Section 404 Audits of Internal Control and Control Risk

Scoping and Evaluation Judgments in the Audit of Internal Control over Financial Reporting 12.1 EyeMax Corporation . . Evaluation of Audit Differences

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 act requires management to disclose all material information or changes within their accounting processes. By requiring senior management to review the reports they are held accountable for the financial accounting of the firm, and procedures to prevent employees and other members within an organization from committing fraud or theft and management is legally responsible if material misstatements have been made. By making management accountable then they are less likely to commit fraud if faced with jail time. Management and stockholders frequently have different goals. Management often wishes to expand and use the company’s assets in different ways than a stockholder. Management’s accountability of the financial reports often helps encourage management to use company assets in appropriate ways. Disclosures were also a reduction in risk of fraud because all material information must be disclosed. By requiring this disclosure if a company’s net income increased this year due to a

The PCAOB is responsible for providing independent oversight for public accounting firms. Auditors independence job is to limit conflict of interest and monitor the requirements of new auditor approvals. Corporate responsibility require that senior executives take sole responsibility for completeness and accuracy of all corporate financial reports. Last but not least, enhance financial disclosures assures the accuracy of financial reports and

“The accounting system generates the information that satisfies two reporting needs that coexist within an organization: financial accounting and managerial accounting” (Schneider, 2012, ch 1.1, para 1). Managerial accounting is the process of preparing reports and accounts required by management to make business decisions for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly projects. Financial accounting is the branch of accounting that organizes accounting information for presentation to interested parties outside of the organization. Financial accountants produce annual reports for external

Quality of reported financial information is a critical element in evaluating financial statement data. The higher the quality of financial reporting, the more useful the information is for business decision making.

The most important aspect in the financial statement is to follow and regulate the internal control system of the organization. This is the most important point in this act as it detects that the internal control system of the corporations is sound or not. It wants to report about the internal control system of the organization so that the actual picture of the organization

One of the most important factors is reliability of financial statements. Reliability is further ensured by audit of financial statements. At last but not least, financial statements should be made in a comparable format either with previous periods or with the competitors.

The first title of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 relates to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) division. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act provided for the creation of PCAOB as an oversight organization to regulate the methods and procedures for auditors while they are performing an audit on a publically traded company. PCAOB is in charge of registering auditors that will be participating in publically traded company audits in addition to monitoring the quality of the audit work that is produced. PCAOB also establishes guidelines and directives that are applicable to all publically traded company audits. Lastly, PCAOB not only monitors the work and actions of independent audit firms, they sanction and enforce disciplinary measure against firms

5. Management responsibilities in reporting internal controls are first to explain the effectiveness of internal controls, any adequate procedures made by management, and the effectiveness of internal control by financial reporting.

The auditor must obtain an understanding of the entity and its environment, including internal controls, so that they can identify and assess the risks of material misstatement on financial statements due to fraud or error and design and perform further audit procedures.

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:

An important function of the accounting field is to provide external users of financial statements with assurance that the financial information being presented is both reliable and accurate. This basic function of accounting is so important that there is an entire field of experts, called auditors, dedicated to assuring its proper performance. Throughout history there have been many instances in which the basic equilibrium between an institution and current/potential investor has been threatened due to a lack of accountability and trust between the two parties. This issue has been the catalyst for many discussions regarding the proper procedures a firm should follow in order to provide

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).

A company prepares financial statement to provide information about its financial position and performance. This information is in turn used by a wide range of stakeholders (such as investors, banks, customers, suppliers etc) in making economic decisions with respect to respective economic interest in the company. Typically, in terms of ownership by investment in shares of the company, shareholders though own the company but do not manage it. Therefore, the shareholder and other such stakeholders to get comfort in taking sound decision need independent assurance from the auditors that the financial statements reflect true and fair view of the company affairs in all material respects. Hence, in order to enhance the level of