AUDIT FIRMS IN SINGAPORE
In order to get their precise and accurate financial records, many companies and businesses are inclined towards the professional expertise of auditing companies. There are lots of audit firms in Singapore and each of them offers a certain number of services to their clients in order to make the business smooth. So on that note, I would like us to discuss the various services that are being offered by these companies. Below are the types of services rendered;
Consulting Services
An Audit company in Singapore can offer consulting services to clients that require them. Other services such as advice, process design, training, and counsel come along with the consulting service. The aim of consulting is to provide additional value to the processes and to reduce risk when achieving the goal of the business. Management is responsible for determining the nature of the consulting service they are to hire. In a situation whereby a company makes use of an internal audit, management responsibilities would not be assigned to them.
Financial Services
Financial service is another function that can be performed by an audit company in Singapore. They do this by creating audit programs that will evaluate, assess, and recommend information that is related to the daily transactions and activities of the company. They act as a quality assurance team as they make sure that all financial activities are being recorded accurately and are in line with the laws of the state.
Operational Audits
This is another type of service rendered by audits where risks are being assessed and controls of operational systems are evaluated for every section of the company. This function will help to determine if all the operations in several sections of the company are working properly and effectively in the manner the management wants. When an operational audit is carried out, it will show if the goals of the company are being met by evaluating the resources available to every sector of the company.
Compliance Audits
This is responsible for checking to see if the compliance program put in place is been followed accordingly. By assessing the management, auditors are able to know if this program is taking the company forward or damaging the relationship between workers or triggering bad behavior among the workers. All these are serious problems and this is why auditors will ensure that all compliance responsibilities are been taken care of properly.
Investigations
An audit firm in Singapore help in carrying out investigations on the company. In a situation whereby the management senses some foul play in his business, he can hire a professional auditor that will be able to carry out a proper investigation and see if any financial error or bad business practice was done. They can also help to prevent such events from repeating itself.
STEPS INVOLVED IN AN AUDIT PROCESS
Though the procedure of auditing is unique to every business, there are some fundamental steps involved in every audit process. However, the serious involvement of the company in the whole process is very crucial to the final result.
Below are the steps involved in an audit process:
Financial Documents
Once an agreement has been made and the audit is about to start, the auditor asks the organization to provide him or her with documents that will be on a list called audit preliminary checklist. Receipts, original bank statements, and ledgers are among the documents to be provided.
Audit Plan Preparation
The information in the documents provided is been examined by the auditor and this will help the auditor plan out the manner in which the audit will be conducted. The audit plan will only be drafted after a risk workshop has been done in order to foresee problems that may occur.
Opening Meeting
After the audit plan has been prepared, the auditor will then invite the management and important staff members of the company in question to an open meeting where there will be a presentation of the scope of the audit. The time it will take for the audit to be completed will be determined there.
Fieldwork
The audit plan is finalized here with the help of the information which was acquired in the open meeting. This is where the work starts as different tests would be carried out by the auditor, evaluation of internal controls will be done and procedures will be reviewed. This stage is known as the fieldwork. It is believed that the quality of fieldwork determines the quality of the audit, and it is one of the important expertise of auditing services that the professional firms provide.
Report Drafting
After the fieldwork has been conducted, a well-detailed report is been conducted by the auditor which will contain the results of the audit. This report will contain all the problems discovered and there would be a commentary section where the auditor will comment on his findings and recommend a solution to the management of the company.
