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Audit & Auditors

In financial accounting, an audit is an independent assessment of the fairness by which a company's financial statements are presented by its management. It is performed by the auditors. An auditor is a certified accountant, a competent, independent and objective person that carries out an study of the company accounts to issue an auditor's report based on the results of the audit.

An audit folllows generally accepted standards set by the IFAC, the International Federation of Accountants, a global organization for the accountancy profession dedicated to serving the public interest by strengthening the profession and contributing to the development of strong international economies.

IFAC, through its independent standard-setting boards, sets international standards on ethics, auditing and assurance, education, and public sector accounting, and it promotes convergence to those standards as well as to the standards of the International Accounting Standards Board.

There are two types of auditors:

• Internal auditors are employees of a company hired to assess and evaluate its system of internal control. To maintain independence, they present their reports directly to the board of directors or to top management. They provide functional operation to the concern.
• External auditors are independent staff assigned by an auditing firm to assess and evaluate financial statements of their clients or to perform other agreed-upon evaluations.

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