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Key Steps in Keeping the Books
Any workflow or work process has its key stages or steps – a part of the process where you must remember to perform a certain action. In bookkeeping, the key steps are as follows: [more…]
Building Blocks of a Bookkeeping System
At the root of any system you’ll find the essential elements that form the basis of that system. In the world of bookkeeping, the three most fundamental building blocks to any bookkeeping system are: [more…]
Flow of Credits and Debits in Double-Entry Bookkeeping
In double-entry bookkeeping, you enter all transactions in the books twice: once as a debit and once as a credit. This chart shows you how debits and credits affect your various business accounts: [more…]
Tracking Cash: Bookkeeping Musts after You Get the Money
Receiving incoming money is all well and good, but as a bookkeeper you need to remember to take certain steps after it arrives. You need to: [more…]
Tips for Controlling Your Business Cash
If keeping the books is your responsibility, the good news is that you can implement the following function separations to control your business cash much more easily: [more…]
Bookkeeping Workbook For Dummies Cheat Sheet (UK Edition)
Bookkeepers are the keepers of the cash and the crucial caretakers of all information about a company’s transactions. Whether you’re an owner keeping the books yourself or you’re an employee keeping the [more…]
How to Perform an Audit in a High-Risk Situation
If an audit engagement is high-risk, you have to sit back, evaluate how the company does business, and think about how material misstatements may slip through the cracks. You then design an extended audit [more…]
How to Become an Auditor
Becoming an auditor is a process that spans quite a few years of your life. First comes the awesome educational requirement. Then you have to pass the Uniform CPA Examination. Depending on the state in [more…]
Types of Auditing Careers
After you pass the CPA exam, you’ll probably be itching to get into the job market to start making some money! Chances are good that with a CPA license in hand, you can choose to do external auditing. [more…]
What Does an Auditor Do?
The goal of a financial statement audit is for you (the auditor) to form an opinion regarding whether those statements are or aren’t free from error. To do so, you use your best professional judgment when [more…]
Who Gets Audited and Why
The types of auditing clients you may encounter and the reasons they require audits are, of course, expansive. As a new auditor, you may not be qualified to conduct some of these audits discussed here, [more…]
Rules for Auditing Private Companies
Auditors of privately owned businesses must follow a code of conduct. As an auditor, you abide by your state’s code of conduct, but you also follow the code of conduct established by the American Institute [more…]
Rules for Auditing Public Companies
The standard of professional conduct for the audit of all publicly traded companies comes from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The Audit Standards Board [more…]
Adhering to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Standards
Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) define acceptable practices in the preparation of financial statements in the United States. Keep in mind that when you’re wearing your auditor hat, you [more…]
How to Research a New Auditing Client
Here’s something every auditor should remember: Just because a client comes to you and wants you to audit its financial statements, you don’t have to accept the engagement. After all, you’re not selling [more…]
How to Establish Independence with Auditing Clients
When deciding whether to accept an auditing engagement, you must judge your independence and objectivity. If your audit firm lacks independence or objectivity, you can’t accept the engagement. Independence [more…]
How to Check for Conflict of Interest with New Auditing Clients
As an auditor, to make sure you don’t have any conflict-of-interest problems, you have to look at any third-party transactions your potential client may have been part of. If your potential client has [more…]
Auditing Basics: How to Assess a Potential Client’s Reliability
You have to judge a client’s accounting competence and integrity before accepting an auditing engagement. If the client lacks accounting skills and integrity, you should seriously consider not accepting [more…]
Auditing Basics: Assessing What Services Your Potential Client Requires
If a potential auditing client’s records appear reliable and your firm can provide an impartial audit, you still need to make sure you can perform all the tasks the client needs. You also have to figure [more…]
Auditing Basics: How to Prepare an Engagement Letter
When taking a new client, an auditor creates an engagement letter to solidify audit arrangements between the audit firm and the client. The letter serves as the contract, detailing the duties and obligations [more…]
How to Prepare Working Papers for an Audit
Part of your job as a staff associate in an auditing firm is to document your findings in working papers (also known as workpapers) and schedules. Workpapers summarize your audit actions, such as planning [more…]
Using the Audit Risk Model
When you audit a company, your main goal is to provide assurance to the users of the company’s financial statements that those documents are free of material misstatement [more…]
How to Assess Inherent Risk in an Audit
Auditors must determine risks when working with clients. One type of risk to be aware of is inherent risk. While assessing this level of risk, you ignore whether the client has internal controls in place [more…]
How to Assess Control Risk When Performing an Audit
During your risk-assessment procedures before you begin an audit, you interview members of the company and observe how they do their jobs to make your assessment of control risk. Company management is [more…]
How to Assess Detection Risk in an Audit
Detection risk occurs when you don’t use the right audit procedures or you don’t use them correctly. You assess inherent and control risk and then solve your audit risk equation by assigning detection [more…]
