Comprehensive Audit Process
Ernst & Young have developed a comprehensive process for conducting an audit. Understanding your business is fundamental to our audit approach. During our discussions with your management we will have the opportunity to get an insight into the your organisation's activities, its key business processes and the issues facing it. As a result of these discussions we could, for example, determine that your business faces the following challenges:
- Control of costs
- Expansion of distribution channels
- Management of anticipated growth
- Continued development of electronic delivery systems
- Creation of additional revenue streams from the sales of data and systems solutions
Determining Our Audit Strategy. Based on our understanding of your organisation's major business processes and our initial risk assessment, we will be in a position to prepare an audit strategy. This strategy is co-developed with you to ensure that not only are our statutory obligations fulfilled, but also that your expectations and requirements are met. This exercise results in the development of a Service Charter which is used to:
- Describe your key business and financial statements risks
- Identify your service expectations
- Agree our audit plan, service style and deliverables
- Detail the internal support you will provide
Before both interim and final audits we would liaise with management with regard to the type and format of the information that will be available to us. This will help facilitate the efficient use of your time as well as our own.
All audit work will be performed by suitable experienced and adequately supervised staff.
The audit of systems is an integral part of our audit approach. Our information systems and general auditors co-develope with management a risk assessment of how the business processes, accounting systems and, ultimately, the financial statements are impacted by information technology. A programme is then developed to address security, program change management, software development, systems availability and programmed controls within the applications used throughout the organisation. Similarly, the appropriate scope of computer assisted audit techniques to address the risks within the audit is developed by the team.
Concluding the Audit. On completion of the fieldwork we hold an Audit Closing Meeting with you to discuss and resolve the issues arising out of our audit. Draft management letters will be discussed with management for their responses. We will also provide any other deliverables as agreed in our Service Charter.
Upon conclusion of the audit we will seek your assessment of our performance. This is done through the completion and review of the Value Scorecard.