Critical Elements of Learning as Part of an Audit Team

This document discusses the critical elements of learning as part of an audit team. It covers the duties and responsibilities of an audit assistant and senior, problem-solving and information literacy abilities, and professional conduct. The document includes extracts from the author's reflective journal to support their claims.

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Auditing Professonal Practice
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note
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Accountability
Attachment 1 – attach an extract from your Reflective Journal that talks about your team work skills (see C1: i, ii
or iii in the additional assessment information sheet in the Assessment block in Moodle).
Summarise your duties and responsibilities as an Audit Assistant for the Cloud 9 audit for weeks 5 to 8 inclusively.
My duties and responsibilities as an audit assistant include:
Executing functions to verify the precision of cash sales and accounts receivables
Check whether the books and financial statements of the entity are in conformance to industry standards.
Assessing, reviewing and recommending changes in accounting systems and controls of cloud9.
Reviewing and suggesting new modifications to existing internal audit controls
Verify whether all accounting and clients databases are updated and functioning properly
Summarise your duties and responsibilities as an Audit Senior for the Cloud 9 audit.
My duties and responsibilities as a senior auditor include:
Leading audit engagements of clients that includes planning, executing, directing and completing financial
audits
Supervising and mentoring junior auditors and trainees and helping them becoming familiar with the audit
process
Research and analyse financial statements of the entity and audit related issues and trying to find material
misstatements while analysing financial statements
Gaining a thorough understanding of the auditing standards and common audit procedures and techniques.
How did you perform your role as a team member? Identify your team work strengths and weaknesses, or aspects of
the role you found challenging. Use an extract from your Reflective Journal to support your claims.
Being a part of an audit team , I believe the group has met the desired standards of auditing
compliance requirements. I believe that we have performed our due diligence in performing the
responsibilities that we were entrusted to do. There were certain strengths and weaknesses regarding the
team. The team was extremely knowledgeable and always knew what to look for while verifying the
existence and valuation of certain items in the financial statements. The team was effective in getting the
job done within the allocated timeand dealt with the misstatements as evidenced in the reflective journal.
The weaknesses include not being able to communicate effectively as team members. There was a lack of
effective communication and not making optimum use of the talents of the team.
How did you perform your role as a leader? Identify your team work strengths and weaknesses, or aspects of the role
that you found challenging. Refer to your Reflective Journal extract for substantiation.
Being an audit leader, I had an enormous responsibility in overseeing the operations of my audit
associates and team members to see if they are applying the correct audit procedures or not. I believe that
as a leader, I performed my role to the fullest of my abilities. However there was a scope for further
improvement. As a leader, I believe that my strengths included on providing an atmosphere that was
conducive to the overall growth of my team. I am also effective in identifying the priorities and the tasks
upfront in addition to making informed decisions in light of extenuating circumstances. I have a good
problem solving mind as well. My limitations included in not being able to communicate effectively to my
team members in certain decision making areas. I also could not optimise the talents of my team members,
which falls on me.
Performance
Attachment 2 – attach an extract from your Reflective Journal that talks about your performance. Focus on your
problem-solving and information literacy abilities which you used while working with your audit team (see C2: i, ii
or iii in the additional assessment information sheet in the Assessment block in Moodle).
Summarise your overall performance and the role you played in communicating your ideas during the audit process.
Substantiate your claims with your chosen extract from your Reflective Journal.
Being a part of an audit team member, I believe that the group has performed to a desirable standard that is
in conformance with the auditing standards and the other relevant provisions. The group set out to review the
accuracy and precision of certain items in the financial statements and checking whether he book confirm to industry
standards or not. The group has successfully done that. I was tasked with modifying existing internal controls . I made
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a suggestion to the management of cloud 9 the use of a swift system to help allocate a transaction simultaneously
into sales and accounts receivable system
What did you do? How well did you perform and contribute through problem-solving and information literacy, and
what part did this play in successfully completing the Cloud 9 audit?
I suggested use of a modified version of a Swift system that would help in allocating a transaction
that could simultaneously allocate cash sales and accounts payable at the same time without the need to
make relevant adjustments in either of them. This helped cloud 9 in verifying the mismatch of amounts
relates to accounts receivables and sales figures. The actual figures were not properly reflected in the
accounts. It successfully helped in implementing audit procedures of verifying the accuracy of the figure
statements. This helped in showing the financial statements in a true and fair view, thereby successfully
implementing the basic function of auditing. This helped in completing the cloud 9 audit in a fair and
responsible manner.
