Wang Lixia
Shaanxi Tianhui Certified Public Accountants Co., Ltd
Summary:In the management of modern small and medium-sized enterprises, audit can ensure the authenticity of accounting information and ensure the safety of enterprise assets, which is of great significance for promoting the development of enterprises. This article starts from the problems existing in the accounting audit of small and medium-sized enterprises, and how to do a good job in accounting and auditing management.
Keywords:small and medium-sized enterprises; accounting and auditing; Issue; Measure.
Introduction
Small and medium-sized enterprises have the following characteristics: (1) Small enterprise accounting is applicable, but the standard does not clearly stipulate the content of internal control audit. (2) As far as accountants are concerned, compared with professional accountants in large enterprises, due to the nature of daily business, it is undeniable that the overall business ability is lower. (3) There are a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in China, but the number of employees in each enterprise is not large, so the setting of incompatible positions is relatively limited. It can be seen that the establishment and improvement of a simple, convenient and easy-to-operate internal control audit system is urgent and imperative for small and medium-sized enterprises in China.
The definition of internal audit is a general description of the nature, function and characteristics of internal auditing. The definition of internal audit varies from one field to another by organizations and researchers. For internal audit, the International Institute of Internal Auditors defines it as follows: internal audit is an independent and objective assurance and consulting service with the goal of improving its organizational effectiveness and strengthening its operations, and its main function is to evaluate the effectiveness of the organization's risk management, control and governance processes, supervise the improvement of deficiencies, and help the organization improve its effectiveness.
The development status and characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises
China's small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for more than 90% of the total number of registered enterprises, have entered the fast lane of development since the reform and opening up, and have played an irreplaceable role in boosting the rapid development of the national economy. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) not only play an important role in stimulating economic growth, but also play an important role in expanding employment and maintaining social stability. Among the large number of small and medium-sized enterprises, the vigorous development of science and technology enterprises has provided an inexhaustible driving force for social progress. At present, China's small and medium-sized enterprises are characterized by diversified investment subjects and a large proportion of non-state-owned enterprises.
Small and medium-sized enterprises refer to enterprises with a certain scale or those with entrepreneurial growth. China's small and medium-sized enterprises mainly have five major industries: industry, construction, transportation, postal services, wholesale and retail, accommodation, and catering, and the existence of small and medium-sized enterprises can not only help the society solve the problem of surplus labor, but also make great contributions to the prosperity of China's market economy, and also play a decisive role in improving the country's economic strength. The accounting dilemma is a microcosm of the current development dilemma of small and medium-sized enterprises, which is not only manifested in the dilemma of accounting practitioners, but also in the dilemma of the development of enterprise accounting supervision.
Internal audit issues for small and medium-sized enterprises
The functions of accounting and auditing are mainly divided into two aspects, namely, audit and supervision. Accounting and auditing work plays an important role in enterprise management like an "enterprise doctor", which accurately and intuitively reflects the various economic activities and current development status of the enterprise to the senior managers of the enterprise through audit reports and other forms, and can provide high-quality and comprehensive financial information for financial management activities. The supervision function of accounting and auditing is mainly aimed at the content that needs to be accounted for in the accounting and auditing work, ensuring its authenticity and legitimacy, so that the accounting work can be carried out smoothly. Accounting supervision refers to the process of supervising and managing the economic activities of an enterprise by specific means, involving all aspects of capital and accounting, including relevant accounting work and accounting staff, in addition, the content of accounting supervision also includes whether the economic activities of the enterprise are legal and reasonable. There are three main characteristics of accounting supervision: first, accounting supervision and accounting work are carried out at the same time; Second, accounting supervision conducts overall monitoring of economic activities with the help of some indicators; Third, accounting supervision is subject to the state's financial and economic laws and regulations. Effective and perfect accounting supervision and management can not only effectively reduce the production cost and inventory cost of the enterprise, and then reduce the total cost of the production and operation process of the enterprise, but also accelerate the effective flow of the company's cash flow, improve the overall operational efficiency of the enterprise, and increase the competitiveness of the enterprise.
and audit improvement strategies in corporate governance of small and medium-sized enterprises
3.1. Strengthen the importance of internal control.
To improve the financial internal control management system of small and medium-sized enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises should start from the management level and increase the importance of internal control from top to bottom. First of all, the management of small and medium-sized enterprises must actively change the outdated management concept, have a clear, full and reasonable understanding of the necessity of implementing internal control within the enterprise and establishing and improving the internal control system, and enhance the sense of identity of internal control. With the recognition of the management of the enterprise, the internal control system can be successfully constructed, and on this basis, the internal control environment of the enterprise can be further optimized. On the basis of actively promoting the construction and improvement of the internal control system, the management should let the concept of internal control system construction penetrate into the entire enterprise, and instill the correct concept of internal control system construction and business philosophy to employees at different levels in a variety of ways such as learning Xi and training, so as to establish a correct business outlook and scientific values within small and medium-sized enterprises, so that the enterprise can enhance the consciousness of performing internal control functions from top to bottom, create a good internal control environment for enterprise operations, and form a strong internal control cultural atmosphere. Enhance the cohesion of enterprises and the awareness of compliance management.
