Qualifications of an Auditor: Professional and General

An auditor's qualifications are conventionally discussed at two levels — the general personal/professional qualities every good auditor should possess, and the formal professional qualification a person must actually hold to be legally appointed as a company's statutory auditor.

Professional (formal) qualification. To be eligible for appointment as the statutory auditor of a company in India, a person must ordinarily be a practising Chartered Accountant, i.e. a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) holding a valid certificate of practice. A firm of Chartered Accountants may also be appointed as auditor, in which case every partner practising in India must be a qualified Chartered Accountant.

General qualities expected of a good auditor (beyond the bare formal qualification):

• Sound knowledge of accounting principles, auditing standards, and the relevant law (company law, tax law).
• Honesty and integrity — the single most essential personal quality, since the entire value of an audit rests on the auditor's independence and truthfulness.
• Tact and firmness — the ability to deal diplomatically with client staff while still insisting on proper evidence.
• Vigilance and an inquiring/skeptical mind — willingness to probe further rather than accept an explanation at face value.
• Common sense and business acumen — to judge whether a transaction or figure looks reasonable in the business's actual context.
• Ability to communicate clearly, since the audit report must convey findings unambiguously to people who may not be accounting experts.
• Patience and industriousness — auditing often involves painstaking, detailed verification work.