High quality and efficiency are the basic objectives for audit engagements of all sizes. However, the costs and time associated with an audit can be daunting for small companies. The key is creating a process that minimizes cost and risk, while maximizing profitability. This auditing CPE course provides an overview of a simplified small audit approach, quality control policies and procedures, audit strategies, and audit planning for profits. The goal of this audit CPE: to help you create a strategy for small audits that includes compliance with applicable auditing standards and, at the same time, is effective and lucrative.
This course covers material also contained in Streamlining Small Audits: Quality plus Profitability.
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:
Chapter 1
Recognize the philosophies underlying cost-beneficial audit strategies for audits of small- to medium-size entities.
Identify the components of designing audit strategies for small audits that will comply with all applicable professional standards and achieve high levels of profitability.
Recognize performance measures and documentation requirements for auditing procedures that result in both quality and efficiency.
Recognize components and characteristics of audit risk, materiality calculations, and sampling decisions.
Identify appropriate engagement completion procedures.
Define small business by identifying common characteristics.
Chapter 2
Identify the quality control policies and procedures that comply with the AICPA's Code of Professional Conduct and the Statement on Quality Control Standards No. 8, A Firm's System of Quality Control (Redrafted) (QC 10).
Recognize the components of the AICPA Practice Aid Establishing and Maintaining a System of Quality Control for a CPA Firm's Accounting and Auditing Practice (Practice Aid), the AICPA Conceptual Framework for Independence Standards, a Guide for Complying with Rules 102-105 (integrated into the AICPA's updated Code of Professional Conduct), and AICPA Instructions for Quality Control Materials Reviews.
Identify when independence is required, potential impairments to independence, threats to rules violations, and preventative safeguards.
Recognize factors that affect risk at the financial statement level and their impact on the planning process.
Recognize when a CPA firm is responsible for establishing and maintaining a system of quality control over the development of quality control materials and what modifications can be made to established practice aids.
Select components of integrity.
Chapter 3
Recognize factors that influence the control environment and which entities are at risk from an ineffective control environment.
Recognize audit risks for certain financial statement classifications and when an auditor can reduce overall evidence requirements based on assessed levels of risk of material misstatement.
Identify the components that comprise risk of material misstatement in order to understand when to perform and document risk assessment procedures.
Recognize the definition of assertions and key cost-beneficial audit strategies for small audits.
Identify factors that influence audit responses to potential risks of material misstatement.
Chapter 4
Recognize components of an audit plan as required by auditing and quality control standards.
Identify the steps of audit planning that prioritize the purposes and substance of engagement planning first and the procedures and documentation second.
Recognize the importance of engagement planning activities in promoting audit efficiency and profitability.
Recognize the importance of a standardized planning document in planning and organizing audit documentation before beginning the work.
Recognize the purpose of an engagement letter and how it should be incorporated throughout an engagement.
Identify time-savings opportunities for clerical tasks.
Major Topics
Small Audits Made Easy and Profitable
Saving Time with Quality Control
Developing Cost-Beneficial Audit Strategies
Audit Planning for Profits
Illustrative Practice Aids
