Audit is a form of journalism, and its practitioners, auditors, are journalists.  As a discipline, audit deals with gathering information about a topic of interest, interpreting it, and presenting it to an audience.  The word, “audit” comes from a Latin word which means, “to hear.”  The topics of interest covered vary depending on the charter, or mission, of an auditor and the audiences he or she serves. 

There are as many types of auditors as there are types of journalists, and it becomes difficult to classify them.  Additionally, many people perform audits without the formal designation as “auditor”.  One way of describing auditors is to understand them as members of five subcultures.

• External Auditors– These auditors typically work for public accounting firms.  These firms are hired by organizations to express an opinion on the presentation of financial statements.  The users of external auditors’ work are also varied — since the auditor’s opinion relates to financial statements, the users of the opinion would encompass any investor, banker, government entity, employee, etc. that uses the information in financial statements.  External auditors are, arguably, the most vocal auditors as they frequently claim to represent the viewpoint of the entire audit profession.  Additionally, most auditors in the U.S. come from one of the four largest public accounting firms, the Big Four (Ernst and Young, KPMG, Deloitte, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers), and parry their firm’s ideology with respect to the auditor’s role.
• Internal Auditors — These auditors typically work for organizations, or they may be independent consultants of internal audit services who are hired by organization.  Internal auditors’ work is chartered by an organization’s management and its objectives vary based on the organization’s requirements.  Internal auditors do have numerous professional societies (IIA, ISACA, etc.) from which to draw general standards of internal audit work, but their scope and relevance to an organization varies between different organizations.  Many internal auditors were external auditors early in their careers and attempt to apply external audit principles to internal audit work to mixed results.  Internal auditors can also be industry-specific — bank compliance managers or insurance internal auditors, for instance.
• Operational Auditors– These auditors are similar to internal auditors in that they are closely aligned to the charter of an organization’s management.  The scope for operational auditors, however, tends to be more refined as it applies to the operational efficiency or effectiveness of an organization’s process.  In an attempt to cut waste from business processes, organizations may enlist operational auditors to review the processes and conduct research to understand the root causes of waste and suggest techniques to remediate waste.  Operational auditors may have formal titles or they may be referred to as practitioners of operational excellence (OPEX), quality assurance, compliance, etc.  Additionally, individuals who have no formal designation may be called upon to conduct or participate in audits of their processes.
• Government Auditors — These auditors are employed by government entities and are chartered to perform audits in legislation.  Government auditors include tax auditors, municipal auditors, school auditors, legislative auditors, census officials, etc. and their function varies.
• Unpleasant Auditors — These auditors may also be members of any of other audit subcultures listed above, but they are distinguished in their lack of people skills or their fondness for abusing other auditors.  They have also been known to moan a great deal, paper the planet with Post-It notes, and frown nonstop for weeks at a time. 

Though there are many types of auditors and topics to audit, one thing remains the same: all audits should have a purpose and a scope.  If managed properly, the purpose of an audit can be described in a sentence:

• For external auditors, an example audit purpose might be: “to obtain reasonable assurance that the presentation of financials for Company X as of Dec 31, 2009 is consistent with generally accepted accounting principles.”
• For internal auditors, and example audit purpose might be: “to obtain reasonable assurance that internal controls around the purchasing process effectively reduce the likelihood a purchasing fraud can occur in the organization.”
• For operational auditors, an example audit purpose might be “to identify areas of waste in the change management process that cause delays in the implementation of new I.T. systems and recommend ways to eliminate waste.”
• For an IRS auditor, an example audit purpose might be “to determine whether the obligation under tax has been calculated accurately and paid.”
• For an unpleasant auditor, an example audit purpose might be “to extract a pound of flesh.”