Answer:
Final Audit is commonly understood to be an audit which does not begin until the books have closed at the end of the accounting period and thereafter is carried on continuously until completed. Whether an audit ought to be conducted continuously after the close of the financial year should be decided on a consideration of the size of the business and the extent of detailed checking required.
Continuous Audit is one in which the auditor’s staff is engaged continuously in checking the accounts of the client the whole year round or when for this purpose the staff attends at intervals, fixed or otherwise, during the currency of the financial period. Strictly speaking, when auditor’s staff attends the audit work at fixed intervals it may be strictly called interim audit. This is when an audit is conducted up to a particular date within the accounting period. The auditor may attend to audit the figures for a month or for a quarter, as the work may require. It would differ distinctly from the final audit in the extent of the work carried out; verification of assets, for example would be left until the final audit. In case of a continuous audit, the work is conducted throughout the course of the financial year but is not taken to a specific accounting period, as is an interim audit. It might be that during the course of the continuous work interim figures are being audited, but the significant factor here is that the auditor will be engaged continuously on the audit throughout the financial period. Staff may be in residence throughout the period or may come and go at irregular intervals, but most of the time, the audit staff is present at the location. Thus, in case of continuous audit, the audit staff is present at the client’s premises almost during the entire accounting period.