The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) recently published a study “Traps for Qualitative Audit”, which highlighted the main issues faced by auditors during their professional activities and which could prevent qualitative audits.
Quality of audit services is a priority today, and this trend will continue to grow. However, sometimes it is difficult to achieve the quality of the audit.
Therefore, while taking care of the quality of the services provided, one must keep in mind the completeness of the audit and the timeliness of reporting to the customer. Not fully completed audit procedures, interim results and, of course, violation of the deadlines has not the best affect the quality of the audit.
Independence of an auditor is a prerequisite for a qualitative audit. It is important to keep it, not worsening at the same time the relationship with the client. The balance of independence, professional scepticism and friendly attitude towards the customer is another indicator of the quality of the audit services.
An audit is a standardized and autonomous activity. The international standards that auditors conduct in the performance of their professional duties make its results understandable for users around the world. In addition, third parties should not interfere with the work of the auditor. Even a minor violation of these rules will lead to deterioration in the quality of the audit.
According to the results of the audit, the auditor’s general opinion should be expressed - without this audit can not be considered as qualitative. In addition, auditors should respond appropriately to any fraudulent behaviour and correctly reflect this information in the independent auditor’s report.
Finally, the report states that a qualitative audit should be transparent and at the same time confidential. Its results should be publicly available, however, without jeopardizing the company’s continued operation.