Auditor

Overview

Who is Auditor?

Auditors are authorized experts who prepare and review an entity`s financial reports in order to ascertain the accuracy and legality of its financial documents. These are the financial supporters of any firm, any company or any organization, irrespective of how large or small scale firm it is. These individuals have a strong sense in dealing in the financial capacity, be it dealing with respect to managing their internal accounts or the external ones. Their primary goal is to ensure that all monetary transactions are processed and documented correctly. The auditor`s report is a representation of their independent and informed opinion of whether the financial records in question are fair and consistent with the accounting principles and tax norms.

Due to this, an auditor`s opinion lends an enhanced degree of confidence in the company`s financial reporting practices. Throughout the process, the auditor maintains professional skepticism to ensure that their judgement is true and free of bias. By investigating the reliability of financial statements and identifying accounting discrepancies, the auditor`s work protects the company from fraudulent practices. In order to assure the objectivity of the audit report, the auditor is provided unrestricted access to all data relevant to the company`s financial statements. Apart from this, an auditor can also offer unbiased advice regarding risk aversion methods and strategies to reduce costs.

In general, it can be understood that the auditors examine, analyze and interpret the entire situation with respect to the accounting based records and files leading to the thorough documentation. In their work schedule this works in interpreting the entire data, preparing the financial statements, providing advices, doing thorough audits and to evaluate the statements that are prepared by others. This way the entire system of recording costs, budgetary data and other financial aspects come under their supervision.

Typical day at work

What does Auditor do?

In a nutshell, an auditor examines a company's financial records to check if they are honest by analysing the level of precision and clarity that has been accounted for. Auditors must explain their findings in addition to evaluating and generating financial documentation and written reports.

Face-to-face encounters with organisation managers and individual clients are included. Depending on the organisation for which they work, many auditors specialise. Some are experts in risk management or assurance (improving the quality or context of data for decision-makers) (determining the probability of a misstatement on financial documentation). Others, such as healthcare auditors, specialise in specialised industries. Accounting and auditing professionals are sometimes hired to teach in colleges and universities.

The core responsibilities of an auditor include:

• Examine whether the accounting systems and account books are maintained in accordance with the accounting standards and the law
• Take necessary action when fraud is detected by alerting the relevant authorities of the same
• Examine documents to detect non-compliance to legal or managerial laws, including incorrect declarations, duplicated initiative, fraud
• Gather data from the company's staff about the organization and its operations, particularly regarding its financial reporting 
• Identify and assess the risks associated with a material misstatement of the financial records
• Obtain an understanding of internal audit controls to appropriately design procedures to be undertaken for the audit report
• Prepare audit reports by offering an unbiased, objective opinion about the entity's financial statements
• Report to management  about the outcomes of the audit, provide recommendations to financial activities and operations
• Evaluate the physical inventory of documents to tally the financial records, check entries in the journals and ledgers 
• Evaluate the internal control structure of the entity, and its financial systems, inspect the reliability of the practices in places

Abilities & aptitude needed

What are the skills, abilities & aptitude needed to become Auditor?

Owing to the nature of the job, an Auditor needs to be equipped with high analytical skills, and a questioning mind that is particularly alert to errors. An individual with a shrewd eye, excellent numerical aptitude, and the ability to exercise professional scepticism is suited to be an auditor. They should be highly vigilant to make key decisions about a company's financial records and practices. This job also demands ethics, integrity, and honesty to deliver unbiased, reasonable professional opinions. Expert knowledge about the relevant laws and regulatory guidelines as well as that of accounting practices is key to doing justice to this role.

Critical thinking skills are also necessary for them to be able to derive the practical implications of the company's financial practices, this knowledge makes auditors invaluable to the stakeholders. They should be proficient at using the technologies relevant to their tasks as it requires handling large amounts of confidential data. Meticulous organization skills and the ability to work in a supervisory role are other important elements that make an auditor successful at their job. Additionally, they shall also require excellent communication skills, both written and spoken. Business awareness and thorough knowledge of the specific entity they are working for have enormous benefits for the auditor's work output. There are various other factors that are involved in the category of the skills, strengths and the abilities needed to the work in this profession.

First being the deductive reasoning, it is understood that the individuals being good at this particular ability can apply various distinctive or even general rules to peculiar problems to produce all the answers that are needed to understand the budget or other financial matters. Some other aspects and abilities include strong mathematical, logical and reasoning skills to understand the formulas to solve a problem, to apply logic to get into the depth of the concept and the problem solving skills to support the organization. Auditors also need to have strong, both oral expression and written comprehension based ability to work accurately with the entire team.

Courses

Which course I can pursue?