3.2. The implementation of audit results is the magic weapon to strengthen internal audit supervision.
There are various situations in which projects are subject to internal and external audits, and the audit department at the legal person level should further summarize the internal and external audit results or lessons learned from different engineering projects on the basis of resolutely implementing the audit opinion decision, and transform them into specific management behaviors to promote the improvement of the overall management level of the enterprise.
3.3. Paying attention to process audit is a means to strengthen internal audit supervision.
Strengthen the process audit, that is, put the audit work "in front" to avoid further losses. At the same time, enterprises should prevent problems in the business process. That is to say, strengthening the process audit can not only reduce economic losses, but also allow cadres and workers who may make mistakes to correct in time, which is also the focus and direction of the next link of audit work.
3.4. Strengthen internal control to ensure the independence of the accounting and auditing department.
The smooth development of business activities depends on good internal control, and strengthening the internal control of enterprises can effectively help the normal progress of accounting and auditing of enterprises. First of all, enterprises should abandon traditional internal control methods and use more advanced internal control methods, such as the reform of the modern property rights system, to create a good environment for accounting and auditors to carry out their work normally. Secondly, when setting up accounting positions, enterprises should abide by the principle of separation of incompatible positions to ensure the independence of the accounting and auditing departments, so as to effectively reduce the interference of various factors existing within the enterprise on the accounting and auditing work, ensure that the channels for reporting accounting and auditing results are smooth and can be valued, establish the credibility of the accounting and auditing departments in the enterprise, and enable them to better play the functions of verification and supervision.
3.5. Optimize the ERP system and build a financial information sharing platform.
In view of the problem that the application effectiveness of the ERP system of the enterprise is not strong, it is necessary to further optimize the ERP system and dig deep into the functions of the ERP system, so as to meet the requirements of high-quality internal control construction: first, an enterprise should adjust the organizational structure to avoid decentralized management of financial information due to departmental problems. In order to build a relatively complete financial information system, enterprises must strengthen the promotion of ERP system to ensure that all economic activities of enterprises are within the scope of ERP system management. Secondly, an enterprise should take the following measures in combination with various problems existing in the use of ERP system: first, strengthen the construction of network environment and provide a relatively complete network environment for the application of ERP system; Second, do a good job in relevant authority control to ensure the security of the enterprise's financial information system. For example, the enterprise sales staff has the authority to log in to the ERP system to transmit financial data, but they do not have the authority to modify the financial information.
3.6. Strengthen asset management and control to prevent and control capital risks.
For small and medium-sized enterprises, strengthening asset control and preventing and controlling capital risks is an important measure to further improve the financial internal control management system. To strengthen capital control and prevent and control capital risks, small and medium-sized enterprises need to start from the following four aspects:
First, in combination with the actual situation of the enterprise, a comprehensive, scientific and perfect fund management system has been established and the business process has been standardized. The ultimate goal of small and medium-sized enterprises is nothing more than the pursuit of asset preservation and appreciation, based on this purpose, small and medium-sized enterprises must establish and improve the asset management system, and further standardize the business process. For example, for those fixed assets, accounts receivable and inventories that account for a large proportion of the total assets of the enterprise, it is necessary to establish and improve the corresponding asset management system on the basis of sorting out one by one, and strictly implement it, so that the asset control can be scientifically implemented on the basis of refinement, orderliness and institutionalization. Second, with the help of scientific and feasible fund revenue and expenditure management system, accounts receivable management system and inventory management system, effectively improve the efficiency of capital use. First of all, small and medium-sized enterprises must establish a scientific and operable fund revenue and expenditure management system, and combine their own development strategic objectives and business status to prepare a scientific and reasonable financial revenue and expenditure plan, large-scale investment projects must first be scientifically demonstrated for their feasibility, and can only be implemented through collective decision-making, so as to avoid huge financial risks to enterprises due to the rupture of the capital chain. Secondly, small and medium-sized enterprises must use the accounts receivable management system to promote the cooperation and mutual supervision of the financial department and the sales department, and make the funds return quickly by the accounts receivable as soon as possible. Finally, by standardizing the inventory management system, reducing the proportion of inventory in total assets as much as possible is also an efficient measure to avoid capital turnover difficulties caused by inventory overstock. Third, key assets, including inventory, accounts receivable and fixed assets, must be tightly controlled. Inventory management focuses on strictly controlling the average capital occupation level of inventory, analyzing whether the proportion of various inventories is appropriate, and accelerating the speed of inventory circulation. Accounts receivable management should focus on building and improving the customer credit system and strengthening the control before, during and after the event; The management of fixed assets focuses on building and improving the system of purchase, use and inventory of fixed assets, strictly controlling the proportion of investment, strengthening the standardization of fixed asset purchase, and strengthening the maintenance of fixed assets. Fourth, do a good job in tax planning. Specifically, small and medium-sized enterprises should fully understand the relevant policies, seize the opportunity of the state to vigorously support small and medium-sized enterprises in recent years, and do a good job in tax planning from the aspects of investment methods, business processes and depreciation of fixed assets.
