INDEPENDENT AUDIT PROCESS AND PHASES ON CORPORATIONS

24/09/2018

INDEPENDENT AUDIT PROCESS AND PHASES ON CORPORATIONS

 

Ufuk ÜNLÜ

 

I. INDEPENDENT AUDITING ON CORPORATIONS

Independent auditing of corporations was enacted in the Turkish Commercial Code Law No. 6102 (“Law No.6102”) as the primary regulation.

Within this scope, under article 398 of Law No. 6102, independent auditing of corporations

shall be conducted in such a way as to establish whether

• Financial statements of the corporation and the annual activity report of the board of directors,
• Consolidated financial statements of the group of companies and the annual activity report of the board of directors

are in conformity with the information obtained by the auditor during the audit.

It is stated on the ground of article that this audit does not include tax audit, but that it will help and support tax audit.[1]

 

II. INDEPENDENT AUDIT PROCESS AND STEPS ON CORPORATIONS

Preparations and scheduling required to conduct an audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing can be expressed as the establishment of procedures to be followed within the company and its adoption by employees.[2] In this context, independent audit process consists of four phases, respectively.

 

1. Choice of Customer and Acceptance of Audit Work: Auditors establish a specific acceptance of audit work policy in order to identify the risk situations of the businesses and they should minimize the audit risk. There are points to take into consideration in terms of audit risk for that reason. These include such as collecting information about the situation of the business in the sector, examining the past and financial statements, and so on. Then, if the auditor has accepted the audit work, the customer sends an acceptance letter to the business and asks to sign the acceptance letter and return the auditor. This letter is accepted as audit contract between parties.

2. Planning of Audit: The auditor determines the risk procedures, significant risk of error, audit quality. The audit plan should be prepared flexibly in such a way that it will always be able to comply with changes that may occur during the audit. Planning of audit consists of a series of operations: Recognition of business environment and activities; classification of audit activities; giving information about internal control system; determining materiality level; determining audit risk level; determining objectives of the audit; writing audit program; determining audit period and date; appointment and supervision of audit personnel. [3]

3. Execution of Audit Program: On this phase, the audit works are done in detail and evidence is collected and evaluated, besides that it constitutes the basis for the coordination, supervision, and control of the audit. It commences with the examination and evaluation of the internal control structure. The audit of the internal control system is a conformity auditing. The purpose of supervision of the internal control system is to prevent and, if there any, detect any major errors, deception, and irregularities in the financial statements. [4]

4. Completion of the Audit and Reporting of Findings: After the works such as reconsideration of audit program performed, evaluation of possible future uncertainties, review of significant events after the date of balance sheet are done,  evaluation of the conformity and adequacy of the collected evidence, the possible consequences of the cases filed against the company are  carried out. And the auditor may request a correction from the customer company for any errors which have been identified.

The auditor reports the result as positive, negative, conditional opinion or opinion avoidance while explaining the result. This report regarding the audit process is the only document which is seen by users of financial statements. Upon completion of the audit, the auditor links the evidence and documentation that has been obtained, comments and connect the results in writing. This written result is an independent audit report. The audit report has two purposes and these are: to explain what the auditor is doing and to notify the important issues identified.