Ethics and Professional Conduct in Accounting

This assignment delves into the crucial role of ethics in accounting practice. It highlights reliability as a primary ethical factor for accountants, stressing the importance of honesty and integrity in fulfilling their responsibilities. The discussion also examines the influence of professional guidelines like APES 110 on shaping ethical conduct within the accounting profession.

Running head: CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
CPA Ethics and Governance
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note
Course ID

1CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Answer to requirement A:..........................................................................................................2
Recognition of ethical issues:.....................................................................................................2
Answer to requirement B:..........................................................................................................3
Answer to requirement B (II).....................................................................................................5
Ethical approach for preferred course of action:........................................................................5
Answer to requirement C:..........................................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7
Reference List:...........................................................................................................................8

2CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Introduction:
The study takes into the considerations the ethical issues that is enclosed with the
present case study by describing that the accountants must have the integrity in discharge of
their duties. Accounting is understood as the method of recording and analyzing the several
monetary transactions that business organization should comply with. The accountants must
comply with the necessary APES 110 code of ethics for professional accountant, which is
considered as one of the most vital set of accounting principles.
The line of work for accounting necessitates the precise set of laws and regulations
and requires that the accountants must work in accordance with the book keeping ethics
(Krier et al. 2014).
Answer to requirement A:
There are two moral issues that havebeen includedin the present study are as follows;
a. Funds that was raised for the community improvement programme was not
appropriately managed and resulted in wastage and this has lead to the issues of
Professional Competence and Due Care
b. Unsuitable administration of the financial accounting reports, which does not,
highlights a correct and reasonable interpretation of the presentation of the
organization and this has subsidised to the moral issue of integrity (Union, 2014).
Recognition of ethical issues:
In compliance with the section 330 the Andy has failed to act with sufficient amount
of expertise. As defined under the section 330 of APESB 110 a member of the business
should not intentionally or unintentionally mislead the employer concerning the degree of

3CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
experience or expertise possessed. Andy being the member of the business should assess the
significance of any kind of threats and implement the measures of safeguards for making
ethical decision in order to eliminate threats or lower down them to an acceptable level.
From the following case study it is evident that Andy in spite of seeking after the
consent of the board to employ two junior accountants in order to control the daily activities
of the business administration (Worker, 2013). In spite of the inexperience of the freshly
recruited accountants Andy was considerably at fault by regularly leaving the work
associated with accounting in the hands of company as a result of this it created a poor impact
on the decision making process. They failed to provide with the adequate result that was
needed in the oversight or monitoring. Of the two appointed accountant one of the accountant
did not had any kind of experience.
Another issue that is identified is ethical conflicts in the workplace for the members of
the business under APES 40 Ethical conflicts. It is noteworthy to denote that the ethical
behaviour in the economy have far reaching impact on the operations of the business. Each
business entity has the accountability of accounting profession to offer the organization with
the information at some point of the business life cycle (Brinkman & Carter, 2017). Andy in
this regard is anticipated to support the legal and ethical objectives and rules of the
employing organizations. Andy in the present contest acted in contrary to the law and
regulations that creates threats to the complying principles of APES 110.
The ethical issue in the present context is concerned with the procedure of employing
the questionable methodology of accounting to improve the financial results. An accountant
may require the revenues and expenditure in an appropriate manner that may miss out the
overall expenditure. Recurring incidences of aggressive accounting states the lack of ethical
behaviour.

4CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Answer to requirement B (I):
Two essential principles of professional conduct contained in the APESB 110 code of
ethics of qualified bookkeepers that have been breached are specified below
a. In agreement with the APESB 110 Ethical Hemp Ltd have breached the professional
competence and Due Care
b. Ethical Health Lamp Ltd has breached Section 330 by failing to act with sufficient
expertise in preparing and reporting the information (Leicester, 2016).
As evident from the current case study it has been found that during the board meeting of
June 2017 the company presented the draft financial statement to the Conrad and Helen. In
addition to this, it has been found that Andy failed to incorporate the number of reports that
required detailed incorporation of the equity document in the financial statement.
No kind of change in the equity document has been prepared and the number of reports
which were normally presented to enable the board undertakes the financial and risk
overview which was not presented. Andy did not incorporated change in the equity statement
of the company and was not relevant in accordance with the significant professional
standards. As evident Conrad and Helen in the business is required to prepare and present the
information that should be used either internally or externally with the relevant professional
standards (McGee et al., 2016). .
From the above recognized ethical issue it is understood that Ethical Hemp Ltd have
breached the Professional Competence and Due Care. As it has been understood from the
case study, the auditor has failed to act conscientiously in agreement with the appropriate
technological and proficient standards at the time of providing the proficient services.

5CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
As it is understood from the current case study, Andy has considerably failed to
discharge his responsibilities with due care and diligence in the maintaining the capabilities
of developing the new hired accountants (Whelan et al., 2014). In addition to this, Helen and
Conrad because of their lack of experience were unable to undertake the crucial decision that
should have been ordinarily left with Andy or board of the firm. Competent Professional
Service requires the application of reasonable judgement in imposing the specialized
information and the necessary skills in the presentation of such services.
As stated under APES 110 the accounts must obey with the necessary bookkeeping
rules and it is understood that the accountants have directed by the strength of this code. The
existing circumstances of Ethical Health Ltd have stated have stated that the company has
failed to provide a true and fair view of the financial position because the external auditors
have failed to contract the APES 110.
In the existing situation Ethical Health Lamp Ltd it is understood that the accountants
must fulfil the basic principles of APES 110 in discharging their professional services.
Answer to requirement B (II)
Ethical approach for preferred course of action:
The Laura Nash Model is considered as the most ethical approach of decision-making
and it is an effective method of approaching the critical situations. The members of the audit
committee have suspected that the financial reports have failed to reflect the true and fair
financial position of the organization. The present model will be appropriate in the existing
case study of Ethical Health Ltd since the main ethical dilemma surrounding the case is the in
appropriate discharge of responsibilities and Professional Competence and Due Care
(Koehler, 2015). The required process of audit on the financial report is incorporated in the

6CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
agenda of meeting. Under the present ethical dilemma, the external auditor can undertake the
stable decision by implementing the Laura Nash Model.
The external auditor is required to make the administration to maintain the
professional competence by determining the relevant technical professional and business
development (Julnes&Bustelo, 2014). In the present situation, it is obligator to address the
major issues of recording the financial transaction to the management and accountant of the
organization for the main decision making. Diligence will enable the company in
encompassing the accountability of acting in compliance with the needs to be cautiously and
methodologically on appropriate basis.
Another course of action that is necessary is the application of philosophies of
objectivity by not endangering the professional or trade judgement based on the bias, conflict
of interest or the needless influence of others.
Answer to requirement C:
In compliance with the APESB 110 the Code of Ethics for Professional
Accountantsthe above stated course of action will help in improving the professional
behaviour (Christ &Burrit2016). The philosophies of professional behaviour will support in
imposing the compulsion on all the members to obey with the applicable laws and set of
guidelines to avoid any kind of course of action or exclusion where the members may
disgrace the occupation. In the direction of preserving the focused set of business information
and skills at the necessary level in making sure that the employees receive knowledgeable
specialized service.
This consists of the performance of the omission which is sensible and informed third
party weigh all the necessary facts and state of affairs accessible to connect at the time which

7CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
is more probable in bringing close the unfavourable effects of the better reputations of the
profession (Cohen, 2013).
Conclusion:
To arrive at the conclusion it can be stated from the above stated discussion that the
reliability turns out to be the major ethical factor in compliance with the work of accounting
because the accountants needs to be sincere and simple in discharge of their responsibilities.
Hence, it can be stated that the truthfulness and moral code are the two most important pillar
of support that accountants in the current context should follow. In the existing situation
APES 110 guidelines consists of the primary principles of bookkeeping where all the
accountants are required to comply with the APESB 110 guidelines.

8CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Reference List:
Brinkman, B., & Carter, K. (2017, March). The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional
Conduct: Teaching Strategies and the Coming Update. In Proceedings of the 2017
ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 721-721).
ACM.
CHRIST, K., & BURRITT, R. (2016). Professional accounting bodies: Scoping options for
sustainability. RELEVANCE AND PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS IN 2026.
Cohen, S. (2013). Promoting ethical judgment in an organisational context. Journal of
business ethics, 117(3), 513-523.
Julnes, G., &Bustelo, M. (2014). Professional values and ethics in evaluation. American
Journal of Evaluation, 35(4), 525-526.
Koehler, W. (2015). Ethics and values in librarianship: a history. Rowman& Littlefield.
Krier, P., Parman, A., Piercy, D., Erlandson, J., Keele, R., Hill, S. L., &Erlandson, J. (2014).
CODE OF ETHICS.
Lefkowitz, J. (2017). Ethics and values in industrial-organizational psychology. Taylor &
Francis.
Leicester, N. (2016). Ethics in the IT Profession: Does a Code of Ethics have an Effect on
Professional Behaviour?.
McGee, M. E., Dingle, A. D., &Edelsohn, G. A. (2016). Review of the revised 2014
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry code of ethics. Journal of the
American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 55(4), 257-261.

9CPA ETHICS AND GOVERNANCE
Union, N. S. T. (2014). Code of ethics. private copy supplied by Bruce Kelloway, assistant
executive director, NSTU.
Whelan, J.P., Hill, M., Ginley, M. and Meyers, A.W., (2014). Ethics in sport and exercise
psychology. American Psychological Association.
Worker, P.S., (2013). Code of ethics.