RIGOROUS, INDEPENDENT, CONFIDENTIAL
Audit on the Annual Accounts
The audit on the annual accounts is defined as the activity which, by means of certain review techniques, has the purpose of issuing a report on the reliability of the economic and financial information audited; therefore not being limited to a simple check on the fact the amounts appearing in the accounting entries agree with those offered in the balance sheet and in the profit and loss account, as the review and verification techniques applied allow, with a high degree of certainty and without the need to perform once again the entire accounting process, for a technical and independent opinion to be offered on the accounting as a whole and, also, on other circumstances which, affecting the life of the company, were not included in such process.
Therefore, account auditing is a service provided to the audited entity affecting and concerning not only this but also third parties that are related or which may become related with same, taking into consideration that all of them, the entity and the third parties, are free to know the quality of economic and accounting information dealt with by the opinion issued by the account auditor, without this being a cause for its use or distribution.
Mandatory
Mandatory Audit:for a company to be forced to be audited it will fulfil at least two of the following three requirements for two consecutive years (data from 2008 onwards):
- Total assets: € 2,850,000
- Turnover: € 5,700,000
- Average Staff: 50 persons
Voluntary
This is the audit that is not determined by a legal mandate but is convenient for the company itself, whose purpose may be to make its financial statements clear to the market and to serve as a guarantee for shareholders and administrators that the financial statements are drawn up correctly.
In addition, the regulation provided in article 265.2 of the Law on Companies with Share Capital should be highlighted, as it allows shareholders with at least 5% of the share capital to request from the Commercial Registrar the appointment of an account auditor. As a preventive measure, the company may, voluntarily and always before the end of the financial year, appoint an account auditor of its choice, who must be registered in the Commercial Register corresponding to the province in which the company has its address.
Consolidated Accounts
For the sole purpose of account consolidation, a group of companies is made up by the parent company and all the subsidiary companies. The parent company is that exercising or with the capacity to exercise, either directly or indirectly, control over one of more of the others, which will be qualified as subsidiary or dominated ones, whatever may be the legal form and independently from their registered offices. Control will be understood to be the power to direct the financial and operating policies of an entity, with the purpose of obtaining economic profits from its activities.
A company will have the obligation to issue annual consolidated accounts whenever:
- The group is listed in a secondary stock market.
- The group is not listed but its companies as a whole, on the date of closure of its financial year, have exceeded two of the following limits for two consecutive financial years:
- Total assets: 11,400,000 euros
- Net Turnover Amount: 22,800,000 euros
- Average Staff: 250 workers