Funciones y características del auditor de cuentas.

A statutory auditor is an external auditor appointed by a company to audit its books or other activities as required by law. Generally, this auditor reviews a company’s accounting practices and determines if they meet minimum requirements. Sometimes the statutory auditor is hired by the accounting committee of the board of directors; at other times he or she may be employed directly by the board of directors. It is rare that management of a corporation would hire this auditor.

Statutory auditors often create an external report that is included within the company’s annual report.

Normalmente, el auditor legal revisa las prácticas contables de la corporación cada año. Esta revisión incluye las actividades contables, los controles internos y los procedimientos de informes más importantes . La revisión del auditor compara las actividades de la empresa con las mejores prácticas que se encuentran en el país en el que se encuentra la empresa. A continuación, el auditor debe presentar un informe al comité de auditoría de la junta directiva o directamente a la junta directiva.

Muchos auditores legales son contadores públicos autorizados.

An auditor works closely with the management of the company to gather information necessary to complete the required work. Each auditor exercises caution in the relationships he or she develops with company management because the statutory auditor must always be considered independent. Some audit committees and boards of directors limit any additional work that the statutory auditor may do for the company in order to ensure the auditor’s independence.

Auditors complete all work in accordance with best practice accounting standards and any legal regulations for certified public accountants. Many statutory auditors are certified public accountants. The requirements for a statutory auditor differ by jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions require that the auditor be licensed in his or her jurisdiction in order to practice corporate audits.

Once an audit firm begins work with a given company on any external audit work, the firm generally does not receive any additional work from the same company. Each company has internal regulations within the company or its board of directors to determine what additional work, if any, a firm may contract with the company to perform. Most statutory auditors have extensive experience in external corporate audits in order to specialize in this type of work.

Algunas corporaciones contratan una firma de auditoría para certificar sus informes financieros. Generalmente, los auditores legales realizan esta certificación. El auditor externo completa una revisión de la situación financiera de la empresa y sus estados financieros anuales . Luego, el auditor firma los estados anuales de la compañía con los hallazgos del informe. Este informe externo suele incluirse dentro del informe anual de la empresa a sus accionistas.

El consejo de administración de una empresa puede contratar a un auditor legal.