Archive: July 2018

As a company leader, you naturally worry about protecting your business from being exposed to risks. Like the Trojans discovered, the mightiest walls can sometimes fall easier from within than from outside. As a business owner or corporate leader, you should be aware it’s estimated that almost 33% of all business failures involve company fraud or theft of some sort. These deceitful activities often include fraudulent disbursements, skimming or diverting business funds, misappropriating customers or trade secrets, embezzlement, and even downright larceny. Knowing the steps to safeguard your organization from these risks will not only help your business grow, but likely ensure it prospers.

Determining the value of audit is a straightforward and non-precarious activity. As accounting professionals, we, of course, refer to audit from a financial audit standpoint, but there are many types of audits including compliance audit, tax audits, and operational audits, to name a few. A financial audit is the analysis of the fairness of information in an organization’s financial statements and is the most common type of audit conducted. Audit firms conduct these types of audit independent of the business entity. When it comes to auditing private companies, regulators have numerous audit requirements that also change over time. The main value of having a financial audit can be surmised by subtracting the cost of the audit from value-added items such as ensuring accountability and reliability, increasing credit rating and value, and gaining a clear picture of the overall health of the business.