Question

What is the Closing the Audit & Audit Reports? Please explain and give an example.

Answer 1

Closing the audit is done after an audit is performed and during the closing meeting important audit findings are reviewed. An audit entails an impartial review of a company's financial records and transactions, its different processes and its set of internal control procedures. Closing the audit involves a discussion of the audit findings and of outstanding issues, if any. Closing the audit is done by the lead auditor and is the last crucial step in the auditing process. After closing the audit an audit report is prepared.

For example consider a hypothetical case in which audit of Unilever is going on. The audit is being done my KPMG. In the closing the audit meeting the audit team will meet the management of the company and will discuss its findings. The key topics that will be touched upon in the meeting are – introductions, purpose and scope of the audit, scoring criteria, preliminary findings and clarifications. The audit team will then, at the end of the meeting, give a timeline when the final audit report will be presented. The final audit report will be prepared after factoring for the clarifications provided by the management.