Question

- What it is comprehensive auditing, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of comprehensive auditing?

- Should a police service use comprehensive auditing?

Answer 1

Comprehensive Auditing is the kind of auditing which evaluates the economic performance as well as the financial resources of the firm by measuring set of business processes and regulations adopted by the business entity. It helps in analyzing the overall performance of the company by evaluating all the processes based on several indicators and parameters.

Comprehensive auditing is helpful in assessing the financial soundness and growth of the organisation by auditing entire organisation including all the divisions and departments, policies and regulations followed by the company and whether they are able to meet future goals & objectives of the company. Comprehensive auditing will consists of following practices.

Analyzing all the financial statements of the company and pre-defined and establish indicators including Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

Measures the internal policies, frameworks and organizational structure of the company.

Measurement of set of processes involved in the company and assess whether business processes are carried out effectively and efficiently.

Carried out integral audit of the entire organisation by the independent public accountants and inform about the true financial performance of the company to the board of directors

Evaluate all the financial risks associated within the company and take corrective measures to mitigate the risks involved.

Advantages of comprehensive auditing includes following:

• Comprehensive auditing helps identify organizational growth and efficiency through pre-defined and established indicators and principles
• Helps in improving internal control policies and accountability in all the departments of the organization.
• With the help of comprehensive auditing, management can identify primary deficiencies in the practices followed by the organization and recommend action plans to mitigate and improve them.

Disadvantages of comprehensive auditing are as follows:

• Comprehensive auditing only recommend certain measures to improve the overall company performance, however the real change will occur only when management and board of directors of the company implement the measures suggested through comprehensive auditing.
• Results generated from comprehensive auditing doesn't guarantee all the areas of the strengths and areas where the improvement is required. It might not be able to scan all the internal and external factors that impact business environment.

Before carrying out comprehensive auditing, organization should measures the cost-benefit analysis to assess whether improvements generated by the comprehensive auditing are higher than the cost incurred to do it.

Yes police service should use comprehensive auditing to mitigate the criminal investigations and other cases. This type of auditing will help police service in providing feasible solutions to their issues and challenged faced related to law enforcement. There are several benefits of comprehensive auditing including value of money audits as it can be carried out for entire organization as well for a certain division or specified department which can be utilized by the police service in carrying out their operations and investigation purpose.