Glossary

Approved Auditor

An approved auditor is someone who is analyzes a company’s financial papers and control systems to determine if the company’s financial reports are clean, or free of misstatements and errors. An auditor may either be hired by the company or from an independent organization. While auditors do not take responsibility for their opinion, they are essential to improving confidence amongst investors and ensuring that everything is as accurate as possible.

Auditor’s Job
The auditor’s job is to check the business for accuracy. This typically means looking over financial statements to see how they are presented, but it often goes deeper than this during the audit. That’s because the auditor has to check the inventory and systems behind the statements to present the best report.

For example, the auditor can’t say that credit card processing and merchant account reports are accurate without first knowing how these accounts and reports are judged. He or she will ask about how the business got its numbers, to present everything objectively and he or she will often check physical and digital inventory for errors.

At the end of the audit, the auditor will give a report based on his or her findings. It is management’s job to stand behind this report. The auditor will also offer advice and opinions on the business, but he or she doesn’t make any direct changes. That goes beyond the auditor’s job and would start to blur the lines between auditor and accountant.

Misconceptions
Some people believe that the approved auditor is there to make changes, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. For example, the auditor may notice significant issues with credit card processing, but he or she will not make changes to the documentation or processing. The author may also notice that the control systems for merchant account management are unethical, but still he or she will not make any changes.

The auditor is only there to observe and give opinions. They will not do anything else, which means that it’s up to management to make the suggested changes. They can’t even demand that management present the findings or opinions. At the same time, these opinions are typically followed to improve business processes.

Conclusion
An approved auditor typically makes changes to the business, but in an indirect way. Auditors come to observe and offer opinions, and management usually follows those opinions. Investors like knowing that a company was audited because this will lead to better changes in the future.