The auditors' assessments and suggestions regarding the risks of errors and fraud in the financial statements are fundamental to the quality of the audit. Risk assessments in today's environment are unlike any other, clients are dealing with significant changes in their business, work environment, and economy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the added complexities, auditors focus on process auditing of high quality that fully comply with the standards of objectivity and professional skepticism.
To assess the risk in a process auditing, auditors understand the client's industry, operations, and capital structure. Many auditors are not yet in person with clients and access to documents has changed, along with the ability to speak with the client's accounting team, requiring more robust and advanced planning.
The transition to remote work was possible thanks to the use of technology, and companies of all sizes are investing in transformation tools and innovation technologies, which even facilitate process auditing. Auditors are using technology to extract business data and perform analyses remotely, and can also examine large amounts of data and relationships, filter data for identification, and focus on high-risk transactions, creating responsive auditing steps.
Still, customer technological resources can be a significant challenge for process auditing. Some clients have sophisticated systems and professionals, but many have not yet invested heavily in new technologies, in addition to the changes in operations and branch closures as a result of the pandemic, which significantly affect controls and risk assessments.
In a normal environment, auditors would reassess auditing risks if there were changes in the company during the year, but with the pandemic many changes were driven forward and companies recognize some situations that must be evaluated and discussed as unexpected. One of the objectives of process auditing has been to instill continuous trust in customers and regulators, without abandoning the need to evaluate the supply chain, but adapting the work according to the current situation.
With good auditors and continuous verification of critical processes, process auditing can greatly help companies to make significant quality improvements. Uma process auditing robust, which goes beyond basic verification, proves that quality is the top priority for leaders and the organization as a whole.
Contact TATICCA — ALLINIAL GLOBAL, which provides integrated auditing services, internal auditing, accounting, taxes, corporate finance, financial advisory, risk advisory, technology, business consulting and training, for more information, at www.taticca.com.br or e-mail taticca@taticca.com.br and learn more. Our company has certified methodologies for carrying out activities.
