Auditing refers to the process of conducting an official financial inspection of a firm or its accounts. Auditing is an essential function to be performed for every business as it assures operational effectiveness and efficiency, conformity with tax laws and regulations, plus safeguarding company assets. Auditors follow different processes based on risk, data accuracy and money, depending on the business requirements and are generally done annually. An auditor generally analyzes the companys income, previous audits, penalties and other returns. The process of Auditing involves, interviewing, inspecting financial and accounting records, understanding the assumptions and estimates, monitoring specific processes etc.
An Auditor can nearly predict the future and illustrate the existing flaws in the business, all depending upon the company's account stats and processes. This means employing an accomplished Auditor is a must for your business venture. But, as per the present day scenario, firms are constantly facing the dilemma of unavailability of competent IT Audit and Security staff. It is really hard hard to find experts in the field, and even if you find one, is it worthy to invest on an auditor full time? The two best answers are outsourcing and co-sourcing!

By outsourcing Auditing services, you get the flexibility to hire a professional on as needed basis, and save the cost of hiring a full time staff. The outsourced team will independently and solely handle all your auditing tasks with accuracy being their responsibility. The outsourced firms have teams of qualified professionals and follow well established practices. In case of co-sourcing, you get the advantage of having in house access and control of your companies audit process as you have a few professionals in house and rest are outsourced. So you receive reduced employment costs and increased supervision. The major advantage is that your in house team can leverage the work of the outsourced company and you have complete command of your account stats as security risks are reduced.

Also while outsourcing the auditing tasks of your company, make sure of certain facts. Consider the outsourced auditors, qualification and experience, Industry Speciality, methodologies and approach, Team size, use of information technology (IT)tools, references and clientele. After all you will be handing over your confidential data to the outsourced firm, assure that your company's information and reputation are both safe and secure in their hands.

Choosing over outsourcing and co-sourcing is a company's decision depending on the scale of their staff, capital, managerial view etc. but either way, you bring in to your firm a standardized and leading edge methodology to accomplish your business's growth objectives.