Essential Skills for the Government Auditor (Currently Unavailable)

Author: Leita Hart-Fanta

Government Auditing Skills references the GAO's Government Auditing Standards emphasizing important concepts. Topics include gathering information about the audit client, assessing risk, identifying audit criteria and objectives, honing interviewing skills and client relations, examining working papers, and writing reports. The course features expert advice, the importance of each step in an audit, and case studies that illustrate the good and the bad. This is an ideal course for recent graduates or those new to performing government audits.

Publication Date: March 2012

Number of Pages: 255

Designed For
Auditors looking for emphasis on key skill concepts.

Topics Covered

• What is auditing?
• Types of Audits and Standard-Setting Bodies
• The Steps to Conducting an Audit Traditional Approach
• How to Control an Audit
• Gathering Information
• Understanding Internal Controls
• The Audit Criteria
• The Big Picture of Risk Assessment
• Risk Assessment for a Financial Audit,Performance Audit, and Compliance Audit.
• Refining the Objectives
• Choosing and Budgeting Methodologies
• Judging Evidence and Preparing a Written Audit Plan
• Interviewing Skills and Client Relations
• Working Papers
• Writing a Finding
• Concluding the Audit
• Appendix A Activities

Learning Objectives

• Contrast the objective and scope.
• Cite the questions that auditors seek to answer.
• Differentiate between standard-setting bodies.
• Name the different types of audits.
• Describe and arrange the steps of conducting an audit.
• Associate the steps of an audit with the phases of an audit.
• Detect common flaws in the conduct of an audit.
• Cite common deliverables on an audit.
• Describe the requirements for gaining an understanding of an audit subject.
• Distinguish between the types of inherent risk.
• Classify controls into the categories of the COSO model of controls.
• Assess the weakness in a given criteria.
• Define terms used in risk assessment.
• Employ the AICPA's risk formula.
• Distinguish among inherent risk, control risk, and detection risk.
• Distinguish between a control's design and implementation.
• Define terms used in risk assessment for a financial audit.
• Distinguish among inherent risk, control risk, and detection risk in a performance audit.
• Employ the two basic steps of conducting a risk assessment for a compliance audit.
• Distinguish between a workable objective and a vague objective.
• Detect weak and vague audit program steps.
• Classify evidence into one of three types.
• Discuss and order the steps of conducting an interview.
• Distinguish among the elements of a working paper.
• Describe the standards for working paper documentation.
• Distinguish among the elements of a finding.
• Evaluate whether a finding follows the simple rules of logical organization of a finding.
• Discuss the questions that auditors should consider at the end of their engagements.

Level
Basic

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Auditing (Governmental) (9 hours)

Program Prerequisites
None

Advance Preparation
None