Audit standards - the basis for auditing

Any work is done more qualitatively and efficiently if it meets certain standards, developed over time under the influence of practical experience. Audit is no exception. Moreover, it is difficult to imagine a sphere of activity in which standardization would be more in demand. In this article, we will talk about what audit standards are, what kinds they are and how they are applied.

Accounting historically and logically is primary with respect to audit, which is quite logical, since audit is checking the quality of record keeping in order to detect accidental or deliberate errors. Then it is reasonable to assume that the audit adopts certain characteristic features of accounting. One of the most important such features is the use of accounting standards - special documents that contain rules and recommendations for accounting. These standards were formed after the Second World War, during the period of rapid development of international organizations. The International Federation of Accountants worked on the development and dissemination of these documents. From a practical point of view, the need to create standards was explained by the phenomenon of globalization - the economies of different countries all densely linked together, forming a single mechanism of the world economy. Therefore, unification of accounting in different countries significantly facilitated the work of accountants and financial analysts of both individual firms and their controlling bodies, and most of all - rapidly developing transnational corporations. With the beginning of the development of audit activities, there was a need to create such documents as audit standards. Thanks to their adoption, a unified approach to auditing was developed, which again made life easier for both the auditor and their clients.

It is also important to pay attention to how the audit standards are classified. As a rule, the most popular is the classification according to the scale of the subject who adopted this or that standard:

1) International auditing standards are accepted by the International Federation of Accountants and regulate the general grounds for auditing in all countries that are members of the IFAC.

2) National auditing standards are adopted by the governments of individual countries and regulate the forms and methods of conducting the audit in accordance with the specifics of national legislation and record keeping. If a country is a member of the IFAC, its national standards can not conflict with international standards, and in most cases are a complete copy of the world standards.

3) Intrafirm audit standards - operate within one company, defining its corporate policy and "corporate style" in conducting inspections. If the company operates in only one country, its internal standards can not contradict the national standards, and if the audit firm is a transnational corporation (as representatives of the Big Four - Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers), then its internal standards must comply with international standards .

Auditing standards are a kind of instruction for conducting an audit - they clearly describe the procedures conducted during various types of inspections, indicate the necessary sample volumes and allowable values for the significance of errors. Compliance with the standards ensures a high-quality performance of work on checking the state of accounting at the enterprise, and therefore - makes it possible to be sure that clients will not file claims against the auditor because of losses caused as a result of an unscrupulous audit.