Audit Team Performance: A Reflective Journal and Review Summary

This assignment is a reflective journal documenting a student's experiences as part of an audit team, focusing on accountability, teamwork, problem-solving, information literacy, and ethical practice. The journal entries cover the student's roles as both an Audit Assistant and Audit Senior for th...Read More

Running head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL 1
Reflective Journal
Name
Institution

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.
The duties and responsibilities as a deputy for Cloud 9 involved researching about materiality for purposes of
calculating planning materiality for week 5. I was also expected to define the concept of materiality and its
significance to auditors. As an assistant, I was expected to differentiate between qualitative, quantitative and setting
materiality. During the 6th week my responsibilities included defining and explaining objectives of why Josh Thomas
might test controls over account receivables and its implication. My task and responsibilities for week 7 involved
understanding auditors needs to assess risk of the business with respect to financial statement assertion.
Summarise your duties and responsibilities as an Audit Senior for the Cloud 9 audit.
As an audit senior, my tasks involved bringing my team together to achieve the assigned task. In this matter, my roles
involved assigning responsibilities to each member of my team to accomplish task for week 5. During the week, the
activities were researching on materiality in order to be able to calculate planning materiality. During week 6 my
responsibility as an audit senior was to delegate duties to find relevant information to answer questions on internal
control and accounts receivables. During week 7, my role was to evaluate risk assertion by answering two parts on
financial assertion and things to consider when hiring an auditor.
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.
My performance is attributed to collaborating with the rest of the members to accomplish our tasks and responsibility.
I consulted with my team regarding a particular information that I could not find as a result of the YouTube links
failing to work. My strength in this instance was evident through collaboration where another member suggested
another alternative. Effective communication assisted me as team member to contribute meaningfully to the task and
responsibility such as finding information from various sources by the members of the group. The challenging part
was determining the appropriate base to use in calculating materiality.
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 a leader my role was to provide other members with clear and direct instructions on the activities that were to
be done. I assigned other members tasks to complete and provide feedback to answer questions on Cloud 9 audit.
Furthermore, I was accountable to all members’ activities and I ensured that we collaborated to provide sufficient
information. Among the strength that I had is establishing trust and motivating other members. In addition, I was
efficient in managing my team to ensure that we provided reliable solutions. Major weakness that I experienced is
determining the correct base to calculate materiality.
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.
My contribution to the team involved identifying the problems and structuring the process to solve these problems.
The activities required me to get information about the task in order to disseminate the information to the other
members. This involved seeking key information that was to be used in answering the question such as three
objectives of internal control in order to answer its impact on account receivables. Performance was also determined
through my role in evaluating the impact of controls with respect to operating satisfactory and unsatisfactory. I was
also tasked with the role on ensuring my team conducts itself professionally in answering the questions. Also, I
played a significant role in communicating ideas to my group in the project. The first objective in communicating
information to the team was to be direct, specific and clear. This was achieved through delegating of specific duties to
the members in a manner that is was easy for them to provide relevant information. More so, I ensured that I listened
to my team members whenever they had feedback, suggestion and opinion about the audit. Additionally, all the
information that we managed to collect was recorded down for purposes of accountability.
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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?
As we did our work, I played a significant part in assisting my members to solve the problems. I was able to assign
different activities to different members. This was crucial in building the foundation for answering the questions. I
also directed my members on how to approach research by first considering variables that need to be defined and then
researching for information that is most relevant to address the problem. Answering the question took a descriptive
and prescriptive approach. From this strategy, we were able to determine the implication of timing, mature and extent
of substantive testing would have on a business that operated satisfactory and unsatisfactory.
Formulating the strategies to solve problems participates in auditing the client. This is because Cloud 9 presented
audit problems that required reliable solutions. As a result, my team was required to identify the problems in week 5,
6 and 7. Once the problems were identified, it gave us the opportunity to research for optimal solution to fill the gaps.
The information contributed to literacy level required for purposes of answering the questions accordingly.
Consequently, solving problems and information literacy provided sufficient knowledge to approach the questions.
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.
During auditing process for Cloud 9, I demonstrated ethical and professional behaviour towards others by upholding
integrity, objectivity, confidentiality and competency. These attributes sum the code of ethics that govern auditors.
This was evidence in how I managed to assign responsibility to everyone. Integrity played a crucial role in this part
because I would have chosen to complete the tasks by myself or ask one member to complete the tasks on our behalf.
Moreover, I was objective in the manner that we handled the client. As a result, members in a position to come up
with correct information and the time that was allocated. Besides, I was objective in ensuring that my team answered
the questions as experts in the field. Confidentiality played a crucial role in my professional ethics because the
information provided to us was used in confidence of the client only. Nonetheless, competency was one of our key
code in completing the audit for Cloud 9. This is because we were tasked for the job as a result of our background
knowledge, skills and experience in auditing. In addition, integrity governed our use of the financial information
whereby our team was not expected to share the information with third parties.
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.
From the exercise for Cloud 9, I became aware that acting ethically is how professionals should conduct themselves
while carrying out their duties. These code of conduct is not attributed to right or wrong but govern actions that
require competing ethical values and principles. Ethical practices are based on core personal values such as integrity,
competency and accountability. Based on this, I have learnt that ethical decisions forms basis for ethical behaviour
and provide fundamentals for good business practices. Ethical practices are significant because they play a role in
upholding public trust in that, information belonging to Cloud 9 will be treated in confidence and not used by
members for personal gains. Besides, I have also noted that ethical practices makes us accountable to relevant
stakeholders. This implies that we are accountable of the information that we will share regarding Cloud 9. Therefore,
the information that we provide will be assessed in terms of quality assurance and whether we were able to meet the
