If you're a financial auditor needing working knowledge of IT and application controls, Automated Auditing Financial Applications for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses provides you with the guidance you need. Conceptual overviews of key IT auditing issues are included, as well as concrete hands-on tips and techniques. Inside, you'll find background and guidance with appropriate reference to material published by ISACA, AICPA, organized to show the increasing complexity of systems, starting with general principles and progressing through greater levels of functionality.
- Provides straightforward IT guidance to financial auditors seeking to develop quality and efficacy of software controls
- Offers small- and middle-market business auditors relevant IT coverage
- Covers relevant applications, including MS Excel, Quickbooks, and report writers
- Written for financial auditors practicing in the small to midsized business space
The largest market segment in the United States in quantity and scope is the small and middle market business, which continues to be the source of economic growth and expansion. Uniquely focused on the IT needs of auditors serving the small to medium sized business, Automated Auditing Financial Applications for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses delivers the kind of IT coverage you need for your organization.
Autorentext
JASON WOOD, CPA, CITP, CIS, CIA, CFF, MBA, is President of WoodCPA???Plus, a certified public accounting firm that focuses on IT auditing, consulting, and training. Mr. Wood has over seventeen years of international business experience in IT auditing, helping middle market and global Fortune 500 companies. He is an alumnus of the Big Four accounting firms—Deloitte, E&Y, and PwC.
WILLIAM BROWN, PHD, CPA, CISA, CITP, is Chair of Accounting at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where he has taught accounting and management information systems. He has over twenty years of business experience including roles as vice president, controller, and CFO of several publicly traded companies and the CIO of an IT intensive high-growth SME.
HARRY HOWE, PHD, is Professor of Accounting and Director of the MS in Accounting Program at SUNY-Geneseo. Howe has coauthored two volumes in the BNA Policy and Practice series and published numerous articles in scholarly and practitioner journals.
Klappentext
IT AUDITING AND APPLICATION CONTROLS FOR SMALL AND MID-SIZED ENTERPRISES Revenue, Expenditure, Inventory, Payroll, and More
Risk is inevitable. As an auditor, you must help your clients not only manage their risk by performing audits and other assessments but also help them understand the nature and extent of risks that exist in the control environment. Information technology (IT) controls are a key aspect of that control environment. Written to help financial auditors provide better service to their clients in the context of application controls, IT Auditing and Application Controls for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises illustrates and explains many of the basic IT controls common to the types of reporting systems used by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Sharing their collective decades of experience practicing and teaching in the field, authors Jason Wood, William Brown, and Harry Howe provide you with the tools, guidance, and working knowledge to get started in IT auditing. The authors highlight conceptual and practical topics that are immediately relevant to understanding applications typically used by these businesses, such as MS Excel, QuickBooks, and FRx (Microsoft Dynamics) report writer.
Organized to illustrate the increasing complexity of systems, the book begins with general principles and progresses through greater levels of functionality in subsequent modules. Featuring conceptual overviews of key IT auditing issues as well as concrete, hands-on tips and techniques, IT Auditing and Application Controls for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises examines:
- Special challenges facing SMEs
- The COSO process
- Application-level security
- General ledger and the IT audit
- The revenue, expenditure, inventory, and payroll cycles
- PCAOB warnings
- Integrating the IT audit into the financial audit
- Spreadsheet auditing tools
- Maintaining spreadsheets and desktop tools
- Analyzing and validating reports
- IT audit deficiencies
IT Auditing and Application Controls for Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises empowers you with the skills and knowledge to provide better, more accurate service to your clients.
Inhalt
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Chapter 1: Why Is IT Auditing Important to the Financial Auditor and the Financial Statement Audit? 1
Management's Assertions and the IT Audit 2
Objectives of Data Processing for Small and MediumSized Enterprises (SMEs) 5
Special Challenges Facing SMEs 8
Research Confirming the Risks Associated with SMEs 13
A Framework for Evaluating Risks and Controls, Compensatory Controls, and Reporting Deficiencies 16
Summary: The Road Ahead 20
Chapter 2: General Controls for the SME 21
General Controls: Scope and Outcomes 22
The COSO ProcessPutting It All Together: Financial Statements, Assertions, Risks, Control Objectives, and Controls 30
Summary 35
Chapter 3: ApplicationLevel Security 37
Key Considerations 37
Initial Security Setup 40
Security Role Design 42
Password Configuration 44
Segregation of Duties 48
Personnel, Roles, and Tasks 49
Access Reviews 56
Human Error 58
Summary 58
Chapter 4: General Ledger and the IT Audit 59
The General Ledger: A Clearinghouse of Financial Information 60
Chart of Accounts for QuickBooks 62
SME Risks Specific to the General Ledger and the Chart of Accounts 65
Assertions Underlying the Financial Statements and General Ledger Controls 66
IT Controls, the Transaction Level, and the General Ledger 66
Summary 78
Chapter 5: The Revenue Cycle 81
Risk Exposures and Subprocesses 81
Application Controls, Revenue Cycle Risks, and Related Audit Procedures 84
Summary 105
Chapter 6: The Expenditure Cycle 107
Risk Exposures and Subprocesses 107
Application Controls, Expenditure Cycle Risks, and Related Audit Procedures 111
Summary 133
Chapter 7: The Inventory Cycle 135
Risk Exposures and Subprocesses 136
Application Controls, Inventory Cycle Risks, and Related Audit Procedures 143
Summary 157
Chapter 8: The Payroll Cycle 159
Risk Exposures and Subprocesses 159
Application Controls, Payroll Cycle Risks, and Related Audit Procedures 163
Summary 248
Chapter 9: Risk, Controls, Financial Reporting, and an Overlay of COSO on COBIT 249
PCAOB Warnings: Insufficient Evidence to Support Opinions 250
How We Got Here: A Historical Perspective 251
Risk 260
Risk and Fraud 261
Controls 262
Financial Reporting 269
PCAOB Guidance on IT Controls 279
Integrating COSO, COBIT, and the PCAOB 280
Summary 286
Chapter 10: Integrating the IT Audit into the Financial Audit 289
Risks, Maturity, and Assessments 290
CrossReferencing COBIT to the PCAOB and COSO 295
Plan and Organize 303
Program Development and Change 311
Computer Operations and Access to Programs and Data 317
Monitor and Evaluate 330
Summary 334