Professional Skepticism Throughout A Winter Quarter Auditing Internship

The Auditor, an instructional novella written by James K. Loebbecke, tells the story of Jack Butler, a man from the San Francisco Bay area, who goes to college, majors in accounting, and goes to work for a large accounting firm referred to as “The Firm.” The story is loosely based upon the real world experiences of the author, and is written to give students a look into the world of public accounting that goes beyond a textbook. The Auditor not only gives students a chance to follow Jack Butler’s journey up the company ladder at The Firm, but also reiterates the relative importance of conventional lessons learned in school.

The goal in the life of a college student is graduating and getting the dream job in the career field that is chosen. To achieve this goal takes more than just having the knowledge and heart for the career; it also takes technical skills to be able to perform the tasks. The Auditor: An Instructional Novella stretches beyond the standard textbooks to reveal the principles and practices of auditing as they are in the real world. The book consists of a few key aspects such as: targets students’ natural curiosity about the field of accounting, supports traditional teaching tools, shapes the potential challenges that awaits public accountants.

PCAOB describes professional skepticism as a general duty of care that needs to be applied by the auditor throughout the duration of the audit engagement. Professional skepticism involves the auditor having a clear and questioning mind regarding the assertions that are presented by management or other client personnel. The auditor is instructed to not take the words or data presented by management as sufficient and appropriate audit evidence but rather the auditor needs to thoroughly audit the evidence with a questioning mind to achieve reasonable assurance about the persuasiveness of the evidence. Skepticism is composed of three elements; auditor attributes, mindset and actions. The PCAOB

Auditor, an instructional novella written by James K. Loebbecke, tells the story of Jack Butler, a man from the San Francisco Bay area, who goes to college, majors in accounting, and goes to work for a large accounting firm referred to as “The Firm.” The story is loosely based upon the real world experiences of the author, and is written to give students a look into the world of public accounting that goes beyond a textbook. The Auditor not only gives students a chance to follow Jack Butler’s journey up the company ladder at The Firm, but also reiterates the relative importance of conventional lessons learned in school.

procedure site; 3. A time-out is performed before the procedure. Each of these areas are critical in preventing wrong-site, wrong-procedure events from happening. The Universal Protocol sets a standard for hospitals by outlining specific principles and strategies, while encouraging teamwork and consistency among all hospital staff.

This paper analyzes a fictional privately held company, Smackey Dog Foods, Inc. as well as its fictional auditor, Keller CPAs. The analysis is based on a Keller Graduate School of Management scenario and a series of questions developed to address concepts learned throughout the External Auditing course. Concepts include: SEC influence, audit planning, audit stages, internal controls, confirmations, sample size, obtaining evidence, inventory, warehousing cycles, Professional Rules of Conduct, and auditor’s legal liability. Each of these auditing concepts are explained and then applied to the scenario between Smackey Dog Foods, Inc. and Keller CPAs.

The Model of Trust Enhancement was established to enhance and maintain the public’s trust in the accounting profession. Over the last two decades, the ethics of the accounting profession has been questioned and public trust destabilized, in particular for auditors, due to the Enron debacle. The fact that an auditing firm would assist their clients with publishing an inadequate set of financial statements shows their willingness to violate laws and regulations (Sims & Brinkmann, 2003). According to the textbook, “Because trust is essential, even the appearance of an accountant’s honesty and integrity is important. The auditor, therefore, must not only be trustworthy, but he or she must also appear trustworthy” (Duska, Duska & Ragatz, 2011, p. 116). The majority of statements filed inadequately have a substantial impact on the credibility of the accounting profession as a whole. Sullivan (n.d.10) states that a CPA must possess a high level of trust, by applying professional judgment and enhancing the three trustworthy characteristics (ability, benevolence, and integrity) when resolving accounting ethics dilemmas (slide 3).

a first-time in-charge to have a client contact that can help you avoid blowing the budget.

A presentation given by Crowe Horwath’s Todd Richards, Nancy Kwak, and Frankie Munier informed the audience about the importance of the role an internal auditor play in the business world. Todd Richards has been on campus many times in the past for recruiting and presenting for Crowe Horwath, which he has been with for the last eleven years. Todd has worked in the banking industry for eight years between two different banks, he has worked for American Express as a risk consultant. He also worked with Arthur Anderson before the firm was closed and has even been an IT auditor for five years. Nancy works with trusts within the financial industry. She works on trust engagements and travels a lot. Frankie works with the banking industry.

Auditors having the appropriate competence and capabilities to perform the audit, and follow ethical requirements, and maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit.

During my time at Accounting Firm X I learned many lessons that apply not only to accounting and the principles and practices associated with that subject, but also to life as a professional in a real world work setting. The purpose of this essay is to highlight my experiences at Accounting Firm X to shed light upon key learning experiences that can contribute to a holistic educational experience. In this essay I will first describe my goals and expectations. Next, I will go in to detail about my daily routine and how these exercises contributed toward the overall experience. I will then explore the overall lessons learned from my time spent at the firm.

Over the past 10 weeks, I have worked at Deloitte & Touche, LLP as an Audit Intern. Overall the internship was an important learning experience and invaluable in my professional development. I was able to gain real work experience in audit and network with many people at different stages in their careers. There were many Deloitte-sponsored intern events in addition to the regular daily work I performed on my three engagements.

An attitude that includes a questioning mind and a critical assessment of audit evidence. The auditor should not assume whether they relate to academics, safety or business practices – help people identify acceptable levels of quality, and standards are used in nearly all aspects of our lives. Without standards, it’d be harder to tell whether a student is making adequate educational progress. While it sounds as if there are numerous standards valuation professionals may need to consider, industry experts have noted that the key is to adhere to standards of those organizations to which you belongs. Skeptic mind enables auditor to recognize that circumstances may exist that because the financial statements to be material misstated so he should be alert and remain cautious about such information and events that indicate the existence of material misstatement in the financial statements. Auditor is required to decide about many things while conducting assurance engagement. To decide appropriately audit is required to apply his professional judgment to the matter under consideration. Professional judgment is a skill that auditor acquires overtime and only after acquiring such skill he can apply professional judgment. Auditor acquires this skill by obtaining relevant:

At this internship, I was able to learn many lessons. Those lessons can be applied to any field, but also give me a competitive edge when applying for jobs in the Venture Capital industry. Many of the lessons I have learned were through hearing the stories of other people who have succeeded in the industry, and give me knowledge of what to expect the next few years of my life. Knowing that others are having the same issues as me, and indecision about which field they want to pursue is comforting. Hearing from people including successful entrepreneurs and hedge fund managers show even they have the same conflicts in their lives at my age. Even though many of the lessons can be applied to any field, I learned by far the most about Venture

Professional skepticism practices as neutral but discipline approach to detection and investigation. Per SAS No. 1 it suggests that an auditor neither assumers that management is dishonest or assumes unquestionable honesty. Professional skepticism requires fraud examiners to “pull on thread” in which means Red flags are warning signal or something that demands attention or provokes an irate reaction. Red Flag symptoms of fraud may be divided into at least six categories: unexplained accounting anomalies, exploited internal control weaknesses, identified analytical anomalies where non