. to obtain an expert opinion on the maintenance of tax and accounting records at the enterprise;
2. if the owner (founder) doubts the competence of the chief accountant;
3. During the reporting period, changes occurred in the legislation regulating the activities of enterprises,
4. the audit is ordered by the bank before lending to the enterprise.

How to organize an audit of the Management Board of a housing cooperative

If in the Charter of your housing cooperative the duty of the chairman of the cooperative is to providing information not specified. To impose this obligation on him by a court decision, which is not provided for by either the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, or the Charter of the Housing Cooperative Society, or job description chairman of the board (as a rule) will not work.

“Housing Code of the Russian Federation” dated December 29, 2004 N 188-FZ (as amended on July 6, 2019) Housing Code of the Russian Federation, Article 120. Audit Commission (auditor) housing cooperative

1. To exercise control over the financial and economic activities of the housing cooperative general meeting members of the cooperative (conference) elect an audit commission (auditor) of the housing cooperative for a period of no more than three years. The number of members of the audit commission of a housing cooperative is determined by the charter of the cooperative. Members of the audit commission cannot simultaneously be members of the board of directors of a housing cooperative, or hold other positions in the management bodies of a housing cooperative.
2. The audit commission of the housing cooperative elects the chairman of the audit commission from among its members.
3. Audit commission (auditor) of a housing cooperative:
1) without fail, conducts scheduled audits of the financial and economic activities of the housing cooperative at least once a year;
2) presents to the general meeting of members of the cooperative (conference) a conclusion on the budget of the housing cooperative, the annual report and the size mandatory payments and contributions;
3) reports to the general meeting of members of the cooperative (conference) on its activities.
4. The audit commission (auditor) of a housing cooperative has the right to audit the financial and economic activities of the cooperative at any time and have access to all documentation relating to the activities of the cooperative.
5. The work procedure of the audit commission (auditor) of a housing cooperative is determined by the charter of the cooperative and other documents of the cooperative.

Information and legal support

At the pre-contractual stage of meeting the customer audit organization It is advisable to identify a number of issues that may have an impact on the audit results. The main procedures for preliminary familiarization of the auditor with the client’s activities include the following:

preliminary submission of a report approved by the quality controller for approval officials(chief accountant, head of the audited entity, etc.) of the information given in the report, objections or additions arising in this case can be taken into account by the auditor when preparing the final version of the report;

05 Aug 2018 1918