Meaning and importance of Vouching

Meaning and importance of Vouching

Vouching, widely recognized as “the backbone of auditing,” is a component of an audit seeking to authenticate the transactions recorded in a firm’s book of accounts. When an accounting transaction is vouched, it is tested and verified by presenting relevant documentary evidence.

It is the practice followed in an audit, with the objective of establishing the authenticity of the transactions recorded in the primary books of account. It essentially consists of verifying a transaction recorded in the books of account with the relevant documentary evidence and the authority on the basis of which the entry has been made; also confirming that the amount mentioned in the voucher has been posted to an appropriate account which would disclose the nature of the transaction on its inclusion in the final statements of account. Vouching does not include valuation.

Importance Of Vouching


Vouching is the act of checking evidential documents to find out errors and frauds and to know the authenticity, accuracy and reliability of books of accounts. Thus, it is important for an auditor due to the following reasons:



1. Vouching Is The Backbone Of Auditing

Main aim of auditing is to detect errors and frauds for proving the true and fairness of results presented by income statement and balance sheet. Vouching is only the way of detecting all sorts of errors and planned frauds. So, it is the backbone of auditing.


2. Vouching Is The Essence Of Auditing

Auditing not only checks the accuracy of books of accounts but also checks whether the transactions are related to business or not. All the transactions are performed after the prior approval of concerned authority or not, transactions are real or not because an accountant may include fictitious transactions to commit frauds. All these facts can be found with the help of vouching. So, vouching is essential for auditing.


3. Vouching Is Important To See Whether Evidences Are Correct Or Not

An auditor checks the books of accounts to detect errors and frauds. Frauds may be committed presenting duplicate vouchers. All the small and big amounts of frauds can be detected with the help of vouching. So, all the evidential documents and records are to be checked carefully and in detail by an auditor which is the scope of vouching.


Therefore, it can be said that vouching is the heart of auditing because without the work of vouching, the work of auditing cannot be performed.