Assurance

Assurance

We understand the level of reliance placed by stakeholders, including investors, tax authorities and vendors, on the assurance provided by Chartered Accountants. Hence, our assurance function stands on the principles of high level of integrity and due diligence. Our Assurance services comprises of:

1. Statutory Audit

With the Companies Act, 2013 and the introduction of Companies’ Audit and Reporting Order (CARO), 2020; the role of statutory auditors have expanded widely. They no longer can confine themselves to only financial numbers, but need to review the complete business processes before forming an opinion on truthfulness and fairness of financial statements. Hence, at Shiv & Associates, our audit methodology follows a process comprising of-

• Understanding client’s business
• Understanding the business environment
• Understanding the accounting policies followed
• Identifying laws and regulations applicable on client’s business
• Reviewing the business process and flow of information
• Identifying controls and assessing the risk of material misstatement
• Test check of controls and transactions
•  Forming an opinion on true and fair view of the financial statements

Our statutory audit team is lead by partners with multi-year experience in audits of corporates, banks, Public Sector Undertakings and Small & Medium Enterprises.

2. Tax Audit

The requirement of tax audit was introduced by the Finance Act, 1984, by inserting a new Section ‘44AB’ under Income Tax Act, 1961. Tax audit has been introduced with the purpose of curbing evasion of tax by ensuring that books of accounts are correctly maintained and information such as tax depreciation and disallowance of expenses.

While conducting tax audit, our aim has always been not only to ensure correctness of reporting as per the provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961, but also to assist the assessee in correctly computing its tax burden and therefore mitigating the risk of any ‘financial-shock’ at the time of assessment.

3. Internal Audit

Internal Audit is an independent evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes existing in an organisation with an objective of providing assurance over the controls in places and adding value to improve the organization’s operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.

Companies Act, 2013 mandates the requirement to have a robust internal audit system in place for companies meeting a certain set of criteria. However, with changing times and business dynamics, internal audit system is also been adopted by managers and business owners who needs an insight into overall risks and controls existing in their business, for improving their productivity and profitability.

At Shiv & Associates, we follow a risk-based approach to Internal Audit. This involves identification of key risks associated with the business processed and controls in place for mitigation of such risks. Along with evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of such controls, our internal audit function also involves dwelling into causes of control failures and recommending steps for overall improvement of processes.

4. Certifications

Bankers, revenue authorities, tender committees and vendors often relies on the certification of a Chartered Accountant in order to verify certain facts and information. Certification by Chartered Accountant has also been mandatory by several laws in various circumstances. Few instances where a business require Certificate by Chartered Accountant are as following:

•  Remittance of payment outside India
•  Turnover certificate by tender committees
•  Certification while applying for credit limit to banks
•  Certification of facts during tax assessment proceedings
•  Stock Certificates
•  GST Compliance Certificate
•  Certificate of reporting of Income, in case of non-deduction of tax at source.

Certification work is handled by respective teams at Shiv & Associates, based upon the nature of certificate required. All the certificates issued by us carry ‘Unique Document Identification Number’ (UDIN) which can be verified online, in order to ensure the authenticity of certificates issued.