Audit – origin, development, main functions

Audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or

product. It refers to audits in:
- Accounting
- Project management,
- Quality management,
- Energy conservation
Accounting
Audits are performed:
- to ascertain the validity and reliability of information;
- to provide an assessment of a system's internal control.
Audits were associated with gaining information about financial systems and the financial
records of a company or a business
Now auditing includes non-financial subject areas, such as:
- Safety
- Security
- Information systems performance
- Environmental concerns.
With nonprofit organizations and government agencies, there has been an increasing need for
performance audits, examining their success in satisfying mission objectives. As a result, there
are now audit professionals who specialize in security audits, information systems audits, and
environmental audits.
Project Management
- - Regular Health Check Audits(The aim is to understand the current state of a project in
order to increase project success)
- - Regulatory Audits (The aim of a regulatory audit is to verify that a project is compliant
with regulations and standards)
Energy Audit - is an inspection, survey and analysis of energy flows for energy conservation
in a building, process or system to reduce the amount of energy input into the system without
negatively affecting the output(s).
AUDITORS:
Internal auditors are employed by the organization they audit. They perform various audit
procedures related to procedures over the effectiveness of the company's internal controls over
financial reporting.
External auditor / Statutory auditor is an independent firm engaged by the client subject to the
audit, to express an opinion on whether the company's financial statements are free of material
misstatements, whether due to fraud or error.
Consultant auditors are external personnel contracted by the firm to perform an audit following
the firm's auditing standards. This differs from the external auditor, who follows their own
auditing standards
Quality auditors may be consultants or employed by the organization