Audit Work on the Holding Company
We will focus on the verification of investments in subsidiary companies.
1. Get a schedule that should contain the following information. All the data such the Companies Act needs to be disclosed in the holding company's own accounts, copies of the accounts of each and every subsidiary along with a note who that the auditor is, summary of movements in investments in subsidiary, details of any qualifications in any of the audit reports, and on current and loan accounts along with its subsidiary, reconciliations of intercompany balances.
2. Ownership and Existence must be verified through examining the share certificates and ensuring such they are in the identification of the holding company. Whether not, then blank signed transfer forms should be obtainable from the nominees. Whether the share certificates are held through third parties, after that an suitable certificate must be acquired.
3. Loan and Current accounts: Their verification is usually done through acquiring a certificate from its subsidiary verifying the balances. Also whether the auditor of the holding company is the auditor of the subsidiary, so he can reconcile entries in equally sets of books himself. The auditor must convince himself about dealings among group companies are not required to cover up material errors.
4. Valuation: Valuation is verified as follows: whether the shares were obtained in the year consider authorization and cost. Examine accounting treatment of any discount and premium upon acquisition and any dividends obtained out of pre-acquisition profits. The balance sheet value of its subsidiary might be considered and this could involve review of each individual subsidiary's account to verify that it is now a going concern.