Companies periodically have their financial figures reviewed by an outside party (See: Auditor). This process is called an audit. The information used to conduct the audit - the records and other documents - are known as the "auditing evidence."
The type of auditing evidence needed is laid out in several sources. Some items are detailed in relevant legislation. This is especially true with the information needed for public companies, which fall under stricter regulation than private ones.
Other strictures regarding auditing evidence are laid out in guidelines issued by accounting organizations. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, for instance, provides information as to how audits should be conducted.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is Acting Against Recommen...2 Views
finance a la shmoop what is acting against recommendations hmm
let's say you head to the emergency room with stomach pains the doctor in charge [Man driving fast with stomach pains]
says yep you've got appendicitis but I'm brutally
tired so I recommend you go home well odds are if the doc himself had [Doctor in pain with stomach pains]
appendicitis he'd get someone to take that puppy out stat acting against
recommendations is kind of like that just in the financial world if your
broker tells you to do something he wouldn't recommend for his own [Man discussing finance with his broker]
investments well he has a duty to tell you that he wouldn't do that same thing
in his own case that usually happens when some bonehead tells a broker, hey I
want to bet my life savings on this new IPO well why would anyone act against
recommendations well in the case of the doc maybe he's so tired that he's a [Doctor holding scalpel and falls to the floor]
dangerous menace in the O.R... In the case of your broker well maybe there's
something about your specific situation that makes acting against recommendation
the way to go well as long as they tell you that it's against recommendations
well, they're legally in the cure just don't ask that broker to perform
your kidney transplant [Broker walks into office]
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