Auditing

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. This activity consists of the thorough evaluation and review of financial statements to assure their accuracy and compliance with established regulations It involves a detailed investigation of accounts to ensure they meet necessary standards and requirements The process is aimed at verifying financial records and assessing their integrity and adherence to legal obligations
2. The detailed inspection of financial documents to confirm their correctness and adherence to regulatory standards
3. Careful review and analysis of accounting records to validate their legitimacy and conformity with established laws

Etymology: The idea of checking accounts began with listening. In medieval Latin and English accounting, an audit was literally a hearing: the accounts were read aloud, and an examiner sat and listened for errors. The root is Latin "audire," "to hear," which also gave English "audience" and "audible." The Latin source is "audītus," a hearing, from "audiō," "to hear." Over time the sense moved from the act of hearing the accounts to the act of scrutinising them, and the examiner's job came to be the examination itself, with listening no longer needed. "Auditing" is the continuous form of the verb, used for the ongoing work of examining financial records.

Synonyms: reviewing, inspecting