Audit Risk

What is Audit Risk?

Audit Risk is defined as the risk of financial statements not being truly representative of an actual financial position of the organisation or a deliberate attempt to conceal the facts even though audit opinion confirms that statements are free from any material misstatement. This risk can have a bearing on shareholders, creditors, and prospective investors.

• This risk may arise due to any one or both of the two – Clients or Auditors.
• This risk may be due to two reasons – mistakes/errors or a deliberate misstatement.

Top 3 Types of Audit Risks

Following are the Top 3 Types:

#1 – Inherent Risks

Inherent risk is the risk which could not be prevented due to uncontrollable factors and it is also not found in Audit.

Example: transactions involving high-value cash amount carry more inherent risk than the transaction involving high-value cheques.

Sources of Inherent Risk:

1. Complex business transactions involving derivative instruments.
2. Transactions requiring the high level of judgment which may lead to risk of not being identified.
3. Industry having frequent technological developments may expose the firms to technology obsolescence risk.
4. A company which has already misreported certain figures in past may be more likely to misreport it again.

#2 – Control Risks

Control Risk is the risk of error or misstatement in financial statements due to the failure of internal controls.

Example: Failure on part of audit risk management to control and prevent transaction carried out by staff who is not authorized to carry out those transactions in first place.

Sources of Control Risk:

1. Failure of audit risk management to instill proper and effective internal control for financial reporting.
2. Failure to ensure proper segregation of duties among people responsible for financial reporting.
3. The non-existence of the culture of proper documentation and filing.

#3 – Detection Risks

Detection risk is the risk of failure on part of Auditor to detect any errors or misstatements in financial statements thereby giving an incorrect opinion about financial statements of the firm.

Example: Failure by Auditors to identify the continuous misreporting of financial statements by the company.

Sources of Detection Risk:

1. Poor audit planning, selection of wrong audit procedures on part of the auditor.
2. Poor interaction and engagement with the audit management by Auditor.
3. Poor understanding of client’s business and complexity of financial statements.
4. Wrong selection of sample size.

Audit Risk Formula

Overall the Risk is calculated by combining all the above three types of audit risks. The audit risk formula is as follows:

Based on the above risk factors, Auditors can arrive at the level of risk and decide on the strategy to deal with it.

How to Minimise Audit Risk?

1. Having a strong Audit team that has sufficient knowledge of the business and transactions involved.
2. Sufficient time is provided to the team to analyze financials.
3. Ensuring strong engagement with the audit risk management of the client firm to understand business philosophy and practices.
4. Ensuring proper and adequate sampling techniques.
5. Accurate assessment of clients internal control systems to know whether the control is strong or weak.
6. Proper audit planning and selection of Audit procedure.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Audit Risk. Here we discuss the Audit Risk Formula, its top 3 types including the inherent risk, control risk and detection risk and how to reduce the same. You may learn more about Accounting basics from the following articles –

• Commodity Risk Management Basics
• What are Interim Financial Statements?
• Controller vs Comptroller – Differences
• Audited Financial Statements