Audit kewangan
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Audit kewangan, atau lebih tepat dinamakan audit pada penyata kewangan, adalah pemeriksaan penyata kewangan sesebuah syarikat atau organisasi lain oleh parti ketiga yang berpendirian tidak berat sebelah, lalu menghasilkan pendapat bebas mengenai sama ada penyata kewangan adalah relevan, tepat dan lengkap.
Audit kewangan biasanya diamalkan oleh firma-firma akauntan, kerana pengetahuan laporan kewangan khusus yang diperlukannya. Audit kewangan merupakan salah satu daripada pelbagai fungsi jaminan atau perbahasan yang disumbangkan oleh firma perakaunan, yang mana firma tersebut menyumbangkan pendapat bebas mengenai maklumat yang diterbitkan kepada umum.
Kebanyakan organisasi mengupah juruaudit dalaman secara berasingan, yang tidak bertujuan berbahas mengenai laporan kewangan, sebaliknya menumpu kepada kawalan dalaman organisasi berkenaan. Juruaudit luar boleh memilih untuk meletakkan kebolehpercayaan yang terhad pada kerja-kerja auditor dalaman.
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[Sunting] Tujuan
Audit kewangan bertujuan memastikan bahawa segala penyata kewangan yang dilaporkan secara adilnya mewakili kedudukan dan prestasi organisasi kepada pemegang kepentingan (pihak yang terlibat) bagi firma tersebut. Pemegang kepentingan utama sesebuah syarikat lazimnya ialah pemegang sahamnya, tetapi pihak-pihak lain seperti pihak berkuasa yang memungut cukai, bank, regulator, pembekal, pembeli dan tenaga kerjanya mungkin juga melibatkan diri dalam kegiatan perniagaan agar memastikan bahawa maklumat dalam penyata kewangannya tepat.
Audit direkabentuk untuk mengurangkan kemungkinan silap nyata yang material (material misstatement), iaitu maklumat yang palsu atau tertinggal, sama ada disebabkan penipuan (termasuk silap nyata secara sengaja) atau kesilapan. Material didefinisikan secara amat meluas sebagai cukup besar atau penting untuk mempengaruhi keputusan para pemegang kepentingan.
The exact 'audit opinion' will vary between countries, firms and audited organisations.
In the US, the CPA firm provides written assurance that financial reports are 'fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).' The measure for 'fairly presented' is that there is less than 5% chance (5% Audit Risk) that the financial statements are 'materially misstated'.
In England and Wales, the Registered Auditors provide 'reasonable assurance' that the financial statements are 'free from material misstatement', and that they give 'a true and fair view' of the state of the company's affairs as at a particular date, and of its profit/loss for the period then ended, and have been 'properly prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 1985' or other relevant legislation.
[Sunting] History
[Sunting] Audit perbelanjaan kerajaan
The earliest surviving mention of a public official charged with auditing government expenditure is a reference to the Auditor of the Exchequer in England in 1314. The Auditors of the Imprest were established under Queen Elizabeth I in 1559 with formal responsibility for auditing Exchequer payments. This system gradually lapsed and in 1780, Commissioners for Auditing the Public Accounts were appointed by statute. From 1834, the Commissioners worked in tandem with the Comptroller of the Exchequer, who was charged with controlling the issue of funds to the government.
As Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Ewart Gladstone initiated major reforms of public finance and Parliamentary accountability. His 1866 Exchequer and Audit Departments Act required all departments, for the first time, to produce annual accounts, known as appropriation accounts. The Act also established the position of Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) and an Exchequer and Audit Department (E&AD) to provide supporting staff from within the civil service. The C&AG was given two main functions – to authorise the issue of public money to government from the Bank of England, having satisfied himself that this was within the limits Parliament had voted – and to audit the accounts of all Government departments and report to Parliament accordingly.
Auditing of UK government expenditure is now carried out by the National Audit Office and Audit Commission.
[Sunting] Audit syarikat dan peraturan bagi juruaudit
Prior to the 1930s, corporations were required neither to submit annual reports to government agencies or shareholders nor to have such reports audited. In the United States, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 required all publicly traded companies to disclose certain financial information, and that financial information be audited. The establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) created a body to enforce the audit requirements.
In the United States, the SEC has generally deferred to the accounting industry (acting through various organizations throughout the years) as to the accounting standards for financial reporting, and the U.S. Congress has deferred to the SEC.
This is also typically the case in other developed economies. In the UK, auditing guidelines are set by the institutes (including ICAEW, ICAS and ICAI) of which auditing firms and individual auditors are members.