3.7. Pay attention to the introduction and training of enterprises to improve the overall quality of enterprise accounting personnel.
In the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, it is necessary to employ qualified accounting practitioners and attach importance to the construction of accounting personnel. On the one hand, equal emphasis should be placed on the introduction of accounting personnel and the strengthening of training and education. Therefore, the management of small and medium-sized enterprises should fully respect the accounting personnel, attach importance to the introduction and retention of accounting talents, and at the same time conduct accounting training on a regular or irregular basis, continuously improve the professional knowledge and professional ethics of the accounting personnel within the enterprise, and improve the overall quality of the accounting personnel of the enterprise. On the other hand, establish a sound incentive and assessment mechanism. Although the scale of small and medium-sized enterprises is small, a sound incentive and assessment mechanism is indispensable, and the accountants who are rigorous and serious in their work and have gross negligence are rewarded and punished respectively, so that the rewards and punishments are clear. In addition, it is necessary to establish a reasonable assessment mechanism to carry out good entry for the accounting personnel, and to conduct regular or irregular assessment of the formal accounting personnel, so as to improve the professional quality of the accounting personnel of the enterprise.
3.8. The use of informatization is a powerful starting point for strengthening internal audit supervision.
The use of information technology and more advanced auditing technology, mastering the auditing skills of computer information systems, and developing and using advanced auditing software can not only provide effective guarantee for in-depth excavation, comprehensive analysis, and integrated utilization of audit results, but also make the breadth, depth, accuracy, and timeliness of analysis far exceed that of traditional auditing under the condition of non-information means.
3.9. Establish and improve the accounting supervision system of enterprises and improve the implementation of accounting supervision.
A sound accounting supervision system is of great importance to the smooth development of enterprise accounting supervision. On the one hand, the division of rights and responsibilities is clear, and each performs its own duties. Accounting responsibilities are complicated and complicated, and the responsibility is heavy, and small and medium-sized enterprises due to the small scale of investment, it is impossible to hire a large number of accounting personnel, the general accounting personnel of small and medium-sized enterprises inevitably have to assume more responsibilities, it is very easy to cause the situation of unclear rights and responsibilities. Therefore, small and medium-sized enterprises should start from the aspects of accounting supervisors, financial and taxation public relations, checks and balances on shareholders, and financial investment, so that the internal accounting personnel of the enterprise can perform their duties, so as to provide an indispensable premise for doing a good job in accounting supervision. On the other hand, it is necessary to intensify the implementation of accounting supervision, establish and improve the accounting supervision system, and promote the substantiation of accounting supervision.
3.10. Strengthen the publicity of internal control and improve the awareness of internal control of enterprise managers.
First of all, enterprises should increase the publicity of internal control, so that the construction of internal control into the construction of corporate culture. In the face of the increasingly complex market environment, especially the application of the "Golden Tax Phase III" system, the financial management of enterprises has put forward higher requirements, and the dynamic supervision of enterprise finances has been realized. Therefore, enterprises need to strengthen publicity and make staff fully aware of the importance of internal control construction. Second, improve the overall quality of enterprise financial personnel. With the implementation of the new enterprise system, especially the full implementation of the electronic invoice system, the financial personnel of the enterprise are required to strengthen their learning Xi and master the latest professional knowledge, so as to effectively prevent risks and improve the level of corporate financial work.
4. Conclusion
To sum up, in order to effectively make internal audit play an important role in the process of enterprise development, enterprises should not only cultivate the professional quality of auditors, but also enhance the status of the audit department to a certain extent, and respect its development and support its activities, so as to improve the quality of audit work, so that the audit level is expected to be greatly improved. At the same time, it is also necessary to improve the audit trail mechanism, create an audit culture, and effectively enhance the thinking of auditors, because audit culture is the soul of auditing and the spiritual guarantee of strengthening internal audit supervision in the real sense. In addition, in order to improve the audit system, it is also necessary to constantly update and rectify in order to promote the better development of the enterprise.
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