objective required. Also, I am aware that there are consequences of acting unprofessionally. Among the consequences
of unethical behaviour include criminal charges, injured organization reputation, wasted time, fraud and scandals. In
future, ethical practices should focus on promoting good controls and ethical environment.
Summary
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.
Being part of auditing team, I was aware of the significance of accountability and how it contributes to team work.
This was expressed in the manner that my team was able to collaborate by taking on different duties and
responsibilities to contribute to relevant solutions. Through taking on different responsibilities, all the members were
considered productive.
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My team was involved in the responsibility of developing, setting and achieving groups’ goals. Each member of my
team was assigned roles and collectively collaborated through brainstorming to reach a consensus on the approach
that we took in completing the assignment. Each member contribution proved vital for answering the question on
planning materiality.
As a leader, the primary strength that I had was communicating clearly to the member and ensuring that I was able to
build strong relationships among team members. Besides I managed to cement trust and motivate the members by
assisting them to complete assigned task. My team members were cooperative towards completing the project and the
weaknesses that we encountered related to finding the best base.
The strategy that my team formulated considered problem identification, finding alternative solution, finding optimal
solution and applying optimal solution to the process. The strategy was significant in assisting my team to familiarize
with the context of the problem in order to provide relevant solution.
My team performed relatively well because it was able to tap into problem solving and information literacy skills to
offer reliable solutions. In approaching the planning materiality question, I performed well by allocating different
tasks to different members and ensured that they contributed to the objective by being involved in finding solutions.
As a team member, my performance was based on individual task that I was tackling. I came up with procedures that
were to be used in completing the assignment. Also, I was able to collaborate with other members in discussing the
questions to forge a way to address the solutions for Cloud 9 audit.
Ethical practices play a crucial role in facilitating auditors to carry out their duties professionally. This is because
professionals are guided by a code of ethics that prevents members from unethical practices such as illegal disclosure
of financial information. Besides, I was aware that various code of ethics govern auditors which include integrity,
objectivity, confidentiality and accountability.
Accountability is a significant element in the code of ethics that has value to auditors. My team members were
expected to be accountable for the responsibilities that they were assigned. On the other hand, I was accountable for
the whole team which meant that I was answerable for the activities of the members concerning Cloud 9 audit.
My personal value system with respect to social behaviour and civic responsibility is accountability. This is because I
believe that accountability makes people to be responsible for their actions. In essence, failures of the team should be
blamed on me as the leader and I should hold each member accountable to ensure each process is supervised
accordingly.
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Journal Extracts
Copy and paste extracts from your online Reflective Journal, under the appropriate headings below.
Attachment 1:
Each member of the group played a significant role in taking responsibility for ensuring that group goals are achived.
This was accomplished by one member who contributed that trial balance would be used as an appropriate base since
10 percent is considered as an acceptable high level risk of calculating materiality. Another member ensured that we
had information from YouTube. Based on the findings from watching YouTube, profit oriented items are considered
to be ideal in calculating materiality. The third member contributed information relating to professional judgment
with regards on how it contributed to calculating materiality. Through the contribution of each member of my team,
all played a key role in taking responsibilities which contributed to the accomplishing the objectives of the assigned
task. In essence, giving and receiving feedback is a critical team skill that is evidenced through giving clear direction
and receiving required feedback in order to complete the task. This skill contributed in ensuring that my team worked
in harmony.
Attachment 2:
My performance with respect to this task was centered on discussing the implication of mature, timing and extent of
substantive testing of accounts receivables. Here, I was expected to identify, define and solve the problem. I
approached this aspect by defining the context of what would be the outcome if the controls were shown to be
operating satisfactory and unsatisfactory. In this regard, I researched for the definition of variables in this problem in
order to be able to put the solutions in context. Once I had all the information, I embarked on answering the questions
that were assigned by Cloud 9 audit. This process is both descriptive and prescriptive in nature because it views the
solution from all aspects in order to provide generalized solution. From this strategy, I was able to determine that
implication of timing, mature and extent of substantive testing would be less testing on internal control and more
focused on transaction level as a means to test both preventative and detective errors when operating satisfactory.
My performance as a team leader along with that of my member with respect to professional standard was
characterized by group members having a common sense of purpose to achieve expected goals. My team was
concerned with the task as well as the process and operating procedures by periodically evaluating the performance.
My team members were able to treat each other as a resource in order to collaborate and accomplish the task
assigned. Communication during the project was clear and direct because it is demanded by professional conduct
among auditors. Besides, the members were allowed to express dissent freely in order to compromise and bargain to
reach a consensus. My team concentrated to problem solving abilities as opposed to competitive endeavours and
interpersonal issues. As a result, our collective performance was enhanced. Mistakes in problem solving were
considered as sources of learning rather than reason for punishment. This encouraged our team to be creative and try
to find relevant solutions for the assigned tasks that were before us. Furthermore, the team had clear expectation and
standards of behaviour among group members.
Attachment 3:
The ethical and professional practices that evident in my team included integrity, objectivity, confidentiality and
competency. My team members were able to perform their tasks with honesty, diligence and responsibility. This was
realized by the fact that all members took the responsibility of researching for their items, diligently conducted the
research and provided the correct information that were contained in the researched materials. Besides, the team was
objective in the manner that they conducted their activities. All members concentrated on problem solving for the task
assigned as opposed to using the time allocated to partake on other activities. In this case, my team was able to
disclose all information they had researched as facts rather than providing claims that could not be substantiated. In
the spirit of confidentiality, the material information related to Cloud 9 was protected and was not used for other
purpose other than the intended. My team and I expressed competency in knowledge, skills and experience in coming
up with the correct information to solve the problems that were before us.
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