Auditing: Audit & Assurance

Module 1 - The Purpose of Audits, Auditors & Auditing

·What an audit is, and why audits are needed

·Who needs to be audited, and who can conduct an audit

·Corporate governance, the Board of Directors, the appointment of auditors

·The expectation gap; what auditors actually do versus what the public think they do

Module 2 - Auditing: the Legal Framework

·The responsibility of directors for financial records and financial statements

·Auditors’ responsibilities to shareholders and third parties, auditors and fraud

·Law and the limits of auditors’ liability

·International standards on auditing

Module 3 - Quality Control and Internal Audit

·Quality control procedures

·The role of internal audit

·Professional audit ethics: standards, integrity, competence, confidentiality

·Dealing with clients’ staff, skills needed

Module 4 - Planning Audit Assignments, Processes, Risks

·Knowledge of the business client

·Planning the audit and the audit process

·Assessing audit and business risk

·Materiality, qualitative and quantitative aspects

Module 5 - Documenting Financial Systems, Internal Controls & Activities

·Documenting client’s financial systems

·Internal controls

·Control activities and procedures

·Limitations on internal controls and questionnaires

Module 6 - Audit Testing of Financial Systems: Audit Plans, Programmes and Risks

·The principle of substance over form

·Creating the audit plan, audit evidence

·Audit documentation and the audit programme

·Risk-based and systems-based approaches

Module 7 - Audit Testing of Financial Systems: Testing, Sampling, Review

·Audit testing, substantive testing

·Audit sampling, selecting transactions to test

·Analytical review procedures

·Audit working papers, documenting the evidence gathered

Module 8 - Evidence and Auditing Accounting Systems: Sufficient & Quality Evidence

·Audit evidence, sufficiency and appropriateness

·Gathering audit evidence

·Quality of audit evidence

·Testing systems components - the stages in the accounting process

Module 9 - Evidence and Auditing Accounting Systems: Purchases, Revenue, Payroll

·Auditing purchases and purchase systems

·Auditing revenue and revenue systems

·Auditing payroll and payroll systems

·Auditing in a computerised environment

Module 10 - Verification of Assets & Liabilities

·Non-current assets, tangible and intangible assets

·Inventory and work in progress, stock counts and valuation

·Receivables, bank balances, cash balances

·Liabilities and equity, share capital and reserves

Module 11 - Audit Completion & Audit Reporting: Adjustments, Business Factors, Final Review

·Dealing with subsequent events after the year end, audit adjustments for errors and omissions

·Assessing if a business is a going concern, unusual and non-routine transactions

·Management representations confirming audit evidence they have provided

·Final analytical procedures, overall review and comparison with previous years

Module 12 - Audit Completion & Audit ReportingLegislation, Auditors’ Reports

·Compliance review with legislation and ISAs

·Auditors’ reports to shareholders

·Modified auditors’ reports, reports with qualifications

·Reporting to management by the auditors