A NEW WAY OF AUDITING – AUDIT IN KNOWLEADGE BASED ...

Annals of the University “Constantin Brâncuşi”of Tg-Jiu, No. 1/2008, Volume 3,
ISSN: 1842-4856
relationship management. Here we need to catch up, both with regard to business science and
theory as well as the practical aspects.
The value of these companies is mainly determined by the employees’ abilities in
designing informatics programs, in the Internet use, by professional experience, by their
cleverness and reputation. But the enterprise activity cannot be conceived without the clients’
existence. Thus, elements related to its commercial aspect, as some good knowledge of the
commodity market and of the clients, their loyalty, a good way of distribution, the marketing
strategies, all contribute to the increase of the enterprise value. Through all these there will
be reached the situation in which the market value of such a company is much higher than its
accounting value. This tendency will be amplified in future and there could be a danger,
namely the traditional financial situations would become, to a great extent, useless for the
users of financial accounting information.
The Office of the Auditor General promotes accountability and best practices in
government operations. Methodology is how the Office codifies the standards and practices
that are to be followed by auditors in carrying out their work. It is an inherent aspect of what
we do, why we do it, and how we do it. It gives rigour and discipline to our work as well as
provides the structure within which audit teams exercise professional judgment.
Considerable effort has been put into updating our audit methodology in order to:
• recognize the unique requirements of our different product-lines;
• take advantage of the capability of electronic tools such as the Internet;
• increase its usefulness to our practitioners
The main feature of the audit process is the independence of the one that performs it:
In all matters relatedto the audit, the IS (Informational System) auditor should be
independent in both attitude and appearance. The independence of such an approach refers to
the lack of any kind of restriction which could affect the checking purpose, efficiency and
conclusions. The testing and the evaluation presuppose that the audit authority should firstly
analyze the deeds, and after this express its independent opinion.
By computer use, the audit approach is modified due to the new processing, storage
and presentation modalities of the information given by the informatics applications, without
changing the general objective and the audit purpose. The traditional procedures of data
collecting and result interpretation are replaced, totally or partially, with informatics
procedures.
The existence of the informatics system can affect the internal audit systems used by
the entity, the way of risk evaluation, the performance of audit tests and basic procedures
used in order to achieve the audit objective.
Audit is designed to determine whether financial statements are fairly presented in
accordance with International Accounting Standards (IAS) or Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles (GAAP). In the United States, audit is required for all publicly
registered companies.
In addition, audit may be performed for private companies, registered charities, and
some governmental and public entities. Certain forms of private companies are required to
have an external audit. Private companies typically request financial audits year after year
because lenders may have required an audit or owners may want to have external unbiased
eyes look at the financial statements to determine if the company is complying with all the
required accounting principles. Charities would require a audit to show the financial status of
the organization to potential donors. Governments and government businesses are usually
required to be audited by statutes to determine if all the money budgeted has been properly
spent. Government financial reports are not always audited by outside auditors. Some
governments have elected or appointed auditors.
Other than testing the reliablility of a firm's controls, audits can alert management to
weaknesses in the firm's controls, as well as suggest operational improvements that could be
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