Free Essays on Auditing

The topic I will be discussing tonight is management’s assertions about the financial statements representing their company. According to the textbook these assertions can be divided into to five broad categories. These categories are existence or occurrence, completeness, rights and obligations, valuation or allocation, and presentation and disclosure. An auditor’s develops objectives, which vary from one engagement to another, depending on the entity’s business and the accounting practices distinctive to its industry. In the existence or occurrence assertion, management asserts that all recorded assets, liabilities, and equities disclosed in the financial statements actually existed at the balance sheet date. Management also asserts that all recorded transactions occurred during the period ending on the balance sheet date. The auditor’s objective is to test whether the assertions made by management are appropriate. For example, when auditing inventory an auditor’s objective is to determine if the inventory existed at the balance sheet date, if the recorded inventory purchases in fact occurred, and if sales transactions in the income statement represent the exchange of goods or services for cash or other consideration. This can be tested by observing the client’s physical count of inventory, confirming the off-premises inventory with public warehouses, and by using inventory cutoff tests to be sure purchases and sales are recorded in the correct accounting period. In the completeness assertion, management asserts that all transactions occurred during the period were recorded. This assertion is the most challenging for the auditor because he or she must discover any transactions that were not recorded but should have been and vise versa. For example, when auditing inventory the auditor will use the same tests used in the existence assertion. The auditor will observe physical inventory, confirm off-premises invento... Free Essays on Auditing Free Essays on Auditing The topic I will be discussing tonight is management’s assertions about the financial statements representing their company. According to the textbook these assertions can be divided into to five broad categories. These categories are existence or occurrence, completeness, rights and obligations, valuation or allocation, and presentation and disclosure. An auditor’s develops objectives, which vary from one engagement to another, depending on the entity’s business and the accounting practices distinctive to its industry. In the existence or occurrence assertion, management asserts that all recorded assets, liabilities, and equities disclosed in the financial statements actually existed at the balance sheet date. Management also asserts that all recorded transactions occurred during the period ending on the balance sheet date. The auditor’s objective is to test whether the assertions made by management are appropriate. For example, when auditing inventory an auditor’s objective is to determine if the inventory existed at the balance sheet date, if the recorded inventory purchases in fact occurred, and if sales transactions in the income statement represent the exchange of goods or services for cash or other consideration. This can be tested by observing the client’s physical count of inventory, confirming the off-premises inventory with public warehouses, and by using inventory cutoff tests to be sure purchases and sales are recorded in the correct accounting period. In the completeness assertion, management asserts that all transactions occurred during the period were recorded. This assertion is the most challenging for the auditor because he or she must discover any transactions that were not recorded but should have been and vise versa. For example, when auditing inventory the auditor will use the same tests used in the existence assertion. The auditor will observe physical inventory, confirm off-premises invento... Free Essays on Auditing In order to fully comprehend what is meant by internal control we must look at the definition as stated in the COSO report. It is defined as, â€Å"a process, effected by an entity’s board of directors, management and other personnel, designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of objectives in the following three categories: reliability of financial reporting; effectiveness and efficiency of operations; compliance with applicable laws and regulations.† An important aspect of internal control to keep in mind is it’s reliance on people. No matter how much control a company implements, there will always be humans involved at some step of the way and therefore a chance for error and/or fraud. It is important to remember that these controls can only provide reasonable assurance, not absolute assurance, regarding the achievements of a company’s objectives. Internal control consists of control activities. These activities include: performance reviews, segregation of duties, physical controls, and information processing controls. It is the responsibility of management to implement these activities effectively, and also to review the results so improvements or adjustments can be made. The auditor’s responsibility is to assess the level of risk connected to each control. After assessing the risks involved, tests must be performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the control in question. Some tests are more costly to run than the benefits that will be received. It is the job of the auditors to weigh the costs and benefits of performing each test and then determine which ones are to be carried out, and which will be scrapped. The controls discussed so far focus on management’s internal control over its employees. But in a retail store, employees are not the only ones with access to product, and therefore are not the only ones capable of influencing the financial statements. Management in the reta...

