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.



Number of Pages: 238

Publication Date: November 2013

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

• Identify the objective and scope
• Recognize the questions that auditors seek to answer
• Differentiate between standard-setting bodies
• Rank the steps in conducting an audit
• Recognize the steps of an audit with the phases of an audit
• Recognize common flaws in the conduct of an audit
• Recognize common deliverables on an audit
• State the requirements for gaining an understanding of an audit subject
• Identify the weakness in a given criteria
• Distinguish between the two main steps to doing a risk assessment
• Distinguish between the types of inherent risk
• Classify controls into the categories of the COSO model of controls
• Distinguish between a control's design and its implementation
• Distinguish among inherent risk, control risk, and detection risk
• Define terms used in risk assessment for a financial audit
• Distinguish among inherent risk, control risk, and detection risk in a performance audit
• Recognize the two basic steps of conducting a risk assessment for a compliance audit
• Distinguish between a workable objective and a vague objective
• Idenfity weak and vague audit program steps
• Distinguish between the three types of evidence
• Differentiate between "sufficient" evidence and "appropriate" evidence
• Recognize the steps of conducting an interview
• Distinguish among the elements of a working paper
• Define the standards for working paper documentation
• Distinguish among the elements of a finding
• Recognize whether a finding follows the simple rules of logical organization of a finding
• Identify 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