Vouching

Definition

The term vouching is the core thing of auditing which refers to the inspecting of documentary evidence by an auditor to support and substantiate a transaction. The main objective of this practice is to establish the authenticity and accuracy of the transactions that are written in the primary books of account. Vouching involves verification of a transaction which is recorded in the books of account by checking it with the appropriate authority and documentary evidence based on which they have made the entry. It also involves confirming and checking whether the amount that has been stated in the voucher is posted to a right account that would reveal the transaction’s nature when it is included in final statements of accounts. Valuation is not included in vouching.

Overview

Vouching may be considered as the essence or the most important thing of auditing, because an audit’s success is dependent on the accurateness with which vouching is performed. Auditing can begin only when all vouchers are entered. Vouching is verification and confirmation of entries that are recorded in the books of account by checking of vouchers or documentary evidence like debit and credit notes, invoices, receipts, statements, etc. The main objective of vouching is to find that the transactions that are recorded in the books of accounts are properly recorded and they are in proper order and are correctly authorized. Vouching is different from simple routine checking as vouching is much more accurate than the latter.

In case of routine checking, the entries that are recorded in the books of account reflect only the information that the book keeper wishes to reveal, the entries can even be untrue without any vouchers or vouching. When a company uses vouching, it has proper documentation and evidence of capital, expenses and written evidence in audits. For auditing, vouching is very important as an auditor needs proper evidence of all transactions while doing audit. If vouching is not done then the claims of the auditor will not be considered to be accurate and fair. By using vouching, frauds that are difficult to detect can be discovered. Therefore, vouching must be performed with great care and importance; otherwise the auditor can face charges of negligence.