In: Accounting
What is an external financial audit, and what are the sources of audit evidence?
An external audit is an independent attestation performed by an expert—the auditor—who expresses an opinion regarding the presentation of financial statements. This task, known as the attest function, is performed by CPAs who work for public accounting firms that are independent of the client organization being audited. The audit objective is always associated with assuring the fair presentation of financial statements. These audits are, therefore, often referred to as financial audits.
The evidence auditors gather comes from two types of tests that they perform:
(1) tests of controls
(2) substantive tests..