Introduction
The auditor’s role when it comes to giving an opinion regarding the organization’s financial well-being is tantamount. This is primarily because of the reason that numerous different stakeholders are supposed to rely on the report that the auditor extends.
Hence, in this regard, it is quite rudimentary for auditors and organizations to be aware of the responsibilities and duties of the auditor and how they work is supposed to be carried out to extrapolate the best possible results for all the relevant stakeholders.
An auditor can be defined as an independent qualified person who is mainly appointed to give shareholders an independent, professional, and informed opinion of the given financial statements.
In this regard, the auditor is also supposed to benefit all the relevant third parties involved in providing reliable and accurate information about the company in this context.
Therefore, because of the high degree of reliance on the work carried out by the auditor, it is of pivotal importance.
Duties and Responsibilities of Auditors
In order to ensure that auditors can execute their tasks in a proficient manner, it is quite important to establish clarity regarding the roles and responsibilities of the auditor. Therefore, this mainly entails the following roles and responsibilities.
Firstly, it is the main duty of the auditor to provide an audit report. This means that they are supposed to provide their analysis to the members about the audit process that they have conducted.
In this regard, they are supposed to analyze the financial statements and give a free and fair view of the underlying company’s affairs.
They should also ensure that the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Companies Acts, in addition to the underlying accounting standards that should have been followed.
In the same manner, they should also look for bookkeeping and if the company has managed to maintain proper books of accounts.
If the auditor discovers the company has not kept books properly, they are supposed to notify the relevant authority and disclose it in their financial statement.
It tends to be an increasingly important role of the auditor to ensure that they are able to ensure that there are no questionable activities taking place within the company operations. In this aspect, they are also supposed to report indictable offenses.
In the case where the auditor finds out that some unethical practices, they are supposed to report it to the higher authorities immediately.
The job description of an auditor also includes adopting a high standard of professional integrity and professional skepticism.
This includes reporting any suspicious activity and informing the organization about possible chances of improvement within the company.
From the beginning part of the audit process, till the end, the auditor is supposed to keep proper documentation regarding all the audit procedures that are conducted during the audit process.
This also includes designing the audit procedures, estimating the audit risk, and then documenting the process as they go along the audit process.
Furthermore, it can also be deduced that the auditor is also responsible for determining the internal controls within the organization and commenting on the overall efficacy of the operations within the firms in terms of the inherent audit risk.
In addition, the fact that all internal controls have been checked is supposed to be backed with sufficient substantive audit procedures.
Therefore, conducting substantive audit procedures also tends to be an important component of the audit process.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the auditor tends to be a highly integral part of overseeing the company’s financial operations.
In this regard, they need to ensure that they can define the role of auditors in a highly accurate manner so that there is proper clarity regarding the duties they need to execute.
In this regard, the organization and the auditor must be able to have proper knowledge and clarity regarding the tasks and activities that need to be carried out.
The main job description of the auditor entails covering all the relevant ground for audit assertions and ensuring that all the respective tasks are completed so that they can fulfill the core purpose of the audit itself, which is commenting on the company’s financial statements.
