Introduction
Compliance is doubtlessly one of the most important areas of attention for any organization. The fact that it directly impacts the credibility and reputation of the company speaks volumes about the need for companies to take this matter seriously so that they are able to present and disclose the relevant information in a transparent manner to their stakeholders.
Therefore, the increasing need to ensure compliance on matters related to presentation and disclosure of financial statements has forced companies to hire compliance auditors that can help them adhere to the industry wide accepted rules and regulations.
In addition to the advisory role that compliance auditors normally fulfill, it also helps organizations to build certain credibility around these areas so that can achieve the respective areas.
How to become a Compliance Auditor?
As mentioned earlier, it can be seen that compliance audit can be defined as an independent evaluation that is carried out in order to ensure that the organization follows external laws, rules and regulations within their operational process.
This also includes corporate bylaws, controls, and other relevant policies that can help companies ensure that they are working under the law, and the stakeholder interest, at large, is duly protected by these companies.
Becoming a compliance auditor is not an invincible task. It is something that requires grit and dedication in order to get the complete hang of state of affairs, and how these factors can come into play in order to properly determine and ascertain the level of compliance within an organization.
Therefore, it requires a proper understanding of the accounting and audit procedures that are conducted within the organization, so that a holistic outcome can be drawn as a result of this. Hence, the baseline condition for becoming a compliance auditor mainly requires individuals to have a certain level of understanding that can help them deliver the results that they want.
There are certain credentials and associations that can help individuals to be a compliance auditor. The major credentials that are required are as follows:
- Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE)
- American Institute of Chartered Public Accountants (AICPA)
- Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA)
- National Security of Compliance Professionals (NSCP)
The above credentials and associations help individuals get the required training that can enable them to study organizations in order to evaluate the underlying compliance related issues in the company. These associations are required in order to get a proper roadmap that can help auditors properly ascertain the degree of compliance within the organization.
There are also certain compliance auditor qualifications that are required as a base case scenario for auditor qualifications. This requires 5+ years of auditing experience, and a bachelor’s degree in a relevant major.
The main criteria in this aspect are to ensure that there is a certain understanding of the background prospects that can help auditors in compliance-related matters. This is not possible without any background in the relevant field of area and interest.
Becoming a compliance auditor, therefore, requires a stringent degree and training in terms of ensuring that individuals are able to gather reasonable and sustainable evidence on grounds of enabling companies to adhere to the set rules and regulations.
This cannot be done if individuals do not have sufficient knowledge about the accounting concepts that are required, as well as the requirements that need to be met in order to ensure proper compliance by the company.
Furthermore, there is no doubt to the fact that compliance auditor needs to have a proper strategy in place regarding skill based tasks that need to be fulfilled, in addition to ensuring that they are able to execute their tasks with due diligence.
Conclusion
Compliance audit has now become an increasingly important phenomenon across the world. This is essential because of the reason that companies now have to be more varied in their compliance so that they do not face any litigation from the regulatory authorities or other customers.
As a matter of fact, it can further be seen that compliance auditors are in demand because companies need to ensure that they are able to abide by the set of laws and regulations.
However, becoming a compliance auditor calls for individuals to prepare well in advance for the accounting-related tasks, as well as the regulatory (and statutory) requirements.
This can help them create a holistic profile, which helps them to create substantial value for the corporation they are a part of. Furthermore, it is also important for compliance auditors to realize the fact that they need to enact responsibly and ethically with the client they are a part of.
