Accountant Town

The term “to tie out” in accounting is often a replacement for the terms “to trace” or “to vouch.” As trace and vouch are terms that indicate the direction of the auditing direction, either from the financials to supporting documents, or from supporting documents to the financials – these auditing terms can at times be confusing to the client therefore auditors sometimes prefer to use the term tie out. The reason tie out is an easier term to use with the client is that it does not indicate the direction of the information, therefore the auditor can specify within the sentence the direction of testing. For example, “Tie out the property balance to invoices” rather than “trace the property balances.”