« Archiving, the creation of added value on the quality of financial auditing »
Auditing is a procedure which certifies accounts of an enterprise. It is conducted by an auditor (a person in charge of this mission), who attests to the good financial health of the company and also the good standing of its operations. A successful auditing will in most cases validate the certification of the company in question and provide a boost in confidence from its different partners, institutions or organizations with whom it does business. For example, due to this control mission, auditor, because of his analysis enable a prospective client to foresee some future gains to materialize. Auditing enables analysis on various domains such as:
- Accounting
- Finance
- Management
- Processes of development of a product…etc.
Auditing can, either be internal or external.
More than a legal constraint, archiving of documents is of paramount importance and can bring a real added value to an organization. It presents different perspectives for a company or entity:
– Respects the norms by conserving the documents during the legal archiving period;
– Protects the rights while being capable of producing documents at the required period;
– Controls the risk by preserving the longevity of the activity.
Much more than a simple legal constraint, archiving of documents responds to essential issues and often brings real added value to an organization.
It should be noted that the company has, as a duty, to ensure the conservation of documents throughout the duration of legal archiving in order:
- To protect the rights of the company and its personnel while being able to produce documents with probative value;
- To reduce risk and to preserve the sustainability of the document in activity. Thus, the efficient archiving of documents makes it possible to preserve essential documents during an administrative control;
- To restart the activity in good conditions after one semester.
However, securing documents is therefore vital so as to evade total loss or destruction of documents through floods, fire or if lost or stolen. The company must be able to prove that its documents have not been falsified unintentionally or not.
Archiving is therefore, an asset for the quality of the audit in terms of saving time devoted to research, sorting and destruction of documents, archiving through the identification, sorting, classification, inventory and storage facilitates the verification of information, data and procedures initiated by an audit procedure. Through the archived information, we can go back a little bit in time to control the administrative and financial management that was done and to ensure the availability of the information gathered in one place.
Archiving makes it possible to identify potential difficulties any management team may encounter. This is easy thanks to the availability of documents useful for management control, as well as the reduction of costs related to the collection of the information necessary in the control of the day-to-day operations.
Archiving also reduces the staffs assigned to collect the information necessary for management teams.
Archiving also limits the risks associated with the disappearance of information caused by an accident or a theft. It secures access to information and data so access is controlled, restricted when necessary and traced back at all times. The information returned is reliable and therefore guarantees the quality of the audit.
Archiving is one of the most important phases because it all starts with a paper ‘document’ that can be a decree, a decision…etc. to then evolve and contribute to the success of a business and to ensure the security of its documents which ensures the good quality of an audit.