The job of an audit company is to flag the potential existing noncompliance issues so that the business house can take certain steps in the form of corrective action. However, company audit is a huge responsibility and it completely rests on the shoulders of a reliable audit firm. There have been instances when such responsibilities take a toll on the audit companies and they tend to miss out on something important. This is the major reason to have a checklist handy.
Interestingly, several well reputed social compliance audit companies make sure to have a checklist with them when they have the responsibility of auditing a major business house. When drafting the checklist care needs to be taken that all the major pointers are clearly mentioned. In such cases you cannot miss because auditing is a process oriented task. Missing out on something important invariably leads to a disruption which is not good for the business functionalities. So let us mention the checklist that would come handy for the audit companies.
- Types of Audits – This first and the foremost checklist is the list of the business functions that needs to be audited. This will help the audit companies to figure out the job that is expected from them. However, the management wing needs to be audited first to check whether the strategies and the major business plans are in order and is strategic enough. This is followed by employee auditing just to check whether employees have been consistently following the business processes. Employee auditing is directly related to performance of the business at large. This is finally followed by the financial audits to guard the company from frauds.
- Management – The management audit comes first into the picture to make sure that the business plans and the marketing strategies are accurate and in the correct order. This is crucial primarily because a business completely stands on the marketing strategies. So make sure the strategies are in order and are at par with the company’s goals and objectives. The role and operations of managers also need to be inspected to ensure employees working under them follow the protocol and perform well.
- Operations – As has been mentioned previously, employees are the next in line who are subject to the audit companies next. In this section, audit companies focus and track the on-time delivery mechanism that employees need to follow. This will also highlight whether the employees are given proper training or not and whether their induction has been good enough. Auditors also assess the efficiency of the sales professionals to understand the revenue they are bringing into the company.
- Finance – The financial condition of a company is considered to be the main fuel on which the entire business runs. So checking that is extremely important and without auditing the company’s finances, audit is never complete. Financial audit includes checking the licenses, the tax filings and the business conduct. Calculating an employee’s wage in return of the revenue that they bring in is also important and needs to be audited.
Auditing a business house is indeed a tough job and also an extremely important one. Missing out even a single process is detrimental both for the business as well as for the audit company. This is the main reason having a checklist always helps.
