Plan For Implementing Cobit For Gardner Novelties Essay

The design and implementation and objectives of company controls are not adequate to meet the control objectives. The control environment control objective is ineffective. This control objective lacks a written policy on ethical conduct, is lacking oversight from the board of directors and audit committee, lacks a consistent style and philosophy from management, and lacks a strong commitment to competence. The risk assessment control objective is effective but lacks any antifraud program and controls. The information and communication control is ineffective. A virus has been detected and is affecting the files of the company. This control is lacking a strong IT department. The general controls financial reporting control objective is effective but is weak in detecting or preventing material misstatement. The monitoring control objective is ineffective; this control has need of an internal auditor.

According to the Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Act, it is the responsibility of the management to establish and maintain internal controls required for financial reporting. The company’s latest year assessment of

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the SEC’s influence on auditing a private company and the essential activities involved in the initial planning of an audit. Next the discussion will delve into four stages of the audit and tasks performed by the auditors as well as internal control findings and various aspects of the audit.

Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a United States federal law which was introduced in 2002. It is also known as the “Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act” and “and 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act”. The main objective of the act is to protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures. New aspects are created by SOX act for corporate accountability as well as new penalties for wrong doings. It was basically introduced after major corporate and accounting scandals including the scandals of Enron, WorldCom etc so that the same kind of scandals do not repeat again.

With the induction of SOX, Section 301 dictates that the boards of directors for each publicly traded organization are required to fund and create an internal audit committee or have the entire board serve as the committee, with a minimum of three independent members, accountable for selecting and directing an external independent accounting firm responsible for confirming the integrity of the organization’s financial reports, and creating a process to address

Under SOX Section 404, all publicly listed corporations are required to maintain an adequate system of internal control. Under SOX, corporate executives and the board of directors are personally responsible for making sure that the internal controls in place are effective and reliable. Independent auditors should also attest to the reliability of the said internal controls. Failure to do so would result to fines and/or imprisonment1.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was a law created in 2002 to ensure that the boards of public companies oversee their companies in a more competent and transparent way in order to protect investors. Section 302 refers to the obligations of the corporate officers who sign the financial reports. The officers are responsible for verifying that the report is accurate and represents a true picture of the company’s financial condition. Section 401 states that The Commision must evaluate the financial reports. Section 404 covers the company’s internal control structure and the requirements of the accounting firm in assessing internal controls and reporting procedures. Section 409 requires a company to disclose information on changes to financial conditions or

Part 1 of Sarbanes Oxley created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which oversaw the audit of public companies, established auditing report standards and rules, and investigated, inspected, and enforced compliance with these rules (Jennings, 2015). Auditing companies must

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted in July 30, 2002, by Congress to protect shareholders and the general public from fraudulent corporate practices and accounting errors and to maintain auditor independence.   In protecting the shareholders and the general public the SOX Act is intended to improve the transparency of the financial reporting.   Financial reports are to be certified by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) creating increased responsibility and independence with auditing by independent audit firms. In discussing the SOX Act, we will focus on how this act affects the CEOs; CFOs; outside independent audit firms; the advantages and a

The final responsibility for the integrity of an SEC registrant’s internal controls lies on the management team. U.S. companies need to refer to a comprehensive framework of internal control when assessing the quality of financial reporting to determine that financial statements are being presented under General Accepted Accounting Principles, GAAP. The widely used framework is referred as COSO, Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, sponsored by the following organizations American Accounting Association, the American Institute of CPA’s, Financial Executives International, the Institute of Internal Auditors, and the Institute of Management Accountants. COSO’s defines internal control as:

Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, reports on internal control are required. Did the company’s management acknowledge its responsibility for establishing and

There are five main components of internal controls that are recognized by Control Objectives for Information Technology (COBIT) that are required in financial reporting and disclosure objectives. These components consist of plan and organize, manage IT investments, acquire and implement, deliver and support, and monitor and evaluate (Raval & Fichadia, 2007). Because of the recent increased need for internal controls, it is imperative to make use of a framework structure that will create a design of useful controls for organizations as well as reporting obligations. COSO and COBIT are both increasingly internationally accepted as adequate techniques for IT controls and related risks in the assessment of required reporting.

ISACA was established in 1967, by specific commercial ventures operating in the field of frameworks. At that point, in 1969 they were fused as Electronic Data Processing (EDP) Auditors Affiliation. Parts of ISACA cooperated to create and make best practices , and COBIT system is one of their wok. The primary adaptation of this framework was discharged in 1996 and was called "Control Objectives for Information and related Technology",covering the range of review [12]. The second version with upgrades on control evaluation was discharged in 1998 . The third release was discharged after two years, and as indicated by [12] "The huge change accompanied the distribution of COBIT Third Edition, with its business objective introduction. At this point, COBIT was termed as an IT administration skeleton. The third release recognized that an association needs IT for data handling, as well as to accomplish business destinations". In 2005 ISACA presented another , fourth form of COBIT with a reasonable concentrate on IT legislation [14]. A further form of this structure is COBIT 4.1 , discharged in 2007, tolerating the by and large utilized schemas, for example, "IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)", "ISO 27000 arrangement" and "Ability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI)" [5], [15]. The current rendition of the structure, COBIT 5, was discharged in 2012. It is based upon the past rendition of the schema and two integral skeletons from ISACA (Val IT and Risk IT); and

These changes were outlined in the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). SOX completely revolutionized financial reporting, requiring senior management of firms to sign off on each financial statement that the company issues. It also stipulated that wrongful doing can result in not only termination but also imprisonment. SOX amplified the requirement for companies, requiring firms to maintain proper levels of internal controls when it comes to operating activities. SOX also established the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) which implemented stricter auditing standards for public accounting firms. Not only were accounting firms required to consider internal controls, but they were also required report any significant deficiency directly to the board of directors. SOX stressed the importance of internal controls, and within internal controls it established the need for segregation of duties. Since this time, there have been many additions to accounting policies regards segregations of duties, and many functions of the business process dedicated to it.

Section 404 requires public companies to establish internal controls and report annually on their effectiveness over financial reporting. The CFO and CEO are held personally responsible for the internal controls via the requirement to sign a statement certifying the adequacy of the internal control system (Moffett and Grant, 2011, p. 3). Additionally, the company’s independent auditor must issue an attestation regarding management’s assessment of the internal structure as part of the company’s annual report (Bloch, 2003, p. 68).