Accordingly, financial auditing standards and methods have tended to change significantly only after auditing failures. The most recent and familiar case is that of Enron. The company succeeded in hiding some important facts, such as off-book liabilities, from banks and shareholders. Eventually, Enron filed for bankruptcy, and (as of 2006) is in the process of being dissolved. One result of this scandal was that Arthur Andersen, then one of the five largest accountancy firms worldwide, lost their ability to audit public companies, essentially killing off the firm.
A recent trend in audits (spurred on by such accounting scandals as Enron and Worldcom) has been an increased focus on internal control procedures, which aim to ensure the completeness, accuracy and validity of items in the accounts, and restricted access to financial systems. This emphasis on the internal control environment is now a mandatory part of the audit of SEC-listed companies, under the auditing standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) set up by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
[Sunting] Langkah-langkah audit
Audit kewangan dijalankan sebelum pengeluaran penyata kewangan (lazimnya dijalankan setiap tahun), dan akan bertindih dengan tarikh 'akhir tahun' (tarikh akhir sesuatu tempoh perakaunan).
Berikut adalah langkah-langkah audit yang biasa:
[Sunting] Perancangan dan penilaian risiko
Masa: sebelum akhir tahun
Tujuan:
- untuk memahami perniagaan sesebuah syarikat dan persekitaran di mana syarikat tersebut beroperasi.
- untuk menentukan risiko audit utama (iaitu kemungkinan seseorang juruaudit akan mengemukakan pendapat yang salah). Contohnya, jika wakil jualan berpeluang meraih bonus berdasarkan jualan mereka, dan mereka bertanggungjawab terhadap jualan yang dihasilkan mereka, mereka mempunyai insentif dan kebolehan untuk menyatakan nilai jualan mereka secara berlebihan, maka terlebih nyatalah hasil jualan dalam akaun. In response, the auditor would typically plan to increase the rigour of their procedures for checking the sales figures.
[Sunting] Ujian kawalan dalaman
Masa: sebelum akhir tahun
Tujuan:
- untuk menilai prosedur kawalan dalaman (cth. melalui penyemakan keselamatan komputer, account reconciliations, pengasingan tugasan). Jika kawalan dalaman dinilai sebagai kukuh, ini akan mengurangkan (tetapi bukan menghapuskan segala) saiz kerja yang 'substantif' yang perlu dijalankan oleh juruaudit.
[Sunting] Prosedur substantif
Masa: selepas akhir tahun (see note regarding hard/fast close below)
Tujuan:
- untuk memastikan bahawa the actual numbers in the Income Statement and Balance Sheet (and, where applicable, Statement of Changes in Equity and Cash Flow Statement) are reliable, by performing tests that use the numbers provided.
Kaedah:
- where internal controls are strong, auditors typically rely more on Substantive Analytical Procedures (the comparison of sets of financial information, and financial with non-financial information, to see if the numbers 'make sense' and that unexpected movements can be explained)
- where internal controls are weak, auditors typically rely more on Substantive Tests of Detail (selecting a sample of items from the major account balances, and finding hard evidence (e.g. invoices, bank statements) for those items)
Nota: Some audits involve a 'hard close' or 'fast close' whereby certain substantive procedures can be performed before year-end. For example, if the year-end is 31st December, the hard close may provide the auditors with figures as at 30th November. The auditors would audit income/expense movements between 1st January and 30th November, so that after year end, it is only necessary for them to audit the December income/expense movements and the 31st December balance sheet.
[Sunting] Firma audit penting
These firms are the 'Big 4' multinational accountancy firms which audit the majority of large quoted/listed companies. In addition to providing audits, they also provide other services including tax advice and strategic consultancy.
- Ernst & Young (corporate website)
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (corporate website)
- Deloitte (corporate website)
- KPMG (corporate website)
- Top 100 accounting firms (in the United States)
- Top 50 accountancy firms in the UK
[Sunting] Hubungan komersial lawan objektiviti
One of the major issues faced by private auditing firms is the need to provide independent auditing services while maintaining a business relationship with the audited company. The auditing firm's responsibility to check and confirm the reliability of financial statements may be limited by pressure from the audited company, who pays the auditing firm for the service. The auditing firm's need to maintain a viable business through auditing revenue may be weighed against its duty to examine and verify the accuracy, relevancy, and completeness of the company's financial statements.
[Sunting] Lihat juga
- Perakaunan
- Perisian perakaunan