Audit and accounting insights - page 13

We have already covered the issue of cooperation with an auditor but, while scanning publicly available financial statements, especially of the companies listed on New Connect, I came to the conclusion that there is still too little talk about certain issues. I suggest looking at a few randomly selected financial statements presented on the issuers’ websites. My point is not to assess the economic activity of the companies, but to see how information on achievements of a company in a given year is included in its annual financial statements, which, to my mind, should constitute the information provided by the board to the supreme authority of the company, namely its owners (indeed, it is shareholders that are most important in the company, because the ownership belongs to them). I browse through financial statements of the companies listed on New Connect quite often and two things strike me, as an outside reader, most: first, not including all data required by the Accounting Act and second, overall slovenliness of the presented financial statements, which aspects show the attitude of the companies’ managements to this official document.

More than once did I wonder what is the actual meaning of auditing services in Poland. And I came to the conclusion that this meaning is still “greatly underestimated”. An audit of a financial statement is so much more than just a verification for correctness. I believe a financial audit is, most of all, an opportunity to identify the organisation's “weak points”, allowing management to minimise existing though not always realised risks.