Government Audits

Since its introduction, the need for companies’ financial statements to be audited by an independent external auditor has been a cornerstone of confidence in the world’s financial system. The objective of a financial statement audit engagement is to allow independent Chartered Accountants to render an opinion on the fairness of the client’s business financial statements.

The auditor or Chartered Accountant always follows specific procedures and guidelines for handling the engagement. The benefit of a financial statement audit is to provide reasonable assurance that management has presented a ‘true and fair’ view of a company’s financial performance and position.

Financial audit enhances the degree of confidence of intended users and are preferred by shareholders, government, banks and other creditors. Federal and provincial legislation in Canada generally requires corporations to prepare annual financial statements for audit by qualified independent auditors.

Other common engagements providing reasonable assurance like that of financial audits in Mississauga include:

• Operational audits
• Comprehensive audits

• Internal audits
• Compliance audit

The business financial statement audit is the responsibility of the company’s management. The auditors’ responsibility is to express an opinion on those business financial statements. We plan the audit to obtain reasonable assurance that the business financial statements are free of material misstatement.

When issuing an opinion, the Chartered Accountant is also required to provide audit findings and/or management letter. The management letter summarizes the accountantʼs evaluation of the clientʼs internal controls, significant accounting policies, unusual transactions, disagreements with management and other pertinent findings.

Assurance provides a number of benefits, including:

• Management letter advising on various internal operations
• Increased financial statement reliability
• Reduced risk of filing an incorrect or inaccurate corporate tax return and
• Enhanced financial statement credibility, which is important if the client plans to:

• seek financing from a third party
• sell their shares
• request some form of government financing
• issue public securities.

We can help you with audit engagement and review engagement report through our associate chartered accountant firms. So, you can focus on what’s important – the success of your business!