Clubs & Associations

What does an Audit involve?

Once your Club or Association is required to have an audit the process of what is involved is set by auditing standards that your appointed auditor has to comply with.

The first aim of an audit of an firstly to verify, as far as reasonable, that the financial reports of the association are free from material misstatement. That means that everything balances, is accounted for correctly and all things relevant are included as far as they can tell. It is not a guarantee that it is perfect but it is a close as practicable given all of the facts known at the time. 

The audit also needs to take into consideration the risks that the body being audited must mitigate as far as practicable. This included things such as testing the controls the Association maintains over all of its assets both physical and financial, insurance coverage against possible legal risks and to check the financial records for possible instances of fraud.

The audit also needs to review the governance of the association and test that the rules of governance, as determine by the particular constitution or articles of association, are firstly adequate and secondly applied. 

 This usually means that your auditor will require access to a large assortment of documents including minutes of meetings, insurance policies, original purchase documents,  They may need to physically inspect assets, cash handling and document storage. But don't be concerned if your auditor appears to be going overboard with their diligence - they do not have an option as once they have agreed to be your auditor they  have no discretion as to what/how they audit as they have to meet the auditing standards they are bound by. 

My advice is to view your auditor like a trip to the dentist - it might not be fun but you will be relieved when they find nothing wrong!