Auditing and recent trends

An audit is an independent examination of financial statements to give an opinion on whether they present a true and fair view. The auditor does not prepare the accounts — management does — and the auditor does not guarantee that no fraud exists. Worked example: if an auditor finds that sales were recorded before goods were despatched, the revenue is premature; vouching the sales invoices against despatch records is exactly how such an error is caught.