Oxford Business English Dictionary for Learners of English

to officially examine the quality or standard of sth: Safety improvements need to be constantly tested and audited.

'audit .failure noun [c,u] (Accounting) the situation when an audit does not find a problem that exists in a business's financial

31 authority

accounts: Any fraud not uncovered will be considered an audit failure.

auditor /'o:dita(r)/ noun [C]

a person who officially examines the business and financial records of a company to see that they are true and correct: the firm of accountants that has been appointed auditors to the company о The auditor said the mistakes were 'honest errors'. See note at profession

an external/independent/internal/outside auditor ♦ company auditors

auditorium /,o:di'to:ri8mI noun [C] (plural auditoriums orauditoria /.o:dito:ria/)

(AmE) a large building or room in which public meetings, concerts, etc. are held

the part of a theatre, concert hall, etc. in which the audience sits

'audit re,port noun [c] (Accounting) a report written by an auditor for the members of a company after examining a company's financial records: The company received a clean audit report for the year ended 31 March 2004. о The auditors had only been able to prepare a qualified audit report (= one that they cannot agree with completely) due to lack of information.

audit trail noun [c]

(Accounting) a series of documents and records that shows the history of a company's financial records. An auditor can check these to see how true and correct the accounts are: The company had destroyed large parts of the audit trail.

(IT) a record kept by a computer of a series of events or actions

aug.mented 'product noun [c, usually sing.] (,Marketing) a product that has extra features or services that make it more attractive than the typical product of its kind; the extra features and services that are provided: Customer service is a valuable part of the augmented product.

AUM /,ei ju: 'em/ = assets under management

austerity /о'sterati; o:'ster-; AmEo:'ster-/ noun [U,C] (plural austerities)

a situation when people do not have much money to spend because there are bad economic conditions: Protesters demanded better pay and a relaxation of austerity measures (=official actions to reduce the amount of money that government or people spend).

authenticate /o:'0entikeit/ verb [+ obj] to prove that sth is genuine, real or true: Digital codes are used to authenticate the user's identity. ► authentication /o:,0enti'keijn/ noun [u]: The signature was sent to the solicitor for authentication.

authenticity /,o:0en'tisati/ noun [u] the quality of being real and genuine: The company uses holograms to guarantee the authenticity of its products.

authoring /'o:0arir)/ noun [u] (IT) creating multimedia computer products with special software, without using programming language: authoring packages/software/tools

authority /o:'0Drati; AmE э'0э:г-; э'0а:г-/ noun

see also: Civil Aviation Authority, classification Financial Services line Securities and Futures ~

authorization 32

[inofficial permission to do sth: He was dismissed for signing documents without the authority of his manager.

[u] the power to influence people because they respect your knowledge or official position: As the author of six books on marketing, she speaks with authority on the subject.

[C, usually pi.] the people or an organization who have the power to make decisions or who have a particular area of responsibility in a country or region: The health authorities are investigating the problem.

[C] a person with special knowledge: She's an authority on trade law.

authorization, -isation /.oiGarai'zeiJn; AmE ,o:0ara'zeijn/ noun