Who needs asset appraisal and what are its aspects?

Enterprise assets reorganization, such as merger, decoupling restructuring, bankruptcy liquidation, etc. , must be audited and evaluated according to regulations or practices. Although the new Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises No.20-Business Combination does not stipulate that business combination must go through evaluation procedures and be recorded as "book value" or "fair value", it also stipulates that "all expenses directly related to business combination, including audit fees and evaluation fees paid for business combination ……". It can be seen that the evaluation is often carried out in the merger of enterprises.

Asset appraisal institutions often adopt the same or similar procedures as audit methods when evaluating pricing, such as supervision, confirmation, sampling and testing. However, when auditing, audit institutions need to use fair value to test the value of assets, make provision for asset impairment or determine the gains and losses from changes in fair value, which is not much different from evaluation. In this way, evaluation and audit have an indissoluble bond. How to deal with the relationship between evaluation and audit in actual operation directly affects the efficiency and quality of evaluation and audit. Based on several evaluations, the author conducts audits at the same time. It is considered that evaluation and audit need to be divided into two parts, and they need to be inclusive in business reports.

The "tolerance" in this paper is the meaning of mutual tolerance and accommodation between asset evaluation and audit.

First, asset evaluation and auditing interspersed with problems in operation

When an enterprise entrusts asset appraisal and audit at the same time, this "simultaneity" is often not carried out in parallel from the same start date. However, asset evaluation and audit often need to evaluate and adjust the same asset at the same time. When the obtained "evaluation value" is inconsistent with the "audit verification number" (hereinafter referred to as "verification number"), the entrusting unit will be at a loss.

Both asset evaluation and audit need to identify the actual amount of creditor's rights and debts, but the results of both identification are often inconsistent. Both asset evaluation and audit need to determine the actual value of various physical assets, but the appraisal results of the two are often inconsistent. For example, the application guide of the new accounting standards has used a long space to describe the principles and methods for determining the fair value of assets in the process of enterprise merger under unusual control. However, there is a set of methods to determine the value of fixed assets through asset evaluation. In the audit, the net value of fixed assets is verified by adding depreciation or offsetting depreciation, and the book value of physical assets is offset by making provision for impairment, but in fact this does not truly reflect the value of physical assets. As for the price change of cold back deterioration inventory. The method in audit is not as reliable as that in asset evaluation, and it is impossible to determine the inventory surplus and other values of physical assets.

Therefore, asset evaluation and audit need to cooperate with each other, which can not only avoid "collision", but also abandon their own shortcomings and get ideal results.

The second is the principle of general cooperation and division of labor when asset evaluation and audit are carried out at the same time.

1, coordinate point

The deadline of the audit report should be the same as the benchmark date of asset evaluation, so that the assets and liabilities of the audited and evaluated units on a certain day can become the unified object of audit and evaluation, which is convenient for cooperation.

2. Data fusion

Whether the asset appraisal report uses the audit results or the audit report uses the asset appraisal results, we should properly handle the data connection problem. Asset evaluation should take the end point of audit as the starting point of evaluation, that is, based on the obtained audit figures; The audit should take the end point of evaluation as the starting point of audit, that is, based on the obtained evaluation value. When issuing the report, if the appraisers disagree with the audit results, they can make adjustments during the evaluation process; If auditors disagree with the evaluation results, they can make adjustments during the audit. However, appraisers and auditors should be cautious when making such adjustments.

3. Division of labor and cooperation

When the asset-based method is used to evaluate the overall value of an enterprise, the auditor is responsible for checking and verifying the specific amounts of monetary funds, accounts receivable, bond investments, deferred income tax assets, long-term deferred expenses and other assets and liabilities in the balance sheet. If there are no special circumstances, the audit results should be included.

Fixed assets, inventory and other physical assets, intangible assets such as trademark rights and patents, equity assets such as stock investment, etc. , should be audited to verify the quantity or original cost (book value), and determine the actual value through evaluation. The evaluation results should be fully considered and included in the audit. Physical assets and securities with reduced quantity or no physical form during inventory shall be depreciated during audit.

When the asset appraisal and audit are undertaken by two intermediaries respectively, the appraisal agency may send personnel to participate in the audit process during the audit. If the evaluation only involves physical assets and listed securities, the audit and evaluation institution may send personnel to jointly confirm the quantity or historical cost of the assets being evaluated.

