How Do Auditors Detect Wrongdoing?
Accountants and auditors have an important set of duties, all of which are designed to improve and maintain the financial well-being of the organizations they serve.
Depending on the experience and qualifications of these specialists, they may even be able to provide guidance and consultancy on how to trim costs and overhead, make operations more efficient, and therefore, improve revenue and boost profits.
Though they can make all of the aforementioned things happen depending on how involved they are, their main job is still making sure that the company and its finances comply with legal reporting requirements, and that there are no inaccuracies and misstatements in the records.
Auditing And Fraud
While limited to people with the required experience and skills, auditors in Dubai may also be relied upon in duties that involve financial wrongdoing.
This can involve multiple things, including wire and smartphone fraud, online scams, embezzlement, extortion schemes, and more.
Even though audits are not specifically aimed at detecting every little detail about the potential fraud or wrongdoing that took place, these professionals do have a legal duty to pinpoint and substantial instances of reporting wrong information, which can either be because of error, or fraud.
GAAP Standards
Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) provide information on certain procedures that should be used to detect and minimize fraud during auditing processes.
The Process
The legal requirements for audits in most countries say that they must be carried out by a third party, which is not only professional, but also impartial.
This leads to a fair approach to the task. When the purpose is to detect fraud, there are certain key steps that audit teams undertake.
Discussion
Before initiating the audit process, GAAP standards require the team to hold a meeting to discuss fraud. The purpose is to ascertain ways in which the company could possibly have engaged in the activity.
This meeting is a chance for the audit specialists to also discuss instances where similar companies have engaged in fraud before, or the mechanisms with which it takes place in the corporate world in general.
Since audits are supposed to be neutral and impartial, this sets a professional and thorough theme with which to pursue the audit.
Scrutiny Of Entries
When fraud takes place, it is almost always the case that the journal entries of the company would have been manipulated.
To check this aspect, auditors thoroughly inspect this data, following a perusal of the control and procedures the company makes use of.
In this process, it is important for them to take note of certain notable entries, such as the big amounts entered by top officials, those that were entered late, and more.