Increase Professional Skepticism

) There was a lack of adequate cut-off procedures to ensure the timely recording of certain period-end accruals. This resulted in an audit adjustment of $3,578,000. The benchmark for overall materiality is $3,508,000, I would consider the audit adjustment of $3,578,000 a material misstatement. Control environment, principle 2 the board of directors and management exercise oversight of development and performance of internal controls. Due to the severity and material weakness of lack of adequate cutoff procedures to ensure timely recording of period end accruals. Management and the board of directors should evaluate performance of internal control activities including adherence to standards of conduct and expected levels of competence. In

Performance evaluation based on the behavioral criteria, management’s stress on integrity and ethical behavior, employee’s awareness of the consequences of failing to fulfill their responsibilities are few of the major points which leave employees with no rational explanation for their misconduct. So, in case of Dickinson Technologies, I would say that the employees are not inclined towards misstating the financial information and thus the risk of fraudulent financial reporting in this case is very low.

In addition, associated with the misapplication of accounting methods, the financial industry has been plagued with one disaster after another involving numerous scandals from top leading American companies. Consequently, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in 2002 compromising eleven sections that are generated to insure the responsibilities of the company’s managers and executives. This act identifies criminal penalties for particular unethical practices and currently has new policies that a corporation must follow in their financial reporting. The following examples describe some of biggest accounting methods as a result of the greed and the outrage of the ethical and financial misconduct by the senior management of public corporations.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate (Louwers & Reynolds, 2007). We believe that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

The auditor must assess the transactions for how much of a risk factor is involved. When reviewing these transactions, auditor must be able to review the internal controls of the company’s accounting personnel. The segregation of duties is associated with the safeguarding of an organization 's assets and the topic known as internal control. An example of the segregation of duties would be a company 's requirement that the bank statement for its checking

Different materiality bases are considered when determining planning materiality because the magnitude and nature of financial statement misstatements or omissions have different influences on different financial statement users. For example, investors are more interested in the accuracy of numbers involving net income because they are mainly concerned with the company’s ability to increase shareholder wealth. For an audit company, the primary concern when planning materiality is to take into account all expected financial statement users. These different expected users all have different

This subject company in this case study is WoolEx Mills. The top management team at the Mills had to act fast to prevent the accusations charged upon them, so that they may venture deep into the United States market. In the process, they had to act in a way that will present the company’s financial statements; cash flows in a way that they did not show any suspicious fraudulent activities. The type of fraud in this case study is known as manipulation of accounts which involves the act of offering the accounts in the way they are not in reality.

Outline the frauds identified in the case and explain the inconsistencies with proper accounting treatment. Relate your answer to broad accounting concepts and accounting standards where relevant. (8 marks; approximately 800 words)

Abernethy and Chapman’s engagement team comprises of a partner-in-charge, a manager, a senior auditor, and one or more staff auditors. The partner-in-charge leads the engagement team and is responsible for all final decisions made while conducting the audit. The manager, senior auditor, and staff auditors are to perform the actual audit examination. The engagement team’s responsibility is to complete the audit with competency and objectivity.

“Audit committee members or their agents may proactively examine areas, functions, and personnel where collusive fraud risk is reasonably likely to be perpetrated,” (Zmags). The search for fraud, even if performed in the same location multiple times, may continue until the audit committee feels confident that they have ruled out the probability that fraud is prevalent. One of the biggest risks of fraud is management override of controls, requiring the extensive search for risk in, “journal entries and other adjustments and reviewing accounting estimates for possible biases that could result in material misstatements,” (Nysscpa).

Accounting employees have a duty to be forthright and truthful when interacting with the independent auditors, and

Our textbook defines professional skepticism as follows: Professional skepticism — a questioning mind and a critical examination of audit evidence. The appropriate level of professional skepticism varies depending upon the risks of the particular situation. (Arens, Elder, Beasley, & Jones, 2015, p. 67).

The audit of financial statements is mandatory for publically listed entities throughout the world. The auditor conducts various tests and based on the results forms an opinion on the truthfulness and fairness of the financial statements of the company and whether or not they are prepared in accordance with the financial reporting standards and are free from any material misstatement (Freedman, 2013). The purpose of auditing is to enhance the confidence of investors and to add credibility to the truthfulness of company 's true financial performance. However, there are some dos ' and don 'ts that an auditor must take care of. For instance, anything that threatens the independence of the auditor must be avoided as it adversely affects the truthfulness and objectivity of the opinion formed.

In this place, auditing risk become very high and auditors must be very careful to use their professional judgment. An acceptable process is increasing substantive test. Every material transaction should be checked and redefined.

The research aims to evaluate the role of management accounting in contributing to the decision making process and financial position of the company.