Auditable Meaning in Accounting vs Software Applications
Auditable Meaning in Accounting and Finance: The ability of an auditor to successfully conduct a comprehensive examination of a client’s financial records, files, & data.
A financial audit is an official examination of an individual’s or organization’s financial statements and records. Typically, an audit is conducted by an objective and independent body. The purpose is to verify and confirm the reported information is fair and accurate.
Auditable meaning in Software Applications and Programming: The ability to gather data for fault removal and debugging purposes. The data gathering method for such processes is referred to as auditing. Software that consistently captures such data is referred to as auditable.
Meaning of Auditable vs Auditability in Finance & Accounting
Auditability in accounting and finance is the likelihood that an auditor can get correct results when examining the available records of a company’s financial reports and records. Auditability is determined by the firm’s financial recording processes. However, it requires transparency in the company’s operational reporting. It also requires honest candor from corporate managers when providing information to their auditors. After large worldwide accounting firms were found guilty of ignoring multiple high-profile examples of fraud, the reputation of audit quality has come under fire.
Audits are unbiased examinations usually conducted by independent third parties or auditing firms. They are designed to determine whether a company’s financial records are fair and accurate. In other words, they aid in the prevention of fraud. Additionally, they provide investors with confidence that the financial statements depict an accurate image of financial performance. Ultimately, this is the data upon which investors use and base their purchasing and selling choices. However, preparing an efficient audit is not always simple. Sometimes, auditors are prohibited from performing their duties properly. For example, simply by not having timely access to a company’s correct and comprehensive financial information. Auditors can face difficulties in obtaining the records they are responsible for validating. The result is a lower likelihood they can provide a full and accurate review of the company’s financials. Or, it may result in substantially more time being spent to complete the process.
Auditable Meaning in Software Applications
Auditable meaning in software and programming: The ability to gather data for fault removal and debugging purposes. The data gathering method for such processes is referred to as auditing. Software that consistently captures such data is referred to as auditable.
One method of achieving dependability is fault removal. Debugging is a common example of a fault removal approach. During debugging, the system is executed, and execution data is collected to be analyzed later. The purpose is to determine whether or not the execution met the system specification. In a distributed system, data is collected centrally via a monitor, with the premise that all nodes are correct. However, there is no central authority to enforce this assumption in open distributed systems such as the Internet of Things (IoT). As a result, nodes may behave arbitrarily by breaching protocol steps. This makes operations such as debugging extremely difficult.
Auditable Meaning in Compliance Issues
Auditable meaning in compliance issues: The ability of a third party to accurately assess the strength and thoroughness of compliance preparations, security policies, user access controls, and risk management procedures.
What precisely is examined in a compliance audit varies depending on whether an organization is a public or private company, what types of data it handles, and if it transmits or stores sensitive financial data. (Source: searchcompliance.com)
Auditability Requirements
Auditability depends on having access to the types of information necessary to successfully review a company’s performance. The necessary records should be well-organized, complete, and in accordance with accounting rules. The scope of an audit includes reviewing quality controls and risk management. Occasionally, a company’s management team is unable or unwilling to provide auditors with the information they want in these two areas. As a result, the auditor may elect to issue a qualified rather than a clean audit opinion on its financial statements.
Alternatively, it may conclude that a company’s records are unauditable and end further association with it. Inadequate firm records, whether or not financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and cases of suspected or detected fraud are all major issues that affect auditability.
Auditing Advantages
- Verifies account accuracy – Auditing conducts a detailed examination of all accounting books of an organization. It double-checks the accuracy of financial records and ensures whether or not they fulfill all statutory requirements.
- Uncovers errors – It plays a role in finding errors and preventing fraud. Auditing evaluates each financial transaction of a business to check if there is any mistake or not. This way it reduces the chances of errors and overall risk occurring due to such errors or frauds.
- Helps maintain accounts – Maintenance of all accounts on a regular basis is a major advantage provided by the auditing process. It keeps a check on the regularity of accounts and raises questions if they are not maintained in an adequate manner.
- Aids decision making: It provides valuable information to managers for efficient decision making. Auditing is done by various experts in accounting and finance. Auditors have detailed knowledge and experience. As a result, they also provide advice and resolve problems.
- Improves shareholder confidence – Audited statements gain the confidence of stakeholders. Any firm with vested interests benefits. This includes shareholders, creditors, banks, investors. All parties have more confidence in audited financial accounts vs unaudited reports.
Auditing Disadvantages
- Costly – The auditing process puts a financial burden on organizations. The process requires a significant cost to conduct an examination of all financial accounts. Businesses pay large fees to auditing experts for their services.
- Relies on experts: The audit depends on experts of various fields for conducting the auditing process. Ultimately, acquiring a true picture and valuation of fixed assets and contingent liabilities can require appraisers, engineers, and lawyers.
- Impossible to check all transactions: Another major drawback of auditing is that it is not always possible to check each financial transaction of an organization. Some organizations are too big and have a large number of transactions. Evaluating all of them becomes quite an impossible task.
- Chances of fraud remain – An audit may uncover errors and frauds in a business. However, audit staff may perform their task carelessly and present an inaccurate audit report. Also, there may be instances where internal staff may be harassed within the organization and coerced to manipulate the figures. (Source: commercemates.com)
Questions regarding audit quality have also brought attention and extra scrutiny to auditors themselves. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a non-profit organization established by Congress to oversee the audit process for companies listed on stock exchanges, has investigated major global accounting firms. These companies include KPMG, Arthur Andersen, and Ernst & Young, all of which have come under repeated fire from the PCAOB for their failure to identify cases of fraud. The corporate scandals that took place at Enron and WorldCom are just two examples of auditors not doing their job correctly. Rather than identify these companies as un-auditable, accounting firms produced clean, unqualified opinions on them in their audit reports.
Up Next: What Is EBIDA – Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, and Amortization?
EBIDA is an after-tax measure of a company’s operating performance. It’s an acronym for Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation & Amortization.
EBIDA is a measure of a company’s earnings that adds interest expense, depreciation, and amortization to net income. However, it does contain tax charges. This metric is not as well recognized or frequently used as its counterpart, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). In general, this metric is used to compare different companies in the same industry. It excludes direct financing effects. However, EBIDA is sometimes used as a statistic to identify corporations that do not pay their taxes.
