Assurance, Audit and Attestation

A forensic audit is an examination and evaluation of a firm’s or individual’s financial records to derive evidence that can be used in a court of law or legal proceeding. Forensic auditing is a specialization within the field of accounting, and most large accounting firms have a forensic auditing department. Forensic audits require the expertise of accounting and auditing procedures as well as expert knowledge about the legal framework of such an audit.

Forensic audits cover a wide range of investigative activities. A forensic audit may be conducted to prosecute a party for fraud, embezzlement, or other financial crimes. In the process of a forensic audit, the auditor may be called to serve as an expert witness during trial proceedings. Forensic audits could also involve situations that do not involve financial fraud, such as disputes related to bankruptcy filings, business closures, and divorces.

Value can exist in different forms, whether as tangible or intangible assets of a business, an investment or intellectual property. In today’s global economy where opportunities exist at every level, it is important that companies have the ability to assess whether these opportunities/transactions are value enhancing or destructive to the business.

It is because of this that valuations are a critical component in the decision making process for mergers and acquisition transactions, tax structuring, dispute resolutions, corporate restructuring and accounting or financial reporting.

Valuation can be controversial and subjective so an independent and robust opinion which will stand up to scrutiny is necessary. Additionally, changes within the global business environment in recent years have necessitated the use of professional valuation expertise.

HOW WE CAN HELP

ACM provides valuation support to our clients engaged in merger and acquisition activities. Leveraging on our industry knowledge held by our industry specialists, we not only take into account characteristics which are specific to a particular industry or country but also the strategic objectives our clients have for the particular transaction. It is with this specialist knowledge and understanding of our client’s needs that enable us to conduct valuations from a commercial perspective.

We provide valuation support to our clients engaged in merger and acquisition activities and offer the following services:

• Fairness Opinions/Independent value analysis on your target or investee companies
• Independent value of specific business units within a company (Carve out valuations)
• Pricing and negotiation support
• Pre-deal Purchase Price Allocation
• Valuation of unquoted companies/financial instruments.

This type of audit is essential to regulate whether a company is abiding by the set rules and regulations. It consists of supervising as to whether the personnel are abiding by the rules prescribed by the company. This includes inspecting legal documents related to banks and other lenders in agreement with central bank and stock exchange directives or government directives. Essentially, the outcome of such audits is communicated to particular individuals and the higher authority who sought clarity in the matter at hand.

Most organisations such as banks, asset management firms, finance institutes and insurance organisations utilise the internal audit approach. Concurrent Audit is much the same as Internal Audit and is carried out at regular intervals. This is done to supervise the effectiveness in standard operations with statutory proclamations from time to time. Concurrent Audit usually acts as an appendage to the internal audit team, and assists it on a regular basis with factual findings.

In this type of audit, a periodic analysis of the administrative functions is undertaken. It is done to ensure effectiveness of control, protection of property, and productive use of resources in agreement with the laws and policies.

A financial statement audit is conducted to determine whether the overall financial statements are stated in accordance with specified criteria such as Indian Accounting Standard or IFRS or US GAAP. It becomes difficult for auditors to only concentrate on accounting affairs when the complexity in a business rises. We apply a holistic technique which involves a deep knowledge of the business that gradually inflate audit efficacy. We employ a risk based audit technique that is in complete agreement with the ISAs. Our technique is based on cycles and includes:

A clear comprehension of the business as well as an understanding of pertinent industry factors
Evaluating the risks involved and developing a desired approach
Concise registering of review procedures, audit planning and implementation
Direct and communicative process, offering added benefits with stronger internal controls
Ensuring higher professional benchmarks with quality control processes

This type of audit involves an inspection of a firms IT structure, programme and performance. They are generally classified into three types:

General Controls Review: an assessment of the authorities that oversee the running, upkeep and safeguarding of application systems in a certain milieu.
Application Controls Review: this could incorporate an introspection of authority over the input, processing and production of systematic material.
System Development Review: this involves an introspection of the progress of a new application system. This includes an assessment of the development procedure as well as the end-product.

Integrated Audit involves an amalgamation of Application Controls Review, Department Review and Operational Unit. This kind of examination provides an in-depth understanding of a functional operation within an institution.

This kind of audit is specifically designed to enhance a firms functioning. It assists an institution in achieving its goals by ushering a methodical system to inspect and better the efficiency of risk evaluation and management. It has a widened scope within an organisation and may incorporate spheres like effective functioning, accuracy of financial collaterals, inspecting and discouraging frauds, protecting assets, and productive usage of the company resources that is in agreement with the company’s rules.

Financial institutions are expanding their credit to entities based on their stocks or book debts. This could either be done on the basis of overdraft, cash credit limit, etc. It then becomes crucial to have checks at regular intervals to establish the status of current assets, accurate attestation for statutory compliances and debt turnover scrutiny.

This audit is conducted when suspicious actions are observed on the behalf of a company, a person or at times of a loss in business. Investigative Audit surpasses standard procedures. This endeavor necessitates analytical methods, interrogating ability and monetary data reconstruction.

Major decisions regarding crucial business undertakings are taken by the highest authorities in the company. However, after a period of time, it is necessary to conduct an evaluation of their proficiency by an independent agency. This maintains optimum independence in analysing the concerned individuals’ skills and capabilities in managing his area of operations. Management audits haven been run by ACM & Associates for assorted corporates. For this kind of audit, it is mandate that a person has great inert-personal skills and maturity level.

An Operational Audit is conducted to examine the effectiveness of any organisation. At the end of such an audit, recommendations are suggested for enhancing business productivity. It can be conducted in various spheres. This can range from inspecting the proficiency of payroll transactions to the more complicated procedure of courier service. We can help you increase your functional proficiency with our operational audits designed to suit your specific needs.

This kind of audit helps companies gain a non-discriminatory evaluation of the company’s program performance. We employ personalised and constructive review methods in order to gain an understanding of how to achieve outstanding performance results. Other advantages include a clear insight into the areas that require improvement and enhancing overall performance of the organisation.

The SOX Audit is not for directly managing Information Technology. But the main essence is to ensure the transparency behind monetary statements. The main motto behind SOX Audit is to enhance corporate management and liability. It is mandatory for all public companies to comply with the SOX Audit.

This helps in discerning revenue leakages. It could either be due to deficiency of internal control policies, frauds or errors by the personnel. It is generally conducted once or twice a year. ACM & Associates possesses expert skill in this section, in the banking segment of the firm.

The monetary statements of a firm for a given period of time are to be looked after by the Statutory Auditor. The role of the auditor here is to report all the current affairs of the company. It is a crucial tool for stakeholders to gauge the substantiality of the firm with regard to their proceedings.

Salaries are always the content for analytical examinations. Different frameworks are taken into consideration while regulating a Payroll Audit; such as authentication details of employees, updated information about the personnel, time worked and salary scale of employees, etc. Additionally, an introspection of the amount to be reimbursed is also a major criterion that falls under payroll audit.