Auditing: Types, Financials, IT and Standards

• Auditing is a systematic review to evaluate compliance with rules and criteria.

Audit Classifications

• Internal audits are conducted by a company's employees with the goal of improving internal processes.
• External audits are performed by external auditors with a more objective view, useful for loans or attracting investors.

Auditing Financial Statements

• The aim is to express an independent opinion on the financial situation of a company, according to accounting principles.

Auditing in Information Technology

• This ensures that IT resources operate in a controlled and secure environment, guaranteeing the integrity and reliability of the information.

Integral Auditing

• Multi-disciplinary evaluation of goal achievement with suggested improvements to optimize resources and operations.

Audit Standards

• Several standards guide the quality of audit work, including those of the IMCP, ISACA, and ThellA.

Audit Phases

• Phase I - General Analysis and Diagnosis: Includes preliminary evaluation and diagnosis.
• Phase II - Specific Planning: Defines objectives and necessary resources.
• Phase III - Execution: Obtains evidence and provides supervision.
• Phase IV - Results Report: Presents observations and opportunities for improvement.
• Phase V - Implementation and Evaluation: Implements solutions and evaluates their effectiveness.

Auditor Profile

• An auditor needs knowledge in audit standards, administrative and accounting techniques, maintaining objectivity, independence, and confidentiality.

• Integral auditing is a multidisciplinary and independent assessment that analyzes the degree of compliance with organizational goals and their relationship with the environment, proposing alternatives for optimal resource utilization.

Planning

• It involves defining objectives, scope, resources, and a detailed work plan, flexible enough to adapt to information collected during the audit.

Study and Familiarization with the Environment

• Including sector analysis, internal documentation review, and communication with top management to understand the organization, its objectives, and strategies.

Study and Evaluation of Controls

• This involves identifying and evaluating the effectiveness of internal controls, along with documenting results related to the control environment and risk management.

Obtaining Evidence

• Evidence should be relevant, competent, and sufficient, ensuring it is of quality, logically related to the facts, and sufficient in quantity to support the conclusions.

Audit Techniques

• Techniques used include analytical reviews (relationships between data), physical inspection (direct), documentary reviews (permanent records), and testimonial reviews (personnel statements).

Work Papers

• These must contain enough information and analysis to support conclusions, be reviewable by third parties, and assist in the work of the audit team.

Supervision of Audit Work

• It involves verifying the team's work to ensure its quality, assessing risks, and properly documenting evidence and conclusions.

• An auditor should use reason with prudence to study problems, investigate, establish alternatives, reflect on them, seek advice, and reach specific solutions.

• An effective auditor is innovative, creative, and possesses skills in human resource management, developing relationships with those being evaluated, coordinating diagnostics, planning, analysis, solution implementation, results evaluation, and communicating orally and in writing.

• Integral auditors adhere to standards that allow them to produce high-quality work with independent judgment, despite potential pressures.

Integral Auditor Knowledge

• Integral Audit Standards
• Integral Audit Methodology
• Research methods such as quantitative techniques, sampling and inference, statistics, surveys, and interviews.
• Measurement criteria, standards, techniques, and procedures for integral evaluation.
• Economics, finances, information systems, IT, organization, methods, commercial and tax laws, budgets, job analysis, and related subjects.
• Administrative and accounting principles and techniques.
• Governmental regulations, especially for audits of entities in Federal, State, or Municipal Public Administration.

Objectivity

• Auditors should be impartial and honest, avoiding external influences that could alter their conclusions.
• Their work should be based on objective evidence, without concealing or distorting facts.

Confidentiality

• Auditors are obliged to maintain professional secrecy, not disclosing information obtained during the audit without authorization, except for legally required reports, and not using this information for personal or third-party benefit.

Independence

• Auditors need to be free from influences that compromise their judgment, maintaining an attitude of independence in both facts and mentality to ensure impartial and reliable recommendations.