The Institute of Auditors, along with certified auditors and audit firms, is a key element of the audit profession. The Institute is the umbrella professional organization of auditing, uniting the entities that conduct audits – certified auditors and audit firms. The role of the institute is to connect theoretical knowledge and practical experiences from accounting and auditing, supporting the issuance of international or, in its domain, the adoption of its own, relevant rules, standards, guidelines or recommendations. All of the above contributes to the achievement of the main goal of the institute, which is to ensure better quality and control of work, to establish uniqueness of auditing practice at the national and international level. The aim of the paper is to explain the importance of auditing financial statements in the context of entities that conduct it, to define the concept and role of elements of the auditing profession, with special emphasis on the audit institute, which is also the subject of analysis. The paper presents the role of the Audit Institute in the Republic of Croatia and the changes that have taken place in the last few months due to the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly affect its work. Its role in relation to the role of other institutes in selected European Union countries is analyzed. The importance of encouraging and promoting the uniformity and coherence of audits outside national frameworks was emphasized. By processing secondary data sources and by studying scientific and professional publications, the paper concludes that it is impossible to achieve absolute uniformity in compliance with audit requirements and equalization of functions assumed by the audit institute, but relative harmonization is possible to achieve in priority and relevant audit areas.