the first time

It’s impossible to write about something, if you don’t know what “that something “ means. So I thought it would be interesting to start with an answer on the question: “What is auditing”. Because I couldn’t give a clear answer on the question I opened the Google site and searched for “auditing”. A whole list of hits appeared and I took a look at some of them. As always Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, was standing first in line.

The first sentence on the site:
“The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product.”

That seemed a clear answer to my question. Now I knew what auditing ment I could look for some further information. Apparently audits are used to guarantee the reliability of information and as an intern-control system. Traditionally the financial audits were used the most, but nowadays there are much more audits (ex. Safety audits, energy audits, quality audits,…). A combination of all of these audits can give a good look upon the achievements of the organization. When these audits are performed by an independent person (an auditor) they are published in an audit report.

The most well known auditor companies are called the big four. PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG have over time created an oligopoly over the auditing industry.

Now I know what “different aspects of auditing” means it won’t be hard to find a new topic for next week.

If you still want to know more about this topic you can read more on the site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audit