Auditor's Responsibilities to Third Parties.

Abstract "Third parties" refers to anyone other than the auditor and his client, the two parties who have agreed between themselves as to the scope of the work to be done in a specific case. It includes the stockholders when examining the certified accounts of their corporation; credit men and others when examining the auditor's statement on a given concern as a basis for granting credit to it; courts and other governmental officials when examining certified statements purporting to set forth certain facts produced as evidence. The auditor's responsibilities include maintaining a balance sheet, creating a test audit. The auditor can best carry out his responsibilities to third parties by removing the common misunderstandings. If auditors and third parties agree on a classification, misunderstandings are avoided because the auditor can readily state within which classification a particular financial statement falls; the third party can quickly satisfy himself as to whether such a financial statement serves his immediate purpose and if it does not, he can ask for a specific modification.