The objective of an audit of financial statements is to enable the auditor to express an opinion on whether the financial statements are prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with an applicable financial reporting framework. The phrases used to express an auditor’s opinion are “give a true and fair view” or “present fairly in all material respects” which are equivalent terms.

The “applicable financial reporting framework” comprises those requirements of accounting standards, law and regulations applicable to the entity and determine the form and content of its financial statements.

The primary purpose of the audit is to produce a report by the auditors of their opinion of the truth and fairness of financial statements. This adds credibility to anyone that wishes to make use of the Financial Statements.

Apart from that the audit process also aims to advise management of any defects or problems with their accounting and internal control systems and to suggest ways of improvements, detect errors and cases of fraud and prevent errors and fraud by the deterrent and moral effect of the audit.