Internal audit. In simple words, the roles of an external auditor are: to: Identify all aspects of an organisation’s internal operations, system and processes. Analyse the effectiveness of risk management systems in place at the organisation. Protect against fraud and abuse of the company’s assets. Perform a thorough analysis of the financial and human resources.
You can only hire an external auditor once you have identified the issues that need addressing within your organisation. This process will go on till you have identified all the problems that you want to look into. It is essential to hire an external auditor who is capable of performing the tasks required. Ideally, you want an auditor with qualifications in both accounting and auditing. It is also important to find an auditor who is not directly associated with the internal affairs department. An audit performed by an accountant is likely to be more efficient than an audit done by a financial manager or an accountant in the sales department.
The first step in hiring a professional external auditor is to conduct an interview. In this interview, you should ask the auditor to explain the objectives of his/her audit, explain the steps that he/she would take in performing the audit, describe his/her methodology and what you will expect from the results of his/her audit. During the interview, you should also ask whether you will get a copy of his/her report before his/her audit is over and ask whether he/she has any recommendations about improvements that you can make.
Once you have hired an external auditor, make sure that the auditor you have hired knows what you expect from the audit. There are certain things that need to be reviewed before an auditor is assigned with your report. For example, the auditor needs to know what specific steps your organisation requires to take before the audit is carried out.
To ensure that the auditor is able to understand your organisation, it is necessary to discuss your organisation’s qualifications and competencies with the auditor. In addition, the auditor needs to discuss your organisation’s risks, its policies, its resources, its culture, the way it is run and its performance in general, and its policies and procedures, its procedures and any changes that need to be made. The auditor should also be aware of all the changes that have taken place within the organisation since he/she was hired.
Another way to avoid conflict between you and your auditor is to let him/her know what you expect from your auditor prior to the audit. An auditor does not have to work under the assumption that you can give a detailed list of the things that he/she expects to know, but you should let him/her know if you will expect him/her to prepare the report. based on the information that he/she has gathered from your organisation.
An external auditor will not have all the answers to your questions, so if you have questions that you cannot find in his/her report, let the auditor know. If you can’t agree on everything in the report, you should ask to see the reports and correspondence that were exchanged between you and the auditor. You should also ask about how he/she came up with the conclusions of the audit. If you find inconsistencies in the audit report, you should contact the auditor, explain the inconsistency, and ask him/her to fix it.