Professional conduct
Attachment 3 – attach an extract from your Reflective Journal that talks about your professional conduct,
especially your ethical practice while working with your audit team during the term (see C3: i, ii or iii in the
additional assessment information sheet in the Assessment block in Moodle).
Summarise your thoughts on professionalism and ethical practice, drawing on your experience as an Audit Assistant
for W & S Partners, working independently and as part of a team. For example, how well did you demonstrate your
professional and ethical behaviour towards others? Draw on your Reflective Journal to give some examples of your
approaches.
Being a part of the auditing team at W& s partners, I have drawn on strict and principled code of ethics as
per the auditing standards that have been prescribed. I have displayed integrity in the course of my work and my
conduct has been beyond reproach. I have enjoyed being a part of this team. I have a high degree of professional
respect for my team members . I have been independent in my dealings and have not paid heed to any outside
influences. I have been objective and impartial in the work that was entrusted with me. My behaviour as a whole has
been strictly professional and very much objective while dealing with others.
Explain your awareness in upholding professional values and ethics, e.g. what measures did you personally observe,
or most likely to observe in the future? Support your assertions with an extract from your Reflective Journal.
As an auditor, I understand the value of upholding professional ethics and values. It helps in
examining the financial statements in a fair and responsible manner. It is a boundary that draws the line
between what is right and what is wrong. Auditors have a duty to be competent and maintain professional
secrecy in dealings with audit matters. In this case there have seen evidences of some partners in our
company who have bought shares in cloud 9. We have examined that and concluded that the nature of the
association is enough to warrant a change in the decision making process. We have taken appropriate
steps in assessing he threats of self interest and familiarity in other matters as well. Without these standards
of conduct, the financial statements would not reflect a true and fair view. It would affect the users of
financial statements who chose to associate with a particular company after reading the audit report that
certifies that all the dealing that have been done by the company is proper and that there have been no
material disclosures that would adversely affect any stakeholder of the company. I hope that by keeping
this experience in mind, I would like to be more competent in my professional dealings in the future and
try to maintain a professional distance with the clients that I am auditing.
Summary
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In 500 words or less, discuss the critical elements of your learning as part of an audit team, paying particular
attention to some of the questions outlined within the additional information sheet provided in the Assessment block
in Moodle. You may have already written similar reflections in your Reflective Journal; please feel free to use and
summarise what you have already recorded in your journal. You may also indicate the date of your journal entries to
demonstrate improvement in your professional practice skills. Do not include reflections in this section that you have
included elsewhere in this document.
As a part of the audit team, we found evidence of material misstatement with regards to cash
receipts in terms of not being recorded when it gets received and the amounts differing from the ones that
are actually deposited. There has been an evidence of other misstatement that includes induplication of
sales amounts and credit memos not recognised on a timely basis. The company has modified its existing
system of internal control that includes development of a software that enables transactions to be
formulated into sales and accounts receivable and the company should also implement a tracking software
that tracks voucher numbers and memos. The material misstatements fail to provide auditors with giving
the assertions that they need in verifying the items of financial statements. There has also ben evidence of
conflict of interest among certain things like for instance when the finance director, David Coller is
married to a distant relation of PS Nethercott , a partner in w& s partners consulting department. However
the degree of threat or potential impact was found to be lacking according o APES 110 as the nature of the
relationship was not enough to warrant a conflicting self interest. A couple of our members of the it
department also bought so shares of the company cloud 9 . On review, the financial ipavts were found to
be of a considerable e degree that it could impact the decision making process. The audit was conducted
with due diligence and integrity . The audit was performed with a high degree of standard and keeping in
mind a strict code of conduct and ethics. The material misstatements were found out, their impacts
assessed and adequately disclosed in the auditors report. The level of planning materiality was assessed in
reference to the cloud 9 . It elected the amount of misstatement exceeding which can be considered to be
material. The audit team functioned very well within the responsibilities and framework that was required
to follow. The performance was certainly effective because it helped weed out a lot of misstatements and
inconsistencies while formulating an audit opinion. The importance of holding professional value and
ethics were paramount in this case. The professional code keeps a strict line on maintaining auditors
responsibility in terms of keeping professional distance with clients and not getting swayed by external
influence . the auditor should never allow himself to be compromised. He should always be fair and
impartial. As an auditor, there are important lessons to be learnt here in terms of how to conduct myself
even more better in a professional setting and not getting swayed by external influences. It is very
important to thorough check all important financial matters and see that the auditing procedures the
company ha applied are fair or not.
Journal Extracts
Copy and paste extracts from your online Reflective Journal, under the appropriate headings below.
Attachment 1:
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Attachment 2:
Attachment 3:
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