To understand what an auditor general is, you need to know what an audit is and how it works in France.
What is an audit ?
An audit is an analysis carried out by one or more experts, with an impartial and if possible independent point of view, on a specific aspect of the business. It helps ensure that your business held accountable in accordance with the regulations in force, that it complies with internal procedures or that it operates optimally.
The Auditor General will assess, investigate, but also check and control specific elements. An audit may be ordered to ensure that the company complies with applicable audit rules or standards.
An audit can also be ordered to carry out an inventory of a service or a complete department of a company.
The audit is more an enhancement tool rather than a sanction tool able to identify strengths and weaknesses. The general auditor sends the company an audit report in order to measure the efforts to be made to achieve better results.
There is a wide variety of audits that can be performed to look at both financial matters and organizational methods.
The different types of audit
There are different types of corporate audits, which can meet several needs:
- The financial audit, focused on the company’s accounting, allows the control of financial records and statements ;
- The internal audit involves the evaluation of the business itself, including by reviewing the accounting and financial statements, but more generally the entire operation of the business. An internal audit can be compared to a financial audit, supplemented by other investigations ;
- The tax audit is focused on verifying the declarations and tax payments and other tax remittances made by the company. Therefore, the audit involves verifying that declarations and payments are timely made and with consistent amounts ;
- The operational audit is an audit of a normative nature. It involves verifying that all the standards that the company internally enforces are met, in particular on the financial level.
- The performance audit is an evaluation of operations to determine whether specific programs or functions are working to achieve set objectives. Performance audits are usually associated with government bodies.
The role of the auditor general
As we have seen with the (non-exhaustive) list of different types of audits existing in a company, there are both organizational audits and financial audits.
In order to successfully carry out his role, the Auditor General must bring a fresh perspective, verify the data, and apply a rigorous work method to provide recommendations that meet auditing standards.
The chartered accountant is in this sense in an extremely good professional position to be an auditor.
Indeed, he is responsible to check the proper and accurate bookkeeping, and to audit the work carried out internally.
The difference between internal auditor and external auditor
The internal auditor is employed by a company. He only checks and monitors the accounts of the company that employs him.
Whereas the external auditor is an outside individual. In this case, it is the commissioning entity who decides what to verify and who will receive the audit report. There is also third party auditing, which is commissioned by a neutral entity such as certification bodies.
As you can see, auditing is a very broad subject, and we hope that you can now see things more clearly.
The CF Henderson firm and its team of accountants are available to meet you, conduct an audit in your company and capitalize on this feedback to act upon your investment strategy, your depreciation or even settle new goals.
Who better to ensure the accurate record-keeping? Genuine guarantee of the proper application of both fiscal and accounting auditing standards. CF Henderson does not complete its mission with mere observation. The role as advisor and solutions provider is essential and ubiquitous within CF Henderson !
His external point of view and his knowledge of the French and American markets will bring you a new vision, and help you in your decision-making.