How Do Auditors Close an Audit?
If the audit firms in Johor Bahru wants to compete with more sizable companies, they need to know how they should close an audit definitively and professionally (Also see What Are the Essential Audit Approaches?). If you own a small audit firm, by complying with proper protocols in closing an audit, it proves to by customer that you can provide the same services as the big companies while offering customised services. Before you leave a customer, you need to have a meeting with the company’s management and discuss preliminary findings. After you have completed this conference, you need to issue a report that includes your findings. The company’s management should respond to those findings before the auditors issue the final report and close the audit. If you have completed these appropriately, you can enhance the reputation of your small firm and your customer will most probably engage your services repeatedly.
Having an Exit Conference
After reviewing the sample data (Also see Introduction to Audit Sampling) and noting the findings, the auditors should have an exit conference with their customer. When conducting this meeting, they need to review their findings and provide their customer with an opportunity to disprove those errors if the customer can give any evidence (Also see What Should Auditors Do When They Receive Electronic Audit Evidence?) before they exit. After the discussion, the auditors should make preliminary suggestions to their customer. The issues that both parties have discussed will make up the preview of an initial audit report.
Drafting an Initial Report
After having the exit conference, the auditors need to prepare the audit report (Also see What is Audit Working Paper?). They should review the notes and include what they have found out in the report. The structure of that document is different according to the type of audit as well as the auditors’ preference. The customary format includes an introduction, the purpose of an audit, auditor’s findings, suggestions, as well as a summary thanking the auditors’ customer for cooperation. Then, auditors will submit a draft of that report to their customer and give he or she some time to respond. As soon as they receive the customer’s response, what they should do next is to arrange for a follow-up meeting.
Organising a Follow-up Meeting
The auditors and their client should agree on a place and time for discussion about the customer’s response and the initial report. This meeting enables the auditors to go through their findings and the customer can provide his or her answer to each of them. Both parties should discuss the customer’s response, review relevant evidence, as well as reach an agreement on whether they need to make any adjustment or leave those findings in the report’s final draft (Also see Audit Procedures – Its Methods, Benefits and Restriction). After discussing every finding thoroughly, auditors should issue the final report.
Issuing the Final Report
The auditors need to include the audit evidence they have acquired and the discussion between their customer in the follow-up meeting in the final audit report. They should review the report carefully and check if there is any errors in grammar and its accuracy, as well as take out all the identifiers, which shows that the report is draft. Then, they should type a cover letter and address their client to it before submitting the final report. Also, the auditors need to keep a copy in the filing system. At this moment, the audit is closed officially.