Statutory auditor – what kind of profession is that?

Pursuant to the Statutory Auditors Act [1a], the following persons may pursue the profession of a statutory auditor:

Additionally, to work as a statutory auditor you need to be entered in the register of statutory auditors [1b]. In order to be entered in the said register, you need to:

The statutory auditor is required to act in line with the oath. Furthermore, they must constantly raise professional qualifications and comply with national standards on auditing, principles of professional ethics and resolutions of the bodies of the Polish Chamber of Statutory Auditors.

The statutory auditor conducts, above all, audits of financial statements. They check whether they contain material misstatements, paying attention to compliance with the Accounting Act and accounting policies, as well as with the applicable laws and provisions of the company's constitution. In the end, the auditor issues an opinion as to whether the financial statements give a true and fair view of the company's net worth, financial position and profit(loss).

In addition to financial audits, a statutory auditor may conduct an audit​ at a company to investigate its financial position and point out risks that may arise in the future.

Due to their extensive knowledge of accounting and finance, statutory auditors may also provide tax and accounting advice​.

An auditor's opinion contains conclusions from the audit of the financial statements. Types of auditor’s opinion:

The Accounting Act [2] makes the following entities subject to the audit requirement:

The audit requirement also applies to:

Also entities keeping books of account which, for tax purposes, have chosen to apply the accounting method to account for foreign exchange gains (losses) are required to have their financial statements audited.

The decision to appoint the auditor is made by the body approving the entity’s financial statements – unless the company’s constitutional documents or other binding regulations provide otherwise. This cannot be done by the manager of the entity subject to the audit requirement. It is, however, the entity’s manager who concludes a contract with the statutory auditor (audit firm).

The regulations do not specify the exact deadline for appointing the statutory auditor. However, please bear in mind the deadlines related to the financial statements. The audit should be conducted before approving the financial statements – i.e. within 6 months of the balance sheet date. It is therefore a good idea to select the auditor in sufficient advance to let him/her comfortably conduct audit between January and June – in the case of an accounting year ending on 31 December.

Statutory auditors play a key role in ensuring reliability and accuracy of the financial statements of business entities and at the same time protecting business dealings. 

Statutory auditors are obliged to constantly expand their knowledge and raise professional qualifications, comply with high standards of ethics, independence and professional privilege. 

Through their work, statutory auditors actively contribute to the protection of investors and other stakeholders to whom financial data and information presented by entities in their financial statements are relevant.