Controls testing
As businesses have grown more complex and
sophisticated, and the costs of labour have risen,
automated systems and processes have necessarily
become much more prevalent. A well-run business
will have its own systems and controls in place to
operate efficiently, safeguard its assets, and to
provide reasonable assurance that its transactions
are properly reported and that its financial statements
are complete and accurate. The auditors assess the
effectiveness of these controls in preventing and
mitigating the possible risk of material misstatement
in those areas where the auditor plans to use such
controls to adjust the nature, timing and extent of
their testing. If they believe the controls are effective,
and they have tested that they operated reliably
throughout the year, then the level of substantive
audit evidence needed to give an opinion may be
reduced. Even if the controls are reliable, varying
degrees of substantive audit evidence will still always
need to be gathered.