Third, the specific operation

(a) Concurrent audit and evaluation of physical assets

1. The main job of auditing physical assets is to take physical inventory. Inventory surplus and off-balance-sheet physical assets can be assessed and included in assets.

2. When auditing depreciation items, there is no audit treatment of supplementary accrual or reversal, and the final determination of accumulated depreciation (the difference between replacement value and evaluation value) should also be completed through evaluation.

3. In the audit process of construction in progress, if there is any physical form, the balance will continue to be retained at cost, or transferred to fixed assets projects, and the value of the physical form will be finally determined through evaluation. If there is no physical form and it cannot bring direct economic benefits to future operations, it shall be submitted for verification without evaluation.

4. Adjustment subjects such as inventory cost variance, purchase price variance and depreciation reserve, fixed assets and impairment reserve for construction in progress are treated as general ledger subjects during audit, and their amounts are transferred to relevant adjustment subjects. If the enterprise is still in continuous operation, the account of the difference between the purchase and sale of goods can be kept unchanged, and it can be appropriately adjusted according to the inventory valuation when evaluating assets.

5. In-transit inventory, namely "material (commodity) procurement" and "material procurement", if it is found that it is overdue but the supplier has not actually delivered the goods, it should be transferred to "other receivables" for audit.

Fixed assets cleaning projects can be audited and evaluated with reference to the method of construction in progress.

(B) intangible assets, equity investment at the same time audit and evaluation

1. If the property right of intangible assets still exists, it shall be included in the assessment; If the corresponding property right no longer exists, it should be written off in the audit.

2, stock investment, bond investment and other equity investment audit, should actually count the actual number of shares and check with the book records, if there are inventory gains and losses, find out the reasons, according to the book cost or face value of the investment adjustment and included in the audit profit and loss, and then transferred to the assessment.

When the value of these investments determines that it is necessary to use the audit report of the investee, or even audit the investee, the evaluation can use the audit results. For listed stocks and bonds, they should be determined through evaluation according to the securities market price, or determined through consultation by auditing and evaluation institutions.

(3) Simultaneous audit and evaluation of creditor's rights and debts.

Audit evaluation of creditor's rights and debts other than bond investment shall be conducted by audit institutions.

Four. Relevant disclosure of audit and evaluation reports

When using the work results of both parties in asset evaluation and audit, it must be clearly revealed in the audit report and evaluation report:

(1) When auditing before assets appraisal, the following explanation can be given to the audit report in the explanation paragraph: "This audit adopts the method of auditing first and then evaluating, and the audit quantity of physical assets such as fixed assets and inventories listed in this report is based on the physical inventory and book cost price; Intangible assets and equity investments are calculated according to the verified book value. The actual value of the above assets will be determined through asset evaluation. " In the part of valuation principles and methods, the completed evaluation report can be interpreted as: "The evaluation values of accounts receivable, monetary funds, long-term and short-term deferred expenses, deferred income tax assets, liabilities and owners' equity items other than capital reserve shall be subject to the audited data on the same base date".

(2) When the asset appraisal precedes the audit, it should be stated in the audit report: "While implementing the audit procedure, the entrusting party also entrusted the asset appraisal institution (or our firm) to appraise the physical assets and intangible assets of the audited entity, and the above assets disclosed in this report all adopted the relevant data of the appraisal report".

Problems with verbs (abbreviation of verb)

The cooperation and tolerance of evaluation and audit improves work efficiency, there is no duplication of work, and the results of audit and evaluation will not "crash", which is particularly necessary for services based on the same goal (such as enterprise merger, reorganization, bankruptcy liquidation). However, there are also some problems. For example, the current financial accounting system stipulates that the gains and losses arising from the adjustment of assets during the audit should be included in the current profits or retained earnings, while the provision for appreciation and impairment of assets should be included in the capital reserve. In the above-mentioned cooperation, many tasks that should have been completed by the audit are included in the capital reserve after the assessment is completed, which violates the principle of accounting relevance.

But this defect does not hinder the realization of the client's goal on the whole. As long as appraisers and auditors cooperate tacitly, adopt proper methods and operate carefully, their final conclusions will still be fair.

It is best to ask the accounting firm in detail about this problem, because there are too many contents involved and it is difficult to judge the time.