Mistakes Made by Native Spanish Speakers

Mistakes Made by Native Spanish Speakers Question: Do native Spanish speakers make as many grammatical mistakes in everyday Spanish as Americans do in everyday English? I am American and I make grammatical mistakes all the time unknowingly, but they still get the point across. Answer: Unless youre an incessant stickler for grammatical details, chances are you make dozens of errors each day in the way you use English. And if youre like many native speakers of English, you might not notice until youre told that a sentence such as each of them brought their pencils is enough to make some grammarians grit their teeth. Since language errors are so common in English, it shouldnt come as a surprise that Spanish speakers make their share of mistakes too when speaking their language. They generally arent the same mistakes youre likely to make when speaking Spanish as a second language, but they are probably every bit as common in Spanish as they are in English. Following is a list of some of the most common errors made by native speakers; some of them are so common they have names to refer to them. (Because there isnt unanimous agreement in all cases about what is proper, examples given are referred to as nonstandard Spanish rather than as wrong. Some linguists argue that theres no such thing as right or wrong when it comes to grammar, only differences in how various word usages are perceived.) Until you are so comfortable with the language that you have reached fluency and can use a style of speech appropriate for your situation, you are probably best off avoiding these usages - although they are accepted by many speakers, especially in informal contexts, they might be viewed as uneducated by some. Dequeà ­smo In some areas, the use of de que where que will do has become so common that it is on the verge of being considered a regional variant, but in other areas it is strongly looked down on as being the mark of an inadequate education. Nonstandard: Creo de que el presidente es mentiroso. Standard: Creo que el presidente es mentiroso. (I believe the president is a liar.) Loà ­smo and Laà ­smo Le is the correct pronoun to use as the indirect object meaning him or her. However, lo is sometimes used for the male indirect object, especially in parts of Latin America, and la for the female indirect object, especially in parts of Spain. Nonstandard: La escribà ­ una carta. No lo escribà ­. Standard: Le escribà ­ una carta a ella. No le escribà ­ a à ©l. (I wrote her a letter. I did not write to him.) Le for Les Where doing so doesnt create ambiguity, especially where the indirect object is explicitly stated, it is common to use le as a plural indirect object rather than les. Nonstandard: Voy a enseà ±arle a mis hijos como leer. Standard: Voy a enseà ±arles a mis hijos como leer. (I will teach my children how to read.) Quesuismo Cuyo is often the Spanish equivalent of the adjective whose, but it is used infrequently in speech. One popular alternative frowned on by grammarians is the use of que su. Nonstandard: Conocà ­ a una persona que su perro estaba muy enfermo. Standard: Conocà ­ a una persona cuyo perro estaba muy enfermo. (I met a person whose dog was very sick.) Plural Use of Existential Haber In the present tense, there is little confusion in the use of haber in a sentence such as hay una casa (there is one house) and hay tres casas (there are three houses). In other tenses, the rule is the same - the singular conjugated form of haber is used for both singular and plural subjects. In most of Latin America and the Catalan-speaking parts of Spain, however, plural forms are often heard and are sometimes considered a regional variant. Nonstandard: Habà ­an tres casas. Standard: Habà ­a tres casas. (There were three houses.) Misuse of the Gerund The Spanish gerund (the verb form ending in -ando or -endo, generally the equivalent of the English verb form ending in -ing) should, according to the grammarians, generally be used to refer to another verb, not to nouns as can be done in English. However, it appears to be increasingly common, especially in journalese, to use gerunds to anchor adjectival phrases. Nonstandard: No conozco al hombre viviendo con mi hija. Standard: No conozco al hombre que vive con mi hija. (I dont know the man living with my daughter.) Orthographic Errors Since Spanish is one of the most phonetic languages, its tempting to think that mistakes in spelling would be unusual. However, while the pronunciation of most words can almost always be deduced from the spelling (the main exceptions are words of foreign origin), the reverse isnt always true. Native speakers frequently mix up the identically pronounced b and the v, for example, and occasionally add a silent h where it doesnt belong. It also isnt unusual for native speakers to get confused on the use of orthographic accents (that is, they may confuse que and quà ©, which are pronounced identically).