SYSTEMATIC AUDIT.

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19599, 11 June 1935, Page 8

SYSTEMATIC AUDIT.

TREND OF THE TIMES. “In my opinion our efforts should in future be directed to making clearer and clearer lo the public what our reports as auditors really mean," remarked Mr E. Furnival Jones, F.C.A., at a meeting of the English Institute of Chartered Accountants. “The Americans,” he continued, “havet developed rather more fully thai/ wc have Die distinction between a full and a partial audit. Modern developments of business suggest that this distinction is bound to grow in illc future. , Large business concerns will probably extend the practice of having an internal audit department which will concern itself with the control of details and check the honesty of employees, the professional auditor being concerned only to sea that Hie internal system is adequate and is being carried out, and wit'll the preparation and the verification of final accounts and balance-sheets.

"There will also. I suggest, be an Increase in the tendency to specialise. We have- seen the growth of new •societies of members and others who are concerned with special branches of our work or of work more or less related lo it. The company secretaries. the 'municipal accountants, cost and works accountants and arbitrators each have their separate organisations. Others will, doubtless, arise as time goes on. Accountants will in future have lo he familiar with the methods and possibilities of mechanical account iivr, and such methods necessarily give an added imporlnncc to internal controls and make it more difficult for an outside professional man lo verify day by day transactions. ‘That, other developments of the profession may be expected as ‘tomorrow, and 'lo-morrow, and to-mor-row creeps in his petty pace from day lo day’? The changes of the last. 50 years arc a guide, and I think it is safe lo say (hot the employment, of professional accountants as advisers in certain recognised directions

of those in control of ‘business and finance will increase as the years go on. "■Since this Institute was founded, tile work of professional accountants has covered an ever-widening field, and has become more and more exacting. ; The standards of professional attainment which will be required in the future arc not likely to be Jess exacting, nor will 'the responsibilities diminish.”