External Auditor - Organization & Services

Organization & Services

In some countries, audit firms may be organized as LLCs or corporate entities. The organization of audit firms has been a subject of debate in recent years on account of liability issues. For example, there are rules in EU member states that more than 75% of the members of an audit firm must be qualified auditors. In India, audit firms can only be partnerships of qualified members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

In the USA, the external auditor also performs reviews of financial statements and compilation. In review auditors are generally required to tick and tie numbers to general ledger and make inquiries of management. In compilation auditors are required to take a look at financial statement to make sure they are free of obvious misstatements and errors. An external auditor may perform a full-scope financial statement audit, a balance-sheet-only audit, an attestation of internal controls over financial reporting, or other agreed-upon external audit procedures.

External auditors also undertake management consulting assignments. Under statute, an external auditor can be prohibited from providing certain services to the entity they audit. This is primarily to ensure that conflicts of interest do not arise. The independence of external auditors is crucial to a correct and thorough appraisal of an entity's financial controls and statements. Any relationship between the external auditors and the entity, other than retention for the audit itself, must be disclosed in the external auditor's reports. These rules also prohibit the auditor from owning a stake in public clients and severely limits the types of non-audit services they can provide.

The primary role of external auditors is to express an opinion on whether an entity's financial statements are free of material misstatements.