This requires experience not only in all types of accounting practices but also in various tax, laws and financial regulations governing the use of certain documents.
While it takes a highly trained accountant to work as an auditor, there are different types of auditors with different audit aims.
Several types of auditors conduct these procedures.
Types of Auditors are;
- Independent/External Auditors: Profesional Audit services providors.
- Internal Auditors: Company’s own in-house expert auditors to maintain internal control and audit the company’s internal activities.
- Government Auditors: Auditors that are working with various government agencies; where why audit internal agency audit and/or audit the corporations by court order or government law.
- Forensic Auditors: Basically they are hired to play Sherlock. Auditors that specialize in crimes and are used by law enforcement organizations.
Independent auditors are usually Chartered Accountants (CAs) who are either individual practitioners or members of public accounting firms who render professional auditing services to clients.
In general, licensing involves passing the uniform CA examination and obtaining practical experience in auditing.
Internal auditors are employees of the organization they audit. This type of auditors is involved in an independent evaluation of evidence, called internal auditing, within an organization as a service to the organization.
The objective of internal auditing is to assist the management of the organization in the effective discharge of its responsibilities.
Government auditors are employed by various local, state, and federal governmental agencies. At the federal level, the three primary agencies are the General Accounting Offices (GAO), the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), and the Defense Contract Audit Agency.
Forensic auditors specialize in crimes and are used by law enforcement organizations when financial documents are involved in a crime.
This does not necessarily mean the crime was financial (although this can be the case) but rather that the law enforcement organization needs to track money used to find out where it began or ended up.
The roles of auditors are intertwined with the evolution of the auditing theory itself, as auditing evolved based on circumstances the evolution directly influence the functions and the entire practice of auditors.