A Comprehensive Guide on Substantive Audit Procedures

An audit is an important process for every business organization since it uncovers various aspects of a company. From analyzing the financial statements to checking the business behaviors, everything is assessed by the auditor. One aspect that auditors necessarily check is that if there is any material misstatement in the financial documents. The step is named as substantive audit test or procedure in the accounting language. The auditor will support the audit opinion and assertions through substantive procedures. This article will explain the term with its different types and examples. Keep reading to know more about it!

What are Substantive Audit Procedures?

A substantive audit procedure or test is a technique used by auditors to get audit evidence. The evidence is used to support the audit assertion that there is no material misstatement in the financial statements of a business. To ensure the completeness, validity, and accuracy of the financial statements, the procedure is performed.

The technique incorporates testing the record adjustments, analyzing journal entries and changes made while setting up the fiscal summary of the organization. The procedure will make inquiries about dubious financial transactions. Some of the examples are given in the coming lines.

• Confirming the company’s total balance from a bank
• Confirming accounts payables (A/P) from the creditors of the business
• Performing a physical inventory count

These and much more procedures are performed to bring transparency into the audit process. For businesses to be prepared for such actions, the services of an auditing firm are matchless. Get in touch with top auditing firms in Dubai to make your business compliant.

Types of Substantive Procedures:

The auditors can take several routes to analyze your financial statements and ensure they are presented in the right way. There are two ways these experts can go around to check the material misstatement in your financial papers. We can call these ways types of substantive audit tests and are discussed in the coming lines.

i) Test of details:

Auditors go through numerous activities to make sure they are up to the standards. Test of details is a process where they collect evidence to evaluate the correctness of the following activities.

• Account balances
• Financial disclosures
• Accounting transactions made by the business

All the pieces of evidence are collected to support the assertion that these transactions and activities are fair. The points mentioned above are not excluded from the financial statements so that they will undergo the auditors’ eyes.

ii) Substantive analytical procedures:

The analytical procedure is an effective strategy performed while leading the cycle of auditing. In the analytical techniques, the assessments are offered on the monetary expressions by examining the possible connections between financial and non-financial information. For instance, calculation of proportions, comparing past and current year balances.

Analytical procedures are systematic and occur in several steps. Are you keen to know what these steps are? We have mentioned them here.

• The purchase orders (PO) and invoices should be verified for various transactions.
• The invoices are then matched with the GRN (Goods Receipt Note) to check if the mentioned goods are received.
• Rates and quantity mentioned in the documents are checked.
• Post of items recorded in the ledger account is verified.
• The cut-off procedures, if any, are analyzed.
• The purchase trends from the last year and current year are matched. The auditor will ask for a reason if there is any difference in the trends.

The process is too complicated to be understood by a business person. To comply with the necessary auditing principles and procedures, take top auditing firms on board. These professionals will help you streamline your transactions to avoid any mishap during the audit.

Examples of Substantive Audit Procedures:

Following are some of the general activities that auditors perform during this audit test.

• Bank confirmations
• A/R confirmation
• Match customer orders to the bills
• Confirm inventories on site
• Observe fixed assets
• Match purchasing records to inventory in hand
• Confirm accounts payable (A/P)
• Match purchase orders and suppliers invoices
• Confirm debt
• Analytical analysis of assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses

Why Do These Procedures Matter?

The list of advantages and importance of these substantive analytical procedures is long enough to spend a day. However, we will make it short. It offers assurance on the following assertions to the auditor:

• Affirming assets and liabilities on a given date
• The company gets a vivid picture of its belongings (Total Assets)
• Businesses get to know what their real liabilities are
• To be compliant, they will record transactions on time
• Financial records will present fair data and information to stakeholders

All these points will make a business fair in its business operations. Before the auditors come, a company will get all these things ready and done, leaving nothing on the pending list.

Ensure transparency in your business with auditing firms!

Expert auditors play a vital role in streamlining the operations of any business. Irrespective of the business nature and size, auditors will prove beneficial in numerous aspects. Hire the best auditing firms for your business to ensure transparency across all departments!