The audit of fixed assets: the theory and practical tips

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of any enterprise necessarily linked to and use of fixed assets such as equipment, machinery, buildings, cars, and various intangible assets, which can also be seen as operating system.The audit of fixed assets in the company sooner or later is required because even the best accountant, uses the most modern means of working with accounting, be sure to allow some errors, which can lead to quite a significant distortion of the results of the financial statements.And the error can creep in at any stage of accounting: it can be and registration of primary documents, and recording business transactions in the registers, and presentation of data in the ledger, and as a result - in the financial statements.That is why audit procedures are absolutely necessary, because they lead to the improvement of the accounting system of the enterprise.

It is worth noting that among the audit procedures audit of fixed assets is not the only type of test.There are many other audit procedures.These include such as the audit of accounts receivable and payable, inventory audits, audits of the invested capital.The most important type of audit is the audit of the financial results of the organization - thanks to this type of testing the company's management knows not whether the irregularities in the preparation of the financial statements and the financial outcome of the company for a certain period.If you did not find any significant violations and error, it means that they were properly paid all taxes, dividends to shareholders, and the company can continue to develop along the lines which had planned.

audit of fixed assets consists of several stages - planning the audit, the conclusion of the audit, programming verification of proper testing procedures and draw conclusions on the basis of the information received.In order to obtain the information necessary to check the objects OS to meet the following criteria:

existence - this criterion means that the auditor must personally ensure that specified in the document object OS, be it a machine building or car, really exists in the formand a state in which the document passes through.To do this, the auditor should make an inventory of objects operating system, during which the person to verify the existence of written documentation OS.

Ownership - another important criterion.The inspection must determine whether the company has the right to ownership of certain balance sheet items in OS, for which checks original documents and terms of delivery of fixed assets.

The third and perhaps the most important criterion - evaluation.The audit of fixed assets is not possible without the validation and evaluation of operating depreciation.The inspection shall verify that the method of depreciation corresponds to the favorites in the order of accounting policies, as well as all accruals made mathematically correct.

After an audit of fixed assets is completed, the inspector makes a conclusion about the state of affairs at the enterprise, which, depending on the identification of various kinds of violations can be positive, positive with reservations or negative if the violations can significantly distort the further mapping of the financial conditionenterprise reporting.
regular audit of fixed assets will ensure the absence of any irregularities in the accounting, and thus ensure the absence of cardiac and headache in the head of the company for many years.