How to Get a Better Return on Financial Statement Audits - Avoiding the Most Misapplied Risk-Based Audit Concepts

Overview

By far, the biggest contributing factor that leads to a profitable, yet high quality, financial statement audit is the proper identification, evaluation, and response to assessed risk of material misstatement. When designing your detailed audit plan, how and where you decide to spend your time is largely a matter of professional judgment. The proven tips and techniques for critically rethinking how you plan and design your audit taught in this course will help auditors enhance audit quality and manage profitability in all engagements.

Prerequisites

None

Objectives

• Recognize how the nature, timing, and extent of planned audit procedures can (and should) vary commensurate with assessed risk of material misstatement
• Recall how workpaper review is a critical tool for promoting audit effectiveness and efficiency
• List tips for strengthening the design, documentation and evaluation of substantive analytic procedures
• Explain the impact that strong client and engagement management can have on improving profitability

Highlights

• Properly assessing inherent, control, and fraud risk on an engagement, and linking the results to an appropriately tailored detailed audit plan based on risk assessment and client service goals, regardless of entity type (for-profit, nonprofit, governmental)
• Leveraging strong substantive analytic procedures as audit evidence to cut back on tests of details
• The most common efficiency opportunities for tailoring your audit approach based on risk
• How to use the workpaper review process as a tool for producing a more effective and efficient engagement
• Using audit documentation to enhance audit quality, while ensuring every workpaper has a purpose
• How to use the client to your advantage in planning and performing the audit
• Learn how to get the engagement out the door – on time and on budget!