Review vs Audit
Review and Audit are two terms that are associated with the subject of Accounting. These two terms are to be understood with difference when it comes to their meanings. Actually the objectives of an audit of financial statements are different from the objectives of conducting a review of a company.
An audit is concerned with the financial statements of a company whereas a review is concerned with the growth and development of the company. This is the main difference between the two terms.
The objective of an audit is to provide a reasonable substratum or basis for expressing an idea or opinion regarding the financial statements taken as a whole or in entirety. On the other hand the objective of a review is to provide an opinion about the recent developments made by the company in terms of the promotion of a product or the nature of the product and the like.
A review does not provide an opinion on financial statements or an understanding of the internal control structure or assess control risk. It does not conduct tests of accounting records but on the other hand it may bring to the accountant’s attention significant matters affecting the financial statements. In short it can be said that a review is no way concerned about the financial statements of the company.
On the other hand a review is all about the description of the performance levels, assessment of the performance of a product or a service offered by the company, the efficacy of the product or the service offered by the company, the access of the product to the customers, the affordability of the product or the service and any other matter related to the product or service. These are the main differences between the two terms, review and audit.