Audit Department

  

Operating like the Internal Affairs unit in a police department, the audit department is a division within a company's financial hierarchy tasked with making sure that the firm's financial results truly match what's going on. The department enacts procedures to make sure accounting gets done according to proper procedures. It also conducts periodic audits to make sure everything remains above board.
The audit department is separate from the independent auditors who periodically come in to look over a company's financial results. If the audit department is the PD's Internal Affairs division, then the outside auditors are the city councilmen who sometimes go with a couple officers on a ride along.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is non-voting stock?4 Views

00:00

finance a la shmoop- what is non-voting stock? hmm well it's stock that doesn't

00:08

vote. bet you're shocked to hear that. most people need a PhD in finance to [stock wears an "I didn't vote" sticker.

00:13

understand that notion. but really that's it in most cases common stock carries

00:17

with it the right to vote. and in fact it's the common shareholders who elect

00:22

the board of directors. but every now and then a potentially hostile investor

00:26

comes along and buys or wants to buy a big chunk of stock in a company. well the

00:32

amount might be a block large enough to elect that potentially hostile investor

00:37

slate or the group of people that investor wants to place on the board to

00:40

represent her evil intentions .when that happens companies will often create a

00:45

class of common stock similar in every way to its normal common only with its [stock checklist of privileges listed]

00:51

voting rights stripped away .that way the investor can own an economic interest in

00:56

the company but not monkey with the board.

Up Next

Finance: How does a board of directors function?
27 Views

How does a board of directors function? Public companies, as well as some private corporations and non profit groups, have a board of directors. Us...

Finance: What is a proxy?
8 Views

What is a proxy? Proxy statements are documents that are sent to shareholders of public companies that contain detailed information on agenda subje...

Finance: What is Adverse Audit Opinion?
27 Views

What is Adverse Audit Opinion? An adverse audit opinion signals that an auditor has found flaws in a company’s financial statements. Adverse audi...

Finance: What is Cumulative Voting?
6 Views

What is Cumulative Voting? When public companies have ballots for shareholders to vote for board members, shareholders have a total number